Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 5:6
But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, [even] Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
6. But the hand of the Lord ] Rather, And. “The hand of the Lord” = the putting forth of His might. Chastisement now overtook the people as well as the god.
he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods ] A double calamity fell upon them (1) Their land was ravaged by a plague of mice. The present Heb. text leaves this to be inferred from ch. 1Sa 6:5, but the Sept. inserts here “And mice sprang up in the midst of their land, and there was a very deadly destruction in the city.” This may be merely an inference from 1Sa 5:11 and 1Sa 6:5, but the numerous divergences of the Sept. from the existing Heb. text in chaps, 5 and 6 (making full allowance for obvious glosses and errors of transcription) seem to shew that the Greek translators employed a text which had not been subjected to the final revision which fixed our present Heb. text.
(2) Their bodies were attacked by a loathsome and painful disease, either (a) emerods = haemorrhoids or bleeding piles; or more probably (b) boils, which are a characteristic symptom of the oriental plague. The latter explanation agrees better with the infectiousness and fatality of the scourge.
the coasts thereof ] = the borders thereof. Coast is derived from costa, a rib, or side, and originally meant any border or frontier-line, not the sea-line only, cp. Jos 1:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Emerods – A corruption of hemorrhoids. It is mentioned Deu 28:27 among the diseases with which God threatened to punish the Israelites for disobedience.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Smote them with emerods] The word apholim, from aphal, to be elevated, probably means the disease called the bleeding piles, which appears to have been accompanied with dysentery, bloody flux, and ulcerated anus.
The Vulgate says, Et percussit in secretiori parte natium; “And he smote them in the more secret parts of their posteriors.” To this the psalmist is supposed to refer, Ps 78:66, He smote all his enemies in the HINDER PARTS; he put them to a perpetual reproach. Some copies of the Septuagint have , “he inflamed them in their ships:” other copies have , “in their posteriors.” The Syriac is the same. The Arabic enlarges: “He smote them in their posteriors, so that they were affected with a dysenteria.” I suppose them to have been affected with enlargements of the haemorrhoidal veins, from which there came frequent discharges of blood.
The Septuagint and Vulgate make a very material addition to this verse: ; Et ebullierunt villae et agri in medio regionis illius; et nati sunt mures, et facta est confusio mortis magnae in civitate: “And the cities and fields of all that region burst up, and mice were produced, and there was the confusion of a great death in the city.” This addition Houbigant contends was originally in the Hebrew text; and this gives us the reason why golden mice were sent, as well as the images of the emerods, (1Sa 6:4), when the ark was restored.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, for their incorrigibleness by the foregoing documents.
He destroyed them; partly by wasting their land, 1Sa 6:5; and partly by killing many of their persons, as is sufficiently implied here, 1Sa 5:10.
Emerods; a disease mentioned only here and Deu 28:27; it was in the hinder parts. It is needless to inquire into the nature of it. It may suffice to know that it was a very sore disease, and not only very vexatious and tormenting, but also pernicious and mortal.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. the hand of the Lord was heavyupon them of AshdodThe presumption of the Ashdodites waspunished by a severe judgment that overtook them in the form of apestilence.
smote them withemerodsbleeding piles, hemorrhoids (Ps78:66), in a very aggravated form. As the heathens generallyregarded diseases affecting the secret parts of the body aspunishments from the gods for trespasses committed againstthemselves, the Ashdodites would be the more ready to look upon theprevailing epidemic as demonstrating the anger of God, already shownagainst their idol.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But the hand of the Lord was heavy on them of Ashdod,…. Not only on their idol, but on themselves; it had crushed him to pieces, and now it fell heavy on them to their destruction:
and he destroyed them; either by the disease after mentioned they were smitten with, or rather with some other, since that seems not to be mortal, though painful; it may be with the pestilence:
and smote them with emerods; more properly haemorrhoids, which, as Kimchi says, was the name of a disease, but he says not what; Ben Gersom calls it a very painful disease, from whence comes a great quantity of blood. Josephus u takes it to be the dysentery or bloody flux; it seems to be what we commonly call the piles, and has its name in Hebrew from the height of them, rising up sometimes into high large tumours:
even Ashdod and the coasts thereof; not only the inhabitants of the city were afflicted with this disease, but those of the villages round about.
u Antiqu. l. 6. c. 1. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The visitation of God was not restricted to the demolition of the statue of Dagon, but affected the people of Ashdod as well. “ The hand of Jehovah was heavy upon the Ashdodites, and laid them waste.” , from , when applied to men, as in Mic 6:13, signifies to make desolate not only by diseases, but also by the withdrawal or diminution of the means of subsistence, the devastation of the fields, and such like. That the latter is included here, is evident from the dedicatory offerings with which the Philistines sought to mitigate the wrath of the God of the Israelites (1Sa 6:4-5, 1Sa 6:11, 1Sa 6:18), although the verse before us simply mentions the diseases with which God visited them.
