The ark was placed on a new cart, and two milch cows with their calves drew it, lowing all the way, without guidance from any man, to the field of a certain Joshua at Bethshemesh. The inhabitants welcomed it with great joy, but their curiosity overcame their reverence, and they looked within the shrine. Jehovah, being angered thereat, smote seventy men of them, and the warriors made haste to bring the ark to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained for a long time, in the house of Abinadab on the hill, under charge of his son Eleazar.* Kirjath-jearim is only about two leagues from Jerusalem. David himself went thither, and setting “the ark of God upon a new cart,” brought it away.* Two attendants, called Uzzah and Ahio, drove the new cart, “and David and all Israel played before God with all their might: even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.” An accident leading to serious consequences brought the procession to a standstill; the oxen stumbled, and their sacred burden threatened to fall: Uzzah, putting forth his hand to hold the ark, was smitten by the Lord, “and there he died before the Lord.” David was disturbed at this, feeling some insecurity in dealing with a Deity who had thus seemed to punish one of His worshippers for a well-meant and respectful act.** * The text of 1 Sam. vi. 21, vii. 1, gives the reading Kirjath-jearim, whereas the text of 2 Sam. vi. 2 has Baale- Judah, which should be corrected to Baal-Judah. Baal-Judah, or, in its abbreviated form, Baala, is another name for Kirjath-jearim (Josh. xv. 9-11; cf. 1 Ghron. xiii. 6). Similarly, we find the name Kirjath-Baal (Josh. xv. 60). Kirjath-jearim is now Kharbet-el-Enab. ** The transport of the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem is related in 2 Sam. vi. and in 1 Ghron. xiii., xv., xvi.