Study Sotah folio 35B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Who angered you, i.e., the Ark, so much that you became so angry that you gave yourself into captivity? And who came to you to appease you?
The verse states: “And He smote of the people 70 men, 50,000 men” (I Samuel 6:19). R' Abbahu and R' Elazar disagree over the interpretation of the verse. One says that there were 70 men, and each and every one of them was equivalent to 50,000 men. And one says that there were 50,000 men, and each an
With regard to David’s journey with the Ark to Jerusalem, the verse states: “And when they who carried the Ark of YHWH had gone 6 paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling” (II Samuel 6:13). And it is written elsewhere that he sacrificed “7 oxen and 7 rams” (I Chronicles 15:26). Rav Pappa bar Shmuel
Rav Ḥisda said to him: If that is so, and he sacrificed an offering for every step that he took, you have filled all of Eretz Yisrael with altars, as they had to build a new altar for each offering. Rather, Rav Ḥisda said: For every 6 steps he sacrificed an ox and a fatling, and for every 6 sets
It is written that Uzzah died “when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon” (I Chronicles 13:9), and elsewhere it is written that it was “the threshing floor of Nacon” (II Samuel 6:6). R' Yoḥanan says: At first the Ark was similar to a javelin [kidon], as it caused Uzzah’s death. But ultimately