(Note: At the close of 1Sa 5:3 and 1Sa 5:6 the Septuagint contains some comprehensive additions; viz., at the close of 1Sa 5:3: , , ; and at the end of 1Sa 5:4: . This last clause we also find in the Vulgate, expressed as follows: Et eballiverunt villae et agri in medio regionis illius, et nati sunt mures, et facta est confusio mortis magnae in civitate . Ewald ‘s decision with regard to these clauses ( Gesch. ii. p. 541) is, that they are not wanted at 1Sa 5:3, 1Sa 5:6, but that they are all the more necessary at 1Sa 6:1; whereas at 1Sa 5:3, 1Sa 5:6, they would rather injure the sense. Thenius admits that the clause appended to 1Sa 5:3 is nothing more than a second translation of our sixth verse, which has been interpolated by a copyist of the Greek in the wrong place; whereas that of 1Sa 5:6 contains the original though somewhat corrupt text, according to which the Hebrew text should be emended. But an impartial examination would show very clearly, that all these additions are nothing more than paraphrases founded upon the context. The last part of the addition to 1Sa 5:6 is taken verbatim from 1Sa 5:11, whilst the first part is a conjecture based upon 1Sa 6:4-5. Jerome, if indeed the addition in our text of the Vulgate really originated with him, and was not transferred into his version from the Itala, did not venture to suppress the clause interpolated in the Alexandrian version. This is very evident from the words confusio mortis magnae , which are a literal rendering of ; whereas in 1Sa 5:11, Jerome has given to , which the lxx rendered , the much more accurate rendering pavor mortis . Moreover, neither the Syriac nor Targum Jonath. has this clause; so that long before the time of Jerome, the Hebrew text existed in the form in which the Masoretes have handed it down to us.)
“ And He smote them with , i.e., boils:” according to the Rabbins, swellings on the anus, mariscae (see at Deu 28:27). For the Masoretes have invariably substituted , which is used in 1Sa 6:11, 1Sa 6:17, and was probably regarded as more decorous. Ashdod is a more precise definition of the word them, viz., Ashdod, i.e., the inhabitants of Ashdod and its territory.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Distress of the Philistines. | B. C. 1120. |
6 But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. 7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god. 8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. 9 And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. 10 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. 11 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. 12 And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
The downfall of Dagon (if the people had made a good use of it, and had been brought by it to repent of their idolatries and to humble themselves before the God of Israel and seek his face) might have prevented the vengeance which God here proceeds to take upon them for the indignities done to his ark, and their obstinate adherence to their idol, in defiance of the plainest conviction. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up they will not see, but they shall see, Isa. xxvi. 11. And, if they will not see the glory, they shall feel the weight, of God’s hand, for so the Philistines did. The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them (v. 6), and he not only convinced them of their folly, but severely chastised their insolence. 1. He destroyed them, that is, cut many of them off by sudden death, those, we may suppose, that had most triumphed in the captivity of the ark. This is distinguished from the disease with which others were smitten. At Gath it is called a great destruction (v. 9), a deadly destruction, v. 11. And it is expressly said (v. 12) that those who were smitten with the emerods were the men that died not by the other destruction, which probably was the pestilence. They boasted of the great slaughter which their sword had made among the Israelites, ch. iv. 10. But God lets them know that though he does not see fit to draw Israel’s sword against them (they were unworthy to be employed), yet God had a sword of his own, with which he could make a no less dreadful execution among them, which if he whet, and his hand take hold on judgment, he will render vengeance to his enemies,Deu 32:41; Deu 32:42. Note, Those that contend with God, his ark, and his Israel, will infallibly be ruined at last. If conviction conquer not, destruction shall. 2. Those that were not destroyed he smote with emerods (v. 6), in their secret parts (v. 9), so grievous that (v. 12) the cry went up to heaven, that is, it might be heard a great way off, and perhaps, in the extremity of their pain and misery, they cried, not to Dagon, but to the God of heaven. The Psalmist, speaking of this sore judgment upon the Philistines, describes it thus: God smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetual reproach, Ps. lxxviii. 66. The emerods (which we call the piles, and perhaps it was then a more grievous disease than it is now) is threatened among the judgments that would be the fruit of the curse, Deut. xxviii. 