2 Samuel 6:12-23

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹² It was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing,^{(A) 13} and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatted calf. ¹⁴ David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod.^{(B) 15} So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.^(C)

¹⁶ As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.^(D)

¹⁷ They brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord.^{(E) 18} When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts^{(F) 19} and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat,^[a] and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.

²⁰ David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!”^{(G) 21} David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—I will dance before the Lord.^{(H) 22} I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be humbled in my own eyes, but by the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.” ²³ And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.