What Does 2 Samuel 6:6 Mean in the King James?
And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse places loosening and grasping in one instant: the oxen let the ark slip, and Uzzah sends his hand toward it.
THE MEANING
When what is sacred seems to slip, the hand moves to steady it before the danger can be weighed. The verse holds that reflex beside the danger of touching the ark, letting urgency and boundary occupy the same moment.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְטוּ
shametu
GROWS FROM
שמט
To loosen, let drop, or let slip; release.
The verb translated “shook” carries a wider sense of loosening or letting something slip. The same root names the release of a debt, linking physical instability with relinquishing a hold.
ALSO GROWS
shemittah: Release; remission of a debt.
שְׁמִטָּה
In Deuteronomy 15, the debt is released rather than exacted, showing the root’s sense of letting a claim fall away.
tishmetennah: You shall let it go or lie fallow.
תִּשְׁמְטֶנָּה
The land is released from cultivation, another setting where this root describes relinquishing a hold.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
wayyishlach
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send, send forth, extend, or release.
“put forth” in this verse is wayyishlach. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of sending outward; the KJV renders the gesture as putting forth his hand. The root also carries sending away and release, so Uzzah’s movement toward the ark belongs to a word-family shaped by extension and letting go.
ALSO GROWS
shillēaḥ: Send away, dismiss, release.
שִׁלֵּחַ
This branch makes the root’s releasing sense explicit alongside Uzzah’s outward reach.
Shiloach: Sent forth; associated with the waters of Shiloah.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name of the waters preserves the root’s image of something sent forth.
עֻזָּא
ʿUzzāʾ
GROWS FROM
עזז
To be strong or mighty; strength.
Uzzah’s name carries the nature of strength into the scene where his hand responds to the ark’s slipping. The verse holds that human strength and the boundary around the sacred together, without dissolving the tension between them.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: Strength, might.
עֹז
This noun gives the central sense carried in Uzzah’s name.
ʿaz: Strong, fierce.
עַז
The related adjective preserves the root’s quality of force.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats contact with the holy as consequential, even when approach feels urgent or protective.
And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.THE THREAD
And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release.The verb translated “shook” here comes from shamat, the same root used for releasing a debt in Deuteronomy 15:2. Here the oxen let the ark slip; there a creditor lets a claim go, so physical loosening and release share one Hebrew root.
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