1David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah, to bring up from there God’s ark, which is called by the Name, even the name of Yahweh of Armies who sits above the cherubim. 3They set God’s ark on a new cart, and brought it out of Abinadab’s house that was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. 4They brought it out of Abinadab’s house which was in the hill, with God’s ark; and Ahio went before the ark. 5David and all the house of Israel played before Yahweh with all kinds of instruments made of cypress wood, with harps, with stringed instruments, with tambourines, with castanets, and with cymbals.
6When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached for God’s ark and took hold of it, for the cattle stumbled. 7Yahweh’s anger burned against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by God’s ark. 8David was displeased because Yahweh had broken out against Uzzah; and he called that place Perez Uzzah to this day. 9David was afraid of Yahweh that day; and he said, “How could Yahweh’s ark come to me?” 10So David would not move Yahweh’s ark to be with him in David’s city; but David carried it aside into Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house. 11Yahweh’s ark remained in Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house three months; and Yahweh blessed Obed-Edom and all his house. 12King David was told, “Yahweh has blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that belongs to him, because of God’s ark.”
So David went and brought up God’s ark from the house of Obed-Edom into David’s city with joy. 13When those who bore Yahweh’s ark had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. 14David danced before Yahweh with all his might; and David was clothed in a linen ephod. 15So David and all the house of Israel brought up Yahweh’s ark with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
16As Yahweh’s ark came into David’s city, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out through the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before Yahweh; and she despised him in her heart. 17They brought in Yahweh’s ark, and set it in its place in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh. 18When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh of Armies. 19He gave to all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, both to men and women, to everyone a portion of bread, dates, and raisins. So all the people departed, each to his own house.
20Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants’ maids, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
21David said to Michal, “It was before Yahweh, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of Yahweh, over Israel. Therefore I will celebrate before Yahweh. 22I will be yet more undignified than this, and will be worthless in my own sight. But the maids of whom you have spoken will honor me.”
23Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.
1 Sam 6.21 Kiryat Yearim (today Abu Gosh) has a long reputation for beguiling or charming enemies into pacts of peace. Kiryat Yearim (typically identified as Deir el-‘Azar above Abu Gosh) is one of the four Gibeionite cities that made a pact with Joshua (Josh 9.17) and served as a border town between Judah and Benjamin (Josh 15:9,60; 18:28). Kiryath-Yearim has a number of former names such as Baalah, Kiryat-baal, and Baale of Judah (Josh 15:9; 18:14; 2 Sam 6:2; 1 Chr 13:6) and is identified as modern Deir el-‘Azar.
Kiryat Yearim also figured prominently in the story of the Ark of the Covenant. Israel received the Ark after the Philistine sent it up the Sorek valley by Beth-Shemesh (1 Sam 6), and after the plague there, it was taken up to Kiriath-Yearim for 20 years (1 Sam 7:1). The exact location of the Ark in Kiryat Yearim is given as the house of Abinadav son of Eleazar on the hill (2 Sam 6:3). The modern Arabic term for the tel (Deir el-Azar) may be connected to Eleazar. The Ark seems to fall out of use (maybe because Mizpah and Gibeah are more prominent) as Saul “paid not regard to it” (1 Chr 13:3). Psalms 132:6 assumes it is quite unknown until “found in the region of Yaar.” (But compare 1 Sam 14:18.) David hoped to move the ark from Kiryat-Yearim to the city of David, but he was afraid of it after Ahio son of Abinadav drove the cart that carried the Ark (rather than the Kohathite priests, see 1 Chr 15) and his brother Uzzah touched the Ark and died at the threshing-floor of Nachon (2 Sam 6:6). Due to this, David took the Ark aside into the house of Obed-edom from Gath (2 Sam 6:10) for three months (2 Sam 6:11; 1 Chr 15:24), until David finally brought the Ark to the City of David in Jerusalem in a manner that followed the Torah (1 Chr 15-16).
While plowing in 1905, a farmer discovered a semi-circular wall on the summit of Deir el-‘Azar which turned out to be remnants of a fifth-century Byzantine church. Many objects from this era can be seen around the new Church built on the summit in the early 1900s by Sister Josephine Rumebe. This church with its towering statue of Mary belongs to the French Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, who call it Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant: associating Mary containing Yeshua with the Ark containing the Ten Commandments.