📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 13:10
What does 1 Chronicles 13:10 mean?
"Yahweh’s anger burned against Uzza, and he struck him, because he put his hand on the ark; and he died there before God."
— 1 Chronicles 13:10 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
They carried God’s ark on a new cart, and brought it out of Abinadab’s house; and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.
David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, with harps, with stringed instruments, with tambourines, with cymbals, and with trumpets.
When they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.
Yahweh’s anger burned against Uzza, and he struck him, because he put his hand on the ark; and he died there before God.
David was displeased, because Yahweh had broken out against Uzza. He called that place Perez Uzza, to this day.
David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How can I bring God’s ark home to me?”
So David didn’t move the ark with him into David’s city, but carried it aside into Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house.
Explanation
This verse describes a sobering moment during King David's attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. As the ark was being transported on a new cart, the oxen pulling it stumbled, and a man named Uzza reached out his hand to steady the ark so it would not fall. In that moment, God struck him down, and he died right there beside the ark. The text states plainly that this happened "because he put his hand on the ark" — the reason given is not disrespect or malice on Uzza's part, but simply the act of touching the sacred object.
The book of 1 Chronicles was written by an author known as "the Chronicler," likely compiling this history after the Babylonian exile, for an audience of Israelites who had returned to the land and were rebuilding their national and religious identity. The Chronicler retells Israel's history with a strong emph
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