Bible Strands
1 Chronicles 15:29
As the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the moment the ark of the covenant enters the City of David while King David dances and celebrates. Saul’s daughter Michal observes this procession from a window.
The words — The Hebrew בָּ֖א (ba') marks the ark's physical arrival, and the supplied lexicon anchors the event with אֲרוֹן (ark) and בְּרִית (covenant). These terms ground the scene in the tangible movement of sacred objects rather than abstract ritual.
The thread — This account runs parallel to 2 Samuel 6:16 and 2 Samuel 6:20, which repeat the window observation and subsequent confrontation. It also echoes the pattern of female worship leaders in Exodus 15:20.
Why it lands — The text states Michal's internal despising to contrast public celebration with private judgment. It asks the reader to identify whether their own posture toward sacred acts is one of reverence or resentment.
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 it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 6:20 When David returned home to bless his own household, Saul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today!” she said. “He has uncovered himself today in the sight of the maidservants of his subjects, like a vulgar person would do.”
- 2 Samuel 6:16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.
- Exodus 15:20 Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.
- Numbers 10:33 So they set out on a three-day journey from the mountain of the LORD, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD traveling ahead of them for those three days to seek a resting place for them.
- Deuteronomy 31:26 “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you.
- Judges 20:27 And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there,
- 1 Samuel 4:3 When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies.”
- 1 Samuel 18:27 David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented them as payment in full to become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave his daughter Michal to David in marriage.
- 1 Samuel 19:11 Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”
- 1 Samuel 25:44 But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.