translation_id: net-engnet

label: NET study note

text: The modern reader might think God seemed to overreact here, but Israel needed a vivid object lesson of God’s holiness. By loading the ark on a cart, David had violated the instructions in God’s law ( Exod 25:12-14 ; Num 4:5-6, 15 ). Uzzah’s action, however innocent it may seem, betrayed a certain lack of reverence for God’s presence. God had to remind his people that his holiness could not under any circumstances be violated.


text: The name Perez Uzzah means in Hebrew “the outburst [against] Uzzah.”


text: The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7 .