This haftarah opens with David bringing the Ark of the Covenant toward Jerusalem on a new cart, celebrating with music and dancing along the way, until the oxen pulling the cart stumble and Uzzah, walking alongside, reaches out his hand to steady the Ark, an act that results in his sudden death, described as God's anger over the improper handling of a sacred object that was never meant to be transported this way at all.
David, both afraid and angered by the incident, leaves the Ark at the house of Obed-Edom for three months rather than continuing to Jerusalem immediately, and only once he hears that Obed-Edom's household has been blessed because of the Ark's presence does David resume the effort, this time bringing it the rest of the way with evident success and celebration, David himself dancing before it with such abandon that his wife Michal despises him for it from a window above.
The haftarah closes with David expressing a wish to build a permanent house for God, since he himself dwells in a cedar palace while the Ark remains in a tent, and the prophet Nathan initially encourages the idea before receiving a message that it will instead be David's son who builds the Temple, while David is promised an enduring dynasty in its place.