27. It was both a painful and shameful disease; a vile disease for vile deserts. By it God would humble their pride, and put contempt upon them, as they had done upon his ark. The disease was epidemical, and perhaps, among them, a new disease. Ashdod was smitten, and the coasts thereof, the country round. For contempt of God’s ordinances, many are weak and sick, and many sleep, 1 Cor. xi. 30. 3. The men of Ashdod were soon aware that it was the hand of God, the God of Israel, v. 7. Thus they were constrained to acknowledge his power and dominion, and confess themselves within his jurisdiction, and yet they would not renounce Dagon and submit to Jehovah; but rather, now that he touched their bone and their flesh, and in a tender part, they were ready to curse him to his face, and instead of making their peace with him, and courting the stay of his ark upon better terms, they desired to get clear of it, as the Gadarenes, who, when they had lost their swine, desired Christ to depart out of their coasts. Carnal hearts, when they smart under the judgments of God, would rather, if it were possible, put him far from them than enter into covenant and communion with him, and make him their friend. Thus the men of Ashdod resolve, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us. 4. It is resolved to change the place of its imprisonment. A great council was called, and the question proposed to all the lords was, “What shall be we with the ark?” And at last it was agreed that it should be carried to Gath, v. 8. Some superstitious conceit they had that the fault was in the place, and that the ark would be better pleased with another lodging, further off from Dagon’s temple; and therefore, instead of returning it, as they should have done, to its own place, they contrive to send it to another place. Gath is pitched upon, a place famed for a race of giants, but their strength and stature are no fence against the pestilence and the emerods: the men of that city were smitten, both great and small (v. 9), both dwarfs and giants, all alike to God’s judgments; none so great as to over-top them, none so small as to be over-looked by them. 5. They were all at last weary of the ark, and very willing to get rid of it. It was sent from Gath to Ekron, and, coming by order of council, the Ekronites could not refuse it, but were much exasperated against their great men for sending them such a fatal present (v. 10): They have sent it to us to slay us and our people. The ark had the tables of the law in it; and nothing more welcome to faithful Israelites than the word of God (to them it is a savour of life unto life), but to uncircumcised Philistines, that persist in enmity to God, nothing more dreadful nor unwelcome: to them it is a savour of death unto death. A general assembly is instantly called, to advise about sending the ark again to its place, v. 11. While they are consulting about it, the hand of God is doing execution; and their contrivances to evade the judgment do but spread it. Many drop down dead among them. Many more are raging ill of the emerods, v. 12. What shall they do? Their triumphs in the captivity of the ark are soon turned into lamentations, and they are as eager to quit it as ever they had been to seize it. Note, God can easily make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all that heave at it, Zech. xii. 3. Those that fight against God will soon have enough of it, and, first or last, will be made to know that none ever hardened their hearts against him and prospered. The wealth that is got by fraud and injustice, especially that which is got by sacrilege and robbing God, though swallowed greedily, and rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel, must be vomited up again; for, till it be, the sinner shall not feel quietness in his belly, Job xx. 15-20.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES
1Sa. 5:6. He destroyed them. From 1Sa. 6:4-5; 1Sa. 6:11; 1Sa. 6:18, where, besides the votive offering referring to the bodily disease, a second, the golden mice, is expressly mentioned, it is clear that, in addition to the corporal plague, another, a land-plague, had fallen on the Philistines. He destroyed them (like destruction or desolation, in Mic. 6:13, used of persons) denotes a wasting of the land, that is, of the produce of the fields, as the support of human life, by mice which destroy the land (1Sa. 6:5). (Erdmann.) We must go to the East for parallels to these ancient plagues. A parallel to this plague of mice is furnished in the recent history of Ceylon. In 1848, the coffee-crop of that fertile island was utterly destroyed by mice, and the people, losing their staple harvest, were reduced to the most terrible misery and want. (S. Cox.) Emerods. The disease we call bleeding piles, a disease very common in Eastern lands, where the extreme heat induces indisposition to exercise, and the liver is very apt to grow sluggish and weak. The word is vernacular English for the Greek compound from which we derive the technical medical terms, hemorrhoids, hemorrhage, which designate a flow of blood. (S. Cox.) The heathen generally regarded diseases affecting the secret parts of the body as punishments from the gods for trespasses committed against themselves. (Jamieson.)
