Uzza

The name Uzza (also spelled Uzzah) belongs to five distinct men in the UPDV. The most prominent is the son of Abinadab who is struck dead for steadying the ark of the covenant on its way to Jerusalem; the others are a Levite of the Merari line, a Benjaminite descended from Ehud, the proprietor of a royal burial garden in Jerusalem, and the head of a family of those given to temple service who returned from exile. The same consonants underlie both spellings, and they are treated as a single disambiguation cluster.

Uzzah son of Abinadab and the Ark

When David moves the ark from the house of Abinadab toward Jerusalem, the chronicler and the books of Samuel name Uzzah and his brother Ahio as the drovers of the new cart: "And they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in the hill: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the cart" (2Sa 6:3). The parallel in 1Ch 13:7 uses the shorter spelling — "Uzza and Ahio drove the cart" — and locates the disaster at "the threshing-floor of Chidon" (1Ch 13:9); 2 Samuel calls the same place "the threshing-floor of Nacon" (2Sa 6:6).

The strike itself follows hard on the stumble of the oxen. In 2 Samuel the agent of the blow is named through a UPDV bracketed insertion: "And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Uzzah; and [the Speech of] God struck him there for the error; and there he died by the ark of God" (2Sa 6:7). The Chronicles account compresses the same sequence and adds the etymology: "And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Uzza, and he struck him, because he put forth his hand to the ark; and there he died before God. And David was displeased, because Yahweh had broken forth on Uzza; and he called that place Perez-uzza, to this day" (1Ch 13:10-11). Samuel preserves the place-name in the spelling that matches its narrative — Perez-uzzah (2Sa 6:8) — and Chronicles in the spelling that matches its narrative — Perez-uzza. Both record the name as still attached to the floor at the time of writing.

The Garden of Uzza

A different Uzza gives his name to the royal burial garden attached to the king's house in Jerusalem. Manasseh is the first king the UPDV places there: "And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead" (2Ki 21:18). His son Amon is buried in the same plot a few verses later: "And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead" (2Ki 21:26). The text does not say who this Uzza was, only that the garden bore his name and that two successive Davidic kings were laid in it.

Uzzah of the Merari Levites

In the Levitical genealogies of 1 Chronicles, Uzzah appears in the descending line of Merari: "The sons of Merari: Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son, Uzzah his son" (1Ch 6:29). He is the son of Shimei and a separate man from the Abinadab-son drover; the spelling there matches the longer 2 Samuel form.

Uzza son of Ehud

A Benjaminite named Uzza appears in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 8 alongside his brother Ahihud, listed among the sons born to one of the deported figures of Ehud's house: "and Naaman, and Ahijah, and Gera, he carried them captive: and he begot Uzza and Ahihud" (1Ch 8:7). The verse places this Uzza in the tribal record of Benjamin, distinct from the Levite and the ark drover.

The Sons of Uzza among Those Given to Temple Service

In the registers of those who returned from exile, "the sons of Uzza" appear among the families given to temple service. Ezra's list reads: "the sons of Uzza, the sons of Paseah, the sons of Besai" (Ezr 2:49). Nehemiah's parallel roll places the family in the same neighborhood of names: "the sons of Gazzam, the sons of Uzza, the sons of Paseah" (Ne 7:51). Both books treat Uzza here as the head of a clan rather than as a contemporary individual — his sons returned, his name persists, and the family is enrolled with the others assigned to the post-exilic temple labor.