Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David leads the ark into the City of David amid Israel’s shouting and trumpet blasts, while Michal watches from a window.
The words — The Hebrew בָּא (ba') means coming, marking the ark’s arrival, and the text records Michal despising David in her heart rather than voicing it.
The thread — The account runs parallel to 1 Chronicles 15:29, which repeats Michal’s downward gaze and contempt, and contrasts with 2 Samuel 3:14, where David demands Michal’s return from Saul’s house.
Why it lands — The text states Michal’s private contempt for David’s public worship, requiring the reader to confront the tension between outward spiritual expression and inward judgment.
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 as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- 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.
- 2 Samuel 3:14 Then David sent messengers to say to Ish-bosheth son of Saul, “Give me back my wife, Michal, whom I betrothed to myself for a hundred Philistine foreskins.”
- Acts 2:13 But others mocked them and said, “They are drunk on new wine!”
- Psalms 69:7 For I have endured scorn for Your sake, and shame has covered my face.
- Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.