2 Samuel 6:12-23

6:12 David was told, ¹  “The Lord has blessed the family of Obed-Edom and everything he owns because of the ark of God.” So David went and joyfully brought the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David. 6:13 Those who carried the ark of the Lord took six steps and then David ²  sacrificed an ox and a fatling calf. 6:14 Now David, wearing a linen ephod, was dancing with all his strength before the Lord. ³  6:15 David and all Israel ⁴  were bringing up the ark of the Lord, shouting and blowing trumpets. ⁵ 

6:16 As the ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked out the window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him. ⁶  6:17 They brought the ark of the Lord and put it in its place ⁷  in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before the Lord. 6:18 When David finished offering the burnt sacrifices and peace offerings, he pronounced a blessing over the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. 6:19 He then handed out to each member of the entire assembly of Israel, ⁸  both men and women, a portion of bread, a date cake, ⁹  and a raisin cake. Then all the people went home. ¹⁰  6:20 When David went home to pronounce a blessing on his own house, ¹¹  Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to meet him. ¹²  She said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished ¹³  himself this day! He has exposed himself today before his servants’ slave girls the way a vulgar fool ¹⁴  might do!”

6:21 David replied to Michal, “It was before the Lord! I was celebrating before the Lord, who chose me over your father and his entire family ¹⁵  and appointed me as leader over the Lord’s people Israel. 6:22 I am willing to shame and humiliate myself even more than this! ¹⁶  But with the slave girls whom you mentioned let me be distinguished!” 6:23 Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, had no children to the day of her death.

[6:12]  ¹ tn Heb “and it was told to David, saying.”

[6:13]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:14]  ³ tn Heb “and David was dancing with all his strength before the Lord, and David was girded with a linen ephod.”

[6:15]  ⁴ tc Heb “all the house of Israel.” A few medieval Hebrew mss and the Syriac Peshitta lack the words “the house.”

[6:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet).

[6:16]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text adds “in her heart.” Cf. CEV “she was disgusted (+ with him TEV)”; NLT “was filled with contempt for him”; NCV “she hated him.”

[6:17]  ⁷ tc The Syriac Peshitta lacks “in its place.”

[6:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “to all the people, to all the throng of Israel.”

[6:19]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew word used here אֶשְׁפָּר (’espar) is found in the OT only here and in the parallel passage found in 1 Chr 16:3. Its exact meaning is uncertain, although the context indicates that it was a food of some sort (cf. KJV “a good piece of flesh”; NRSV “a portion of meat”). The translation adopted here (“date cake”) follows the lead of the Greek translations of the LXX, Aquila, and Symmachus (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT).

[6:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and all the people went, each to his house.”

[6:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and David returned to bless his house.”

[6:20]  ¹² tn Heb “David.” The name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “honored.”

[6:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one of the foolish ones.”

[6:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all his house”; CEV “anyone else in your family.”

[6:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and I will shame myself still more than this and I will be lowly in my eyes.”