2 Samuel 6

David decides to bring the ark to Jerusalem.

The first attempt goes horribly wrong. David assembles all Israel to bring the ark in a big procession train/ party. The ark is on a cart that is pulled by oxen, but the animals stumble. A man, Uzzah, grabs the ark to stabilize it and he is immediately struck down by God. Uh oh. What was a big party has now gone off-course.

David decides to leave the ark in the household of a local person, Obed-Edom. The ark is there for three months and God blesses Obed-Edom and his household on account of the presence of the ark.

David hears of the blessing of the ark’s presence for Obed-Edom and decides that the ark should be near him. So, he makes a second attempt. David rejoices and dances around wearing priest underwear in this big procession train when his wife Michal looks out a window, sees David doing this, and despises him.

She challenges David and said that he was making himself look like a fool. David’s response is that he was humiliating himself for the Lord. This appears to have been a public rebuke by her as well. The chapter ends by saying that Michal had no children to the day of her death.

So, was Michal’s anger towards David the reason for not having children? There is a spatial inference that one can make. She is angry at David and the next statement is that she has no kids. I am not convinced that is the case because the does not actually state that it was a cause and effect situation or that God cursed her on account of it. I read it as a sense of pitying - she had a rough life. Her father and many of her brothers have been killed. Her father made her give up her first husband (David) before her half-brother made her give up her second husband to go back to David. Here, David lacks dignity and dances around half-naked in front of the country. She may have just snapped from all that has happened in her life.

That said, the context was one of celebration and she is not joining in. She can be mad at David later and perhaps should have rebuked him in private later. Right now, the ark of God is now coming into the nation’s capital. The whole country is celebrating and her focus is on her anger towards David. I think that’s why this story gets so much attention in the Bible.