1 Chronicles 13:12

1Ch 13:12 And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God [home] to me?

Ver. 12. And David was afraid of God.] See on 2Sa 6:9.

How shall I bring the ark?] Why, well enough, if you will take but better heed to the manner; which is either the making or marring of any action. But David was frightened, and for present, unresolved. So suddenly can God change the scene; dash all our comforts, -

“ Nulla est sincera voluptas.

Sollicitumque aliquid laetis intervenit. ”

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13:12 David’s response to Uzzah’s death might have been an expression of his own inadequacy to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(12) God . . . ark of God.—Here and in 1Ch_13:8; 1Ch_13:14, &c. Samuel has Jehovah. The chronicler or his authority has avoided the frequent use of that most holy Name.

Saying.—Samuel, “and said.”

How.—Hêk, an Aramaic form, perhaps due to a transcriber rather than to the author.

Shall I bring.—Samuel, “shall come.” Two different voices of the same verb.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A mortifying stumble sanctified.

On the threshold of his reign David desired to dean act especially right, and on the threshold it seems that he is destined to encounter in that very attempt failure and keenest disappointment. With enthusiastic faith in the ark, it is his heart"s first and deepest desire to bring it again home at least to some place more like permanence and honour. And in the bringing of it, through no apparent fault of his own, the enterprise fails, disastrously and fatally. This issue he must feel equivalent to a personal and very severe rebuff. Yet there is scarcely room to doubt that honest motive, religious feeling and principle, and an ardent faith dictated his desire and attempt. And as little room is there apparently to doubt that David reckoned on the helpful protection of Providence against whatever could be called accident, and from his heart prayed for it. The facts, however, of that day"s journey and work we know; and they stand in painful contrast to what we had hoped. All the circumstances we do not know, and there may be explanations not given us which would easily mitigate our surprise and account for what happened. It may be that David did omit to give the most proper directions, and to urge the needful cautions, and to implore solemnly the Divine blessing. He may have been a little too confident of the mere act itself, a little too trustful in the good intentions of himself, and a little too uplifted because of the unanimous sentiment of all whom he had consulted. A stumble over the threshold may be very mortifying, very humbling, but no doubt it has often saved infinitely worse calamity further on. The very badness of an omen may turn confidence into care, and will work well for a cause, if it call special attention to some fact, or principle, or aspect of the whole matter liable to be overlooked or insufficiently regarded. Perhaps in the present instance, did we but know all, this might sufficiently explain all that at first looks hard on David and an ill encouragement for his pious zeal. Passing, therefore, interesting but uncertain conjecture, it is open to us to study some of the known and ascertained results of that same day and that same bitter experience of David. The passage before us proclaims plainly some of these, and proffers a leading illustration of the principle of present loss compensated by spiritual results. Notice

I THE BIRTH OF A DEEP RELIGIOUS FEELING OF FEAR OF GOD IN DAVID. "He was afraid of God that day." David was not like a very young man; still less was he like a very young man with little knowledge, and who had been stinted of opportunity of gaining experience. Much of this he had already accumulated, and especially of the kind that had brought lessons of God and his providence near to him. There is not a little evidence going to indicate that David had a certain predisposition to religious thought and feeling. There is a wonderful absence of indication of the contrary. His mind had largely opened to Divine manifestation, his thoughts frequently roved among the thoughts and ways of God. Dangers and actual sufferings and fears had often brought him into near converse with the kindness and watchfulness of the "chief Shepherd," of whom he knew how to speak so well. Perhaps it had never struck him (and perhaps it would have never struck us except for this incident) that there remained for him something especial to learn of God in a very different kind of direction from all before. His impressions of God were all most grateful, as well they might be. He had found God a "Sun and a Shield Light, Warmth, and Protection. He had found God one who "had lifted him up on high," and "had not suffered him to be cast down," nor "his foes to rejoice over him." He had been in earthly trial and persecution much, but in heavenly favour more, and in a wonderful assurance of all that gave him "boldness of access" to God. And he had not yet learned the other side not, indeed, of the benevolent character and beneficent working of God but the other side of himself, which might greatly need another sort of manifestation of the Divine power. Though he had often seen God"s justice and his anger, and had said, "God is angry with the wicked every day," he had never felt these, nor had dreamed that he was such that the time might come that he would have to feel them, and his experience become enlarged by so much as this," My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments". (Psa_119:120) To know a fear of God is one of. two things for the child of God. It is either to know the fear of one"s own sin in honest earnest; or to catch one humbling, overwhelming sight of the contrast between the finite and erring nature of the creature man and the infinite perfection of God. As Adam first "was afraid;" as Jacob "was afraid" when he woke from that transporting dream; as Peter was afraid in the presence of the mighty Master of miracle; so was David now "afraid of God." There were slight differences of detail in each case, and differences of form, but the fundamental facts were identical, and they were two in one a sinful creature seizing a moment"s real idea of the all-holy Almighty!and this was the birth of a deep religious feeling in David which he never forgot, and which no doubt served the rest of his life many a valuable end.

