And when they came to Nachon's threshingfloor
Who is called Chidon, ( 1 Chronicles 13:9 ) ; he seems to have had two names; or it was a place that had two names, as say the Jews F8; according to a tradition of theirs F9, Chidon is the name of the place where it was said to Joshua, stretch out the spear or shield in thine hand towards Ai, ( Joshua 8:18 ) ; so indeed the word signifies, nor was it unusual to stretch out the shield as a signal on occasion. Thus Aeneas lifted up his shield in his left hand, as a token to his Trojans that he was come to relieve them F11: where this threshingfloor was is not said; some say
Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it;
to keep it from falling: the reason was,
for the oxen shook [it];
the same word is used in ( 1 Chronicles 13:9 ) ; and there it is rendered, "for the oxen stumbled"; and by their stumbling the cart was shaken, and the ark in it, and in danger of falling, as Uzzah thought: or "the oxen shook", for the word "it" is a supplement; they shook as if their members were plucking asunder and parting, as Kimchi expresses it, because of the holiness of the ark; as if they were sensible it was wrong for them to draw it, when it ought to have been carried on the shoulders of Levites; and by this way, as well as by the death of Uzzah the error committed was pointed out: but others render it, "for the oxen stuck in the clay" F14, and could not go on; which Uzzah observing, and fearing that in their struggle to get out the cart should be overturned, or that the procession would be retarded too much, took hold of the ark to take it out, and carry it the remainder of the way, it not being far from Jerusalem.
F8 T. Bab Sotah, fol. 35. 2.
F9 Hieron. Trad. Heb. in lib. Paralipom. fol. 83. G.
F11 Virgil. Aeneid. 10. ver. 261, 262. Vid. Diodor. Sic. l. 20. p. 787.
F12 Gloss. in T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 35. 3.
F13 Travels p. 138.
F14 (rqbh wjmv yk) "nam luto haeserunt boves", Noldius, p. 396. No. 1343. so Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 37. col. 374. ex Arabica Lingua.