What Does 2 Samuel 6:13 Mean?
And it was so, that when those who lifted the ark of the LORD had stepped six paces, he slaughtered oxen and fattened calves.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.THE KEY
Reverence here has weight: what is borne toward God moves in measured steps and is answered with an offering.
THE MEANING
The ark is carried forward in a measured walk, and after six steps oxen and fatlings are offered. The scene speaks now of reverence taking physical form: what is held sacred is borne step by step, and the movement meets an offering of living creatures.
THE ROOT
נֹשְׂאֵי
nos'ei
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
nasa
to lift, carry, or bear
“lifted” in this verse is nos'ei. The word translated “bare” names the carriers by what they do: they lift and bear the ark. A related Hebrew word, מַשָּׂא (massa), means a burden or load, so the root keeps the physical weight of carrying in view.
ALSO GROWS
massa: burden, load
מַשָּׂא
It shows the carriers’ action as bearing weight, not merely accompanying the ark.
nasi: leader, prince; one lifted up
נָשִׂיא
This related form extends the root’s image of lifting into a title for someone raised to a position.
וַיִּזְבַּח
wayyizbaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
zabach
to slaughter for sacrifice
The root keeps the offering concrete: an animal is slaughtered. Its related word for altar names the place associated with that act, tying the offering to an actual giving of life.
ALSO GROWS
zevaḥ: sacrifice, sacrificial meal
זֶבַח
It names the offering itself and clarifies the action performed after the six steps.
mizbeaḥ: altar
מִזְבֵּחַ
This related word connects sacrifice to the place where an offering is made.
THE PATTERN
Encounter with God takes physical form in offerings of life, body, and praise.
And he sent young men of the children of Israel, who made the burnt offerings rise, and slaughtered oxen as wholeness offerings to the LORD.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our wounds. Yet we reckoned him struck, beaten by God, and bowed low.The carriers here are named with a form of נָשָׂא (nasa, to bear), and Isaiah uses that same root in “he hath borne our griefs.” The shared root opens “bear” from carrying the ark’s physical weight to carrying human grief.
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