2nd Samuel Chapter 6 verse 14 Holy Bible

2nd Samuel 6 : 14 Bible Verse Songs

• Dance For Jesus by Proclaim Music

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 14. - And David danced. The word used means the springing round in half circles to the sound of music. Conder has given a very interesting account of the dancing of the Malawiyeh, which consisted in turning round in whole circles, resting on the heel of the left foot ('Herb and Moab,' p. 65, etc.). As David danced with all his might, he was evidently strongly excited with religious fervour. We have the expression of his feelings in the psalm composed for this occasion (1 Chronicles 16:7-36); subsequently it seems to have been rearranged for the temple service, as it is broken up into Psalm 96. and Psalms 105:1-15. Dancing was usually the office of the women (Exodus 15:20; Judges 11:35; Judges 21:21; 1 Samuel 18:6); but men may also have often taken part in it, as Michal's objection was that it was unbefitting a king. David was girded with a linen ephod. David wore this as a tightly fitting garment, which left him free to exert himself in the dance. So far from the use of it being an assumption of the priestly office, it was regarded by Michal as an act of humiliation, as it was a dress worn even by a child when admitted to service in a priest's family (1 Samuel 2:18). Probably David did mean to rank himself for the time among the inferior servitors of the ark. He might have claimed more. In the theocracy he was the representative of Jehovah, and his anointing was a solemn consecration to a religious office. To have burned incense or offered sacrifice would have been to invade the priestly office, an office parallel to "the administration of the Word and the sacraments," denied, in the Thirty-Seventh Article of the Church of England, to princes. To wear the garb of a servitor was to do honour both to Jehovah and to his priests.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) David danced.--The religious dances on occasions of great national blessing were usually performed by women only (Exodus 15:20-21; Judges 11:34; 1Samuel 18:6). The king, by now taking part in them himself, marked his strong sense of the importance of the occasion, and his readiness to do his utmost in God's honour.Girded with a linen ephod.--This is usually spoken of as if David were arrayed in a distinctively priestly dress; but it is remarkable that the ephod was not prescribed as a part of the priestly dress--the ephod of the high-priest (Exodus 25:7, &c.) being quite a different thing--and was worn by others, as Samuel (1Samuel 2:18). The wearing of the ephod, however, is spoken of in 1Samuel 22:18 as characteristic of the priests, and in Judges 8:27; Judges 17:5; Judges 18:14-20, it is connected with idolatrous worship. It is also to be noted that the high priest's ephod (Exodus 28:6; Exodus 28:8, &c.) was made of shesh, while the garments of the ordinary priests, as well as the ephods of Samuel and David, were of bad. The explanation seems to be that the ephod of bad was simply a garment worn by any one engaged in a religious service, and it is used in 1Samuel 22:18 to describe the priests, because such service constituted their ordinary life. It was not, therefore, a peculiarly priestly dress, though naturally more worn by them than by any one else. . . .