2 Samuel 6

2. Baale. Read “to” instead of “from,” in accordance with 1 Chron. xiii. 6; xiii. 1-6 speaks of David’s going to Kirjath-jearim, with which Baale has been identified, and where the ark had been left (1 Sam. vii. 1).

3. Gibeah. “On the hill” (R.V.), as in 1 Sam. vii. 1, and so in ver. 4.

5 played. Including the idea of dancing to the music.

fir. Rather, “cypress.” The Septuagint, instead of “instruments made of fir wood,” has, “with all their might and with songs.” This agrees with 1 Chron. xiii. 8. “Cornets,” “castanets” (R.V.).

11 the Lord blessed Obed-edom. Evidently with some outward and immediate tokens of Divine favour (see ver. 12), which were perpetuated to his children: see 1 Chron. xxvi. 5-8 (where we learn that Obed-edom was a Levite, of the Kohathites, through Korah: a “Gittite,” or native of Gathrimmon, a Kohathite town, Joshua xxi. 24, 25). The ark is a guest by which none who welcome it shall lose.

14. David danced. In the simpler states of society men are accustomed to give more vigorous expression to their feelings than we commonly do.

G

17 tabernacle. The sixty-eighth Psalm is supposed to have been composed for this occasion. The tabernacle made in the wilderness, with the altar, was now at Gibeon (1 Chron. xxi. 29); but David prepared another tent, probably similar to that of Moses, near his own residence on Mount Zion, for the reception of the ark. See Psalm lxxviii. 67, 68. After the building of the Temple, both tabernacles were superseded. 19 a good piece [of flesh]. The word used here and in the parallel passage in 1 Chron. xvi. 3 is found nowhere else, and its meaning can only be conjectured. a flagon [of wine]. The word here rendered “flagon” means a kind of cake, prepared from dried grapes, or made with honey; “a cake of raisins” (R.V.). 20 uncovered himself. David had only divested himself of his royal robes, still wearing his dress of fine linen and an ephod. 21 therefore will I play. “Therefore have I made merry,” etc.