1Sa. 5:8. Let the ark of the God of Israel, etc. The princes of the Philistines probably imagined that the calamity which the Ashdodites attributed to the ark of God, either did not proceed from the ark, i.e., from the God of Israel, or if actually connected with its presence, simply arose from the fact that the city itself was hateful to the God of the Israelites, or that the Dagon of Ashdod was weaker than the Jehovah of Israel; they therefore resolved to let the ark be taken to Gath in order to pacify the Ashdodites. (Keil.) Gath. Also one of the five Philistian satrapies. Its site is not accurately known, but it is generally identified with the modern Tell-es-Sfieh, 10 miles east of Ashdod, and about the same distance S. by E. of Ekron. (See Smiths Biblical Dictionary.)
1Sa. 5:10. Ekron. Another of the princely cities, now Akir.
1Sa. 5:12. The cry of the city went up to heaven. The disease is attended with acute pain (Jamieson).
Note.This chapter, with the following, strikingly illustrates the non-missionary character of the old dispensation. For centuries the Israelites were near neighbours of the Philistines, and had some acquaintance with their political and religious institutions. Yet the Philistines had at this time only a garbled and distorted account (1Sa. 4:8) of the history of the Israelites, derived probably from tradition, and seemingly no particular knowledge of their religion, nor did the Israelites ever attempt, though they were in the times of Samson and David in close connection with Philistia, to carry thither a knowledge of what they yet believed to be the only true religion. This religious isolation was no doubt a part of the Divine plan for the development of the theocratic kingdom, guarding it against the taints of idolatry, and permitting the chosen people thoroughly to apprehend and appropriate the truth which was then to go from them to all the world. But if we look for the natural causes which produced this isolation in ancient times, we shall find one in the narrowness of civilisation of ancient times, where the absence of means of social and literary communication fostered mutual ignorance and made sympathy almost impossible, and another in the peculiarly national local nature of the religion of Israel, with its central sanctuary and its whole system grounded in the past history of the nation, presenting thus great obstacles to a foreigner who wished to become a worshipper of Jehovah. (Amer. Tranr. of Langes Commentary).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Sa. 5:6-12
THE JUDGMENTS UPON THE PHILISTINES
I. When judgment begins with the people of God it is certain to extend to the ungodly. If a human king is just he will visit his own family with punishment if they break the laws of his kingdom. But the very fact that he does so is a pledge that he will not spare the rest of his subjects if they are found guilty. Judgment will begin where transgression ought, least of all, to appear, and where, if it appear, it ought to be least tolerated; but should the same sins be committed by others, it may be regarded as certain that it will extend to them also. God deals with men as a good king and father deals with his children. He will certainly inflict chastisement upon those who are most nearly related to Him by moral character, but He will not spare those who are utterly ungodly. Gods ancient people, at this period in their history, needed chastisement, and they had it. He avenged the dishonour which had been done to His name by those whom He had nourished and brought up as His children (Isa. 1:2) by a heavy visitation. But He did not spare the more guilty Canaanites. When judgment begins at the house of God, the question forces itself upon the mind, Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1Pe. 4:17-18).
II. When the ungodly have been used as instruments of Divine chastisement, they are chastened themselves to teach them that they were not chosen for their moral excellence. Sometimes delay takes place in the execution of a criminal, not because there is any reason to show him favour, but that he may be used to bring others to justice. When he has been used for this purpose he finds that the same law which convicts them punishes him also. It is often so in the righteous government of God. He selected Nebuchadnezzar to be His battle-axe when Israel needed chastisement, but he was but a reprieved criminal, and when he had fulfilled the Divine purpose he was made to feel that it was so. Here the Philistines were made the instruments of Gods judgment upon His people, but they soon found that they had not been selected for this work because they were held in favour by Jehovah. The hand of God upon them soon taught them that they also were under His displeasurethat God had, in the language of the prophet, taken the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of His fury, and put it into the hand of them that afflicted Israel (Isa. 51:22-23).
