Bible Strands
1 Chronicles 13:12
That day David feared God and asked, “How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David speaks internally at that exact moment, immediately following the Lord’s judgment on Uzzah and the naming of the site Perez-uzzah.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַ/יִּירָ֤א (va/i.yi.Ra') translates literally as “and he feared,” and the interrogative הֵ֚יךְ (heikh) means “how?”
The thread — This terror before divine holiness parallels the Israelites’ plea in Numbers 17:12, the Ekronites’ outcry in 1 Samuel 5:10, and the flesh-trembling reverence described in Psalms 119:120.
Why it lands — The text reports David’s fear and his question without elaboration, requiring the reader to recognize that reverence must precede action and that method matters as much as intention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?
Cross-references
- Psalms 119:120 My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.
- Numbers 17:12 Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!
- 1 Samuel 5:10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron, but as it arrived, the Ekronites cried out, “They have brought us the ark of the God of Israel in order to kill us and our people!”
- 1 Samuel 6:20 The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom should the ark go up from here?”
- 1 Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
- Job 25:5 If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,
- Isaiah 6:5 Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
- Matthew 25:24 Finally, the servant who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
- Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”