2 Samuel 6:1-11

Removal of the Ark from Kirjath-jearim. Uzzah smitten for his irreverence

1. Again, David gathered together And David gathered together again. "Again" refers either to the assembly convened for David's coronation (ch. 2 Samuel 5:1-3), or to the muster for the Philistine war recorded in the verses immediately preceding (ch. 2 Samuel 5:17-25).

A more elaborate account of David's preparations for this ceremony is given in 1 Chronicles 13:1-5. We are there told how David consulted with the representatives of the people, and gathered a general assembly of the whole nation. This important step towards the re-establishment of religious worship must be a nationalact. The Chronicler's object in writing leads him to give special attention to details of religious organization, where the writer of Samuel is content to condense his account into a single sentence. See Introd. Ch. III. p. 22.

thirty thousand The smallness of the number may be explained if we suppose it to refer only to the "captains of thousands and hundreds and every leader" mentioned in 1 Chronicles 13:1. A general assembly of the people would have been much more numerous.