III. There may be an admission that God has smitten without true repentance. The Philistines confessed that the hand of Jehovah was sore upon them, and upon their god, but it led to no investigation into His claims to their homageto no change in their disposition towards Him. Pharaoh acknowledged that the Lord was righteous, and that he and his people were wicked (Exo. 9:27), but his admission had no effect upon his conduct. Saul admitted that God had forsaken him, and was visiting him for his sin, but he turned not to Him who had smitten him, but, in direct opposition to the Divine command, sought counsel of a witch. Many men in every age are compelled to acknowledge that God is visiting them, yet they will not turn to Him in repentance. They may cry to God in their despair, but they give evidence that it is not sin that troubles them, but the punishment of sin. Like the Philistines, they would be rid of their suffering, but they are not willing to give up their Dagons, and to give glory and render obedience to the Lord of hosts.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1Sa. 5:6. The hand of the Almighty, which moved them not in falling on their god, falls now nearer on their persons, and strikes them in their bodies which would not feel themselves stricken in their idol. Pain shall humble them, when shame cannot.Bp. Hall.
1Sa. 5:7. They should have rather parted with their sins than with the ark, and have said unto their sins Get thee hence, as Isa. 30:22. What have we to do any more with Dagon who cannot save himself, much less us, from the Divine vengeance? Wicked men are glad upon all occasions to be rid of God and His ark, His ordinances, which they, Philistine-like, have rather as prisoners than as privileges.Trapp.
The emerods were not a disease beyond the compass of natural causes; neither was it hard for the wiser sort to give a reason of their complaint; yet they ascribe it to the hand of God: the knowledge and operation of secondary causes should be no prejudice to the first. They are worse than the Philistines who, when they see the means, do not acknowledge their first Mover, whose active just power is no less seen in employing ordinary means than in raising up extraordinary; neither doth He less smite by a common fever, than by an avenging angel.Bp. Hall.
1Sa. 5:10. The struggles of the Philistines against Jehovah tended only to bring the ark nearer to its own home, and to bring more evils on its enemies. The sufferings of Ekron were worse than those of Ashdod, and the sufferings of Gath were more grievous than those of Ekron. So all the assaults of the enemies of the faith against the ark of Christs church will serve only to bring her nearer to her heavenly and eternal home.Wordsworth.
Thus they send the plague of God up and down to their neighbours. Wicked men use to draw others into partnership of their condemnation.Trapp.
1Sa. 5:11. When mans heart will not give up its worthless idols, though Gods hand draw it to Himself by affliction and suffering, then the distance between him and the God that offers to be with him becomes greater in proportion to the severity and painfulness of the suffering felt by the soul alienated from God and devoted to idolatry. We shall at last desire to be entirely away from God, as the Philistines at last resolved to carry the ark over the border, that they might have nothing more to do with the God of Israel, while, on the contrary, the ark should have warned them to give glory to the God of Israel, who had so unmistakably and gloriously revealed Himself to them.Langes Commentary.
God knows how to bring the stubbornest enemy on his knees, and make him do that out of fear which His best child would do out of love or duty It is happy that God hath such store of plagues and thunderbolts for the wicked: if He had not a fire of judgment, wherewith iron hearts might be made flexible, He would want obedience, and the world peace.Bp. Hall.
1Sa. 5:12. The cry that ascends to heaven over sufferings and afflictions that are the consequences of wickedness, is by no means a sign that need teaches prayer; it may be made wholly from a heathen point of view. The cry that penetrates into heaven is Against thee have I sinned, and is the expression of an upright, earnest penitence, which is awakened in the heart by the chastisement of Gods hand.Langes Commentary.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(6) But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod.A painful and distressing sickness, in the form, perhaps, of tumours(the word emerods should be spelt hemorrhoids)broke out among the inhabitants of the Philistine city in which was situated the idol temple, where was placed the Ark of the Covenant. The LXX. has an addition to the Hebrew text here which speaks of a terrible land plague which, apparently from subsequent notices, visited Philistia in addition to the bodily sufferings here spoken of. The Greek Version adds to 1Sa. 5:6 these words: and mice were produced in the land, and there arose a great and deadly confusion in the city. In 1Sa. 6:4, &c, among the expiatory offerings sent by the idolators to Israel to appease what they imagined the offended Hebrew God, golden mice are mentioned: images of the mice that mar the land. The mouse, according to Herodotus and the testimony of hieroglyphics, was an old symbol of pestilence. The Greek translators, however, failing to understand the meaning of the offering of golden mice, added the wordsapparently in accordance with a received traditionby way of explanation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod Not only did Dagon suffer shame, but the persons and lands of his worshippers were visited with plagues.
Destroyed them Made them desolate and terror-stricken by fearful diseases on their bodies, and wasting devastation in their fields. The Hebrew word may be rendered, He caused them to be amazed, that is, by the fearful judgments with which he afflicted them.
