What Does 2 Samuel 6:14 Mean?

(14) **David danced.**—The religious dances on occasions of great national blessing were usually performed by women only (Exodus 15:20-21; Judges 11:34; 1Samuel 18:6). The king, by now taking part in them himself, marked his strong sense of the importance of the occasion, and his readiness to do his utmost in God’s honour. **Girded with a linen ephod.**—This is usually spoken of as if David were arrayed in a distinctively priestly dress; but it is remarkable that the ephod was not prescribed as a part of the priestly dress—the ephod of the *high-priest *(Exodus 25:7, &c.) being quite a different thing—and was worn by others, as Samuel (1Samuel 2:18). The wearing of the ephod, however, is spoken of in 1Samuel 22:18 as characteristic of the priests, and in Judges 8:27; Judges 17:5; Judges 18:14-20, it is connected with idolatrous worship. It is also to be noted that the high priest’s ephod (Exodus 28:6; Exodus 28:8, &c.) was made of *shesh, *while the garments of the ordinary priests, as well as the ephods of Samuel and David, were of *bad. *The explanation seems to be that the ephod of *bad *was simply a garment worn by any one engaged in a religious service, and it is used in 1Samuel 22:18 to describe the priests, because such service constituted their ordinary life. It was not, therefore, a peculiarly priestly dress, though naturally more worn by them than by any one else.