2 Samuel 6:14–22

¹⁴David was dancing ^mwith all his might before the Lord wearing a linen ephod. ⁿ¹⁵He and the whole house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of the ram’s horn. ¹⁶As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, ^oSaul’s daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

¹⁷They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent David had set up for it. ^pThen David offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings in the Lord’s presence. ¹⁸When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh of Hosts. ¹⁹Then he distributed a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake to each one in the entire Israelite community, both men and women. ^qThen all the people left, each to his own home.

²⁰When David returned home to bless his household, ^rSaul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel honored himself today!” she said. “He exposed himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects like a vulgar person would expose himself.”

²¹David replied to Michal, “I was dancing ^sbefore the Lord who chose me over your father and his whole family to appoint me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel. ^tI will celebrate before the Lord, ²²and I will humble myself even more and humiliate myself. ^uvI will be honored by the slave girls you spoke about.”