Emerods There is some uncertainty as to the nature of the disease here indicated. The more proper English word is hemorrhoids, from the Greek , a flow of blood. Accordingly, Josephus and some English commentators understand it here to mean dysentery. Josephus says: “God sent a very destructive disease upon the city and country of Ashdod, for they died of the dysentery and flux, a sore distemper, that brought death upon them very suddenly; for before the soul could, as usual in easy deaths, be well loosed from the body, they brought up their entrails, and vomited up what they had eaten, and what was entirely corrupted by the disease.” But 1Sa 5:12 clearly shows that the disease was not necessarily fatal. A more plausible explanation is, that which makes the word mean bleeding piles, and this is favoured by the English and several ancient versions of 1Sa 5:9, where see note. The Hebrew word is the plural of , a hill, and, used to designate some disease of the body, it would most naturally mean some rising or swelling of the flesh. Hence Gesenius, Furst, and Keil appropriately render the word by tumours or boils. In 1Sa 6:11 ; 1Sa 6:17, the word is used, whose root, according to Furst, means to glow, to burn, to kindle, and may therefore be properly rendered inflammatory tumours. The Masoretes have substituted this latter word in the keri for , perhaps, as some suggest, to make the reading more euphemistical. In 1Sa 5:9 the disease is spoken of as a breaking out, ( ,) an expression most naturally used of boils or tumours. We may safely conclude, therefore, that the word has essentially this sense. See further on 1Sa 5:9.
Ashdod and the coasts thereof These words are grammatically in apposition with them, and are added to indicate the extent of the plague. The Septuagint, evidently in anticipation of what is said in 1Sa 6:5, adds the following: “And in the midst of that region were produced mice, and there was a great confusion of death in the city.” Besides this, the Vulgate also has, “The villas and fields in the midst of that region burst up.” These are doubtless interpolations from other passages, though Thenius takes them as evidences of corruption in the Hebrew text.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Ark of God Brings Misery and Plague On the Philistines Who Disrespect It ( 1Sa 5:6-12 ).
What happened in the house of Dagon was not the only thing that was to trouble the Philistines. Soon a dreadful plague was sweeping through Ashdod, and the result was that the people of Ashdod pleaded that the Ark be removed from Ashdod. The situation was seen as serious enough to bring together the five Tyrants of the Philistines, and they decided to remove it to Gath, where it was paraded through the streets in celebration. They still had not learned their lesson that it was not wise to claim victory over YHWH. The result was that a great plague also swept through Gath.
Then they sent the Ark to Ekron. This was not a centre of Dagon worship, but was famed for the worship of Baal-zebub. Perhaps then there would be no problem there. But the people of Ekron wanted none of the Ark and protested. Their fears proved only too right for soon the plague was sweeping through Ekron with the result that they pleaded with their Tyrants to return it to Israel. The Ark of the God of Israel was clearly not happy in Philistia.
It is possibly significant that when the Ark was returned to Israel it was accompanied by an offering of five golden tumours (or plague boils) and five golden rodents. This might be seen as suggesting that the plague was in fact caused by flea infected rats. Whether they were actually in the Ark in the first place (there was no plague in the Israelite army, and although they would not of course have looked into the Ark, it is difficult to think that the plague ridden rats would not have got out and infected others had they been there), or whether they entered it while it was on its way to the house of Dagon (the Ark might well have been set down in the fields after it had been opened by curious soldiers while the Philistine army rested) we do not know, but the rats must have rapidly multiplied and spread their fleas among the local population of rats in order to bring about these dreadful effects. We must remember that these events did not all take place in a few days. The Ark was among the Philistines for seven months (1Sa 6:1).
Analysis.
a
b They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about to Gath.” And they carried the ark of the God of Israel there. And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of YHWH was against the city with a very great discomfiture: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great; and tumours/boils brake out on them (1Sa 5:8-9).
c So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came about that, as the ark of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people (1Sa 5:10).
b They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it slay us not, and our people.” For there was a deadly discomfiture throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there (1Sa 5:11).
a And the men who did not die were smitten with the tumours/boils, and the cry of the city went up to heaven (1Sa 5:12).
Note that in ‘a’ tumours smote men throughout Ashdod so that they cried for the Ark to be removed, and in the parallel tumours/boils smote men in Ekron so that they too cried, this time to Heaven, for its removal. In ‘b’ they called together the Tyrants of the Philistines to deal with the matter, and meanwhile the city suffered great discomfiture and in the parallel they did the same, and the same thing occurred. Centrally in ‘c’ the people of Ekron declared their recognition of the power of the God of Israel to slay them.
