And now, taking counsel first with his captains and commanders and all the men of rank,

David had a word for the whole assembly of the Israelites: What say you, does it come from God, this thought of mine? How if we should send word to the rest of our brethren, all over the land of Israel, the priests, too, and the Levites, where they dwell clustered round their cities, bidding them all muster here,

and help us bring home the ark of our God? Never, in Saul’s days, have we had recourse to it.

To this, there was no voice but was raised in agreement; here was a project that pleased all alike.

So David summoned the whole people of Israel, from Sihor by Egypt right up to the pass of Emath, to help him bring back God’s ark from Cariathiarim.

To Cariathiarim hill, in Juda’s country, they went up, great and small, to fetch the ark home, the ark which takes its name from the Lord God, dwelling there above it between the cherubim.

And they carried it away from Abinadab’s house, putting it on a newly-made waggon, with Oza and Oza’s brother for its drivers.

There were David and all the men of Israel, playing music at their best in the Lord’s presence, singing to harp and zither and tambour and cymbals and trumpet.

They had reached the threshing-floor of Chidon, when one of the oxen, frisking as it went, tilted the ark a little to one side, whereupon Oza put out his hand to steady it.

This rashness of his in touching the ark provoked the Lord’s anger; there, in the divine presence, the Lord smote him, and he fell dead.

Great grief it was to David, this ruin the Lord had brought on Oza, and he called the place by the name it bears still, Oza’s Ruin.

And a dread of the Lord came upon him that day; How shall I, he asked, give shelter to the Lord’s ark?

No longer was he minded to give the Lord’s ark a lodging in the Keep of David; he took it to the house of Obededom the Gethite instead.

There, in the house of Obededom, the ark of God was left for three months, bringing a blessing upon all his household and all that was his.✻