II CORRECTER AND FULLER KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, WHILE IT INTERPOSES DELAY, DOES NOT INVOLVE DESPAIR, BUT DOES ENSURE A MORE EXALTED ESTIMATE OF WHAT IT IS TO ENTERTAIN HIM. The ark, with the mercy-seat upon it and the overshadowing cherubim, symbolized the Divine presence, and was, when located in the sanctuary in its proper place, unseen except by the high priest. In it centred the reverential feeling of the people. It is exceedingly likely that something of the deep mysterious awe with which it was associated was lowered and impaired by its history, when taken by the Philistines and lost to its own People. David himself may have been among the number of those whose higher sense suffered some depreciation. He reverenced the ark and prized it; he thought it a necessity to the well-being of the nation, and ardently longed "to bring it to himself to the city of David." But something of this was form and the worship of form. Something of it was reliance on "means of grace," rather than vital dependence on the grace itself. Even David"s time was too late to let this in David"s own self be "winked at or in the self of any true Israelite. The Bible that is possessed must be intelligently used; it is not to be lowered to the place of a talisman. The God who is worshipped must be worshipped "in Spirit and in truth he seeketh such to worship him." And what David had thought could be sufficiently well done in a day or two, he learns will take "three months preparation. During all this time his estimate of what it was to have and to entertain the Divine representation was being raised. How many a time did he speak in this wise to himself, "How shall! bring the ark of God home to me?" And the very process of thought that was going on within him, the mingled perplexity, disappointment, humiliation, all wakened by an unusual fear, were at the same time raising his estimate of the guest he fain would welcome, and fitting him to entertain that guest. In this instance fear supplied the missing link, fear held the key-stone position, fear wakened the things that "were ready to die," unsuspectedly as the danger lurked. The theology must needs be radically weak that omits the justice of God, the integrity of man; the judgment of God, the fear of man. But the correcter and fuller knowledge of the Divine nature and relationship to man, which confessedly is most adapted to waken fear, to quicken it, to keep it a steady and strong force in our life, is not that which will permanently discourage, disappoint, or occasion desponding. It will interpose delay, it will occasion heart-searching, it will promote a wholesome self-renunciation. But thereupon it is provided that, long ere despair is touched, a ransom will be found, and a triumphant entrance for the ark more prized than ever. "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

How can I bring the ark of God home to me?

David uses this question to emphasize that he is afraid to take the ark to Jerusalem. This can be translated as a statement. AT: "I am too afraid to bring the ark of Yahweh with me to Jerusalem." (See: Rhetorical Question)

Obed Edom the Gittite

This is the name of a man. A "Gittite" is a person from the city of Gath. (See: How to Translate Names)

in Obed Edom's household in his house

"with Obed Edom's family in his house"

three months

"3 months" (See: Numbers)

Yahweh blessed his house

Here the word "house" is a metonym for his family. AT: "Yahweh blessed his family" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

David

fear

God

ark of the covenant

city of David

house

household

Yahweh

bless

possess

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

And David feared God, etc. saying What did he fear? Saying - that he said, “How will I bring the Ark of God to me?”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.