1Sa 5:6
‘ But the hand of YHWH was heavy on those of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with tumours/boils, even Ashdod and its borders.’
Now not only Dagon but the whole people were made aware that YHWH was among them, for many died, and many others were smitten with tumours/boils, and the effects of the plague reached out to its very borders. The hand of YHWH was heavy upon them. This idea of YHWH’s hand being heavy upon the Philistines is continually stressed. See 4:8 (prophetically by the Philistines who thought it limited to the battlefield); 1Sa 5:6-7; 1Sa 5:9 ; 1Sa 5:11; 1Sa 6:3; 1Sa 6:5; 1Sa 6:9; 1Sa 7:13. Compare also Exo 9:3; Deu 2:15; Jdg 2:15. YHWH was intervening personally in the situation.
1Sa 5:7
‘And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore on us, and on Dagon our god.”
The result of this was that they determined to get rid of ‘the Ark of the God of Israel’. They recognised what He was doing both to them and their god. It is a sign of the blindness and darkness of men’s hearts that instead of this making them realise how useless it was to trust in Dagon and how wise they would be to trust in the God of Israel, they instead sought to expel Him from their country. They did not seek to propitiate Him. They did not want a God Who would actually do things. They were no doubt aware of the demands that the God of Israel made on His people. After all a good number of Israelites were their vassals.
1Sa 5:8
‘They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about to Gath.” And they carried the ark of the God of Israel there.’
So their leaders called on the Tyrants of the Philistines to determine what should be done. This was a matter that had to be decided at the highest level. After all the Ark was there at the direct command of the five Tyrants and it represented their great victory. The Tyrants consulted together and determined that the Ark should be sent to Gath. Perhaps they considered that the gods of Gath would put up a better show. So they carried the Ark of Israel there.
1Sa 5:9
‘ And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of YHWH was against the city with a very great discomfiture: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great; and tumours/boils brake out on them.’
They still prided themselves on having captured the Ark so it was paraded through the streets in a victory celebration, but the only result was that YHWH smote the men of the city ‘both small and great’ so that none was exempt. Many died, and others were smitten with tumours or plague boils.
1Sa 5:10
‘So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came about that, as the ark of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.’
This time the decision was made more quickly and the Ark was transferred to Ekron, whose main god was Baal-zebub who had somewhat of a reputation (2Ki 1:2). Perhaps the God of Israel would find it more difficult to cope with Baal-zebub. The people of Ekron, however, were not convinced, and protested at the idea of the Ark coming to Ekron. Their leaders cried out that the Ark of the God of Israel had been sent among them to slay them and their people. However the decision of the five Tyrants had been made and the Ark duly arrived in Ekron.
1Sa 5:11
‘They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it slay not me, and my people.” For there was a deadly discomfiture throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there.
And there again there was a great plague, and many died, and many others were covered in tumours/plague boils, and the plague was even more deadly than in Ashdod and Gath. ‘The hand of God was very heavy there.’ And they petitioned the five Tyrants to remove the Ark from among them and send it back to Israel so that no more may die. For their hope was that once He was back in His own place the God of Israel would cease to demonstrate His anger.
“That it slay not me, and my people.” The words are put into the mouth of a spokesman (or the Philistine Tyrant) for effect.
1Sa 5:12
‘ And the men who did not die were smitten with the tumours/boils, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.’
Meanwhile large numbers died, and even those who did not die were smitten with tumours/plague boils, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. This may simply be a general vague description indicating that their own gods had proved useless, or it may be intended to indicate that they prayed to the God of Heaven for mercy (compare Exo 2:23).
