An Innocent Victim
But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God. 2 Samuel 6:6-7 NASB
Irreverence – Why did Uzzah have to die? Do you know this story? Doesn’t it bother you? All the man tried to do was to keep the Ark from falling. Why did God kill him? Why does the text say that his action was irreverent?
Unfortunately, the translation is a guess. The word is a hapax legomenon: “šal, possibly error from Aram שְׁאלַא (šʾlaʾ). Only in II Sam 6:7, meaning and derivation uncertain.”[1] Whatever Uzzah did, something happened that upset God, but we will never know exactly what that was. What we do know, however, is that David initiated this whole mistake and its tragic result. In Numbers 7:9 Moses made it clear that the holy things of God were to be carried on the shoulders, not on wagons. David ignored this requirement by putting the Ark on a wagon. He was responsible for the circumstances that resulted in Uzzah’s death. That doesn’t absolve Uzzah. He also did something, but David set it all in motion. This makes the story even more difficult. Uzzah seems to have been the innocent (perhaps?) victim of David’s sin. It wouldn’t be the first time, or the last, that others paid the price of David’s actions, but it makes it all the more incredulous to think that God punished Uzzah rather than David. What makes David immune from punishment so that others have to bear his mistakes?
The answer is: “Who knows?” Buried in the mystery of God’s choosing is David’s relationship with YHVH. It’s just not for us to understand why God does what He does, and what He doesn’t do, with David. Just like šal, our one-time word, God’s relationship with David is essentially a hapax legomenon. It resists all interpretation and translation. Oh, we might idolize David as “the man after God’s own heart,” but when it comes to understanding why God put up with him, and why his sins resulted in sorrow for many others, well, we’re simply at a loss. If this is what it means to be after God’s own heart, then perhaps we’re better off with a hapax legomenon David. I’m not sure the world could tolerate more than one.
This tiny episode in the life of David raises some very knotty questions for us. We won’t ever know what Uzzah did, but we have a much better picture of David’s life—and it’s not a very pretty one. Our assessment of David is generally drawn from Paul’s words. After all, Samuel doesn’t mention David’s pursuit of God after David is anointed, long before all the real-life story of David gets going. Maybe the best we can say is this: at the beginning we are all a hapax legomenon in God’s eyes. Unfortunately, we tend to move away from that uniqueness toward a world where we become just like other men who attempt to keep their own agendas despite God’s purposes.
Topical Index: irreverence, šal, hapax legomenon, David, Uzzah, Numbers 7:9, 2 Samuel 6:6-7
[1] Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K. (Eds.). (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 927). Chicago: Moody Press.
