According to the Tanakh, Uzzah[1] (fl. 1010 BC) was an Israelite whose death is associated with touching the Ark of the Covenant. He was the son of Abinadab, in whose house the men of Kirjath-jearim placed the Ark when it was brought back from the land of the Philistines.[2] With his brother Ahio, he drove the cart on which the ark was placed when David sought to bring it up to Jerusalem. When the oxen stumbled, Uzzah, in direct violation of the divine law,[3] steadied the ark with his hand, and was immediately killed. The place where this occurred was then called Perez-uzzah.[4] David feared to proceed further, and placed the ark in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.[5]