‘ So David would not remove the ark of YHWH to him into the city of David, but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.'
On this basis David was unwilling to move the Ark into the City of David. He did not want YHWH's anger to fall on the City of David as well. So instead he arranged for it to be carried to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Obed-edom was a Levite of the family of the Korahites, which sprang from Kohath (compare 1 Chronicles 26:4), and belonged to the class of Levitical doorkeepers whose duty it was, in cooperation with other Levites, to watch over the Ark in the sacred tent (1 Chronicles 15:18; 1 Chronicles 15:24). Thus he was a very suitable person for the task. He was probably called the Gittite or Gathite from the fact that his birthplace was the Levitical city of Gath-rimmon in the tribe of Dan (Joshua 21:24; compare Joshua 19:45), although some have argued that he was from the Philistine Gath.