There were a number of important lessons to be learned from these experiences. To the Israelites it had been made clear that while they were living in disobedience it was no use trying to manipulate YHWH by ritual methods. His protection depended on their true worship. To the Philistines and later to the Israelites it was being made clear that in spite of the Philistine victory it was still YHWH Who ruled over the affairs of men, and that it was dangerous to seek to trifle with what was His. Was His throne offered as a trophy to Dagon? Dagon would fall before it in obeisance and suffer utter defeat. Would the Philistine cities parade His throne among the people so that they could deride the God of Israel? Then the God of Israel would smite them with the plague. For while Israel may have been defeated, YHWH had not. He was merely biding His time.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Sa 5:6. Smote them with emerods See Deu 28:27 and compare 1Sa 5:9. At the end of this verse the LXX and Vulgate add, that “a great number of mice started up out of the earth, and over-running the fields, made a great waste;” which words Houbigant admits into his text; though they seem likely to have been a mere gloss in the Margin taken from the 4th and 5th verses of the next chapter.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(6) But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. (7) And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
It is not very easy to say, what this disease which is called Emerods was. The Psalmist in referring to this history, saith, that the Lord smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetual reproach. Psa 78:66 . But be the disease what it might, certain it is, that it was very heavy upon them, and that they considered it as a judgment on account of the ark.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 5:6 But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, [even] Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
Ver. 6. But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod. ] For he will not always serve men for a sinning stock, though he oft bear long with them. Patientia laesa sit furor. These men hardened their hearts; God therefore hardeneth his hand, and hasteneth their destruction.
And he destroyed them.
And smote them with emerods.
a Josephus. Sidonius. Bernard.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
hand. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for the judgments inflicted by it.
emerods. See note on Deu 28:27.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the hand: 1Sa 5:7, 1Sa 5:11, Exo 9:3, Psa 32:4, Act 13:11
emerods: 1Sa 5:9, 1Sa 5:11, 1Sa 6:5, Deu 28:27, Job 31:3, Psa 78:66
thereof: The LXX and Vulgate add:
.
(Et ebullierunt ville et agri in medio regionis illius, et nati sunt mures; et facta est confusio mortis magne in civitate).
“And [the cities and fields in Vulg.] the midst of that region produced mice; [Vulg. burst up, and mice were produced;] and there was the confusion of a great death in the city.” 1Sa 6:4, 1Sa 6:5
Reciprocal: Gen 41:31 – grievous Deu 2:15 – the hand of the Jos 15:46 – near 2Ch 26:6 – about Psa 38:2 – thy hand Psa 44:2 – how thou didst afflict Isa 26:11 – they shall Rev 16:2 – a noisome
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 5:6. The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod Since they were so blind as not to see his hand in throwing down their god, he smote them with such sore plagues in their own bodies as made them sensible of his power, by destroying great numbers of them. With emerods The piles, a most painful and distressing disorder. Ashdod, and the coasts thereof Not only the people of the city, but of the villages belonging to it, were smitten with this plague.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The writer now began to stress the major theme in the ark narrative: the hand [power] of the Lord. [Note: Patrick D. Miller Jr. and J. J. M. Roberts, The Hand of the Lord: A Reassessment of the "Ark Narrative" of 1 Samuel, p. 48.] There are nine occurrences of this anthropomorphic phrase in this section of 1 Samuel (1Sa 4:8; 1Sa 5:6-7; 1Sa 5:9; 1Sa 5:11; 1Sa 6:3; 1Sa 6:5; 1Sa 6:9; 1Sa 7:13). The hand of the Lord represents Yahweh in action (cf. Exo 9:3; Jer 21:5-6). In the biblical world, people spoke of sickness and death as the bad effects of the "hand" of some god. [Note: See J. J. M. Roberts, "The Hand of Yahweh," Vetus Testamentum 21:2 (1971):244-51.] This was the conclusion of Ashdod’s leaders who attributed their recent calamities to Yahweh (1Sa 5:7). God afflicted the Philistines with tumors, swellings caused by new tissue growth.
Evidently the men of Ashdod believed that it was particularly with their city that Yahweh felt displeasure. So they moved the ark to Gath (lit. winepress), which lay about 12 miles southeast of Ashdod. Dagon could not prevent the tumors (lit. buboes) and death with which Yahweh afflicted the Philistines (1Sa 5:6; 1Sa 5:9-12). The people of Ashdod should have turned from worshipping Dagon and put their trust in Yahweh. Death followed because they chose to continue in unbelief in spite of their confession of Yahweh’s superiority (1Sa 5:7).
The Hebrew word translated "broke out" occurs only here in the Old Testament (1Sa 5:9). The Septuagint translators interpreted it accurately as "groin." These tumors were apparently most prominent in the groin area, hence the English translation "hemorrhoids." Tumors in the groin are a symptom of bubonic plague. Since the Philistines associated mice with this plague (1Sa 6:4-5), and mice carry bubonic plague, it seems clear that the hand of Yahweh sent this particular affliction on them.
Ekron stood about 6 miles north of Gath. [Note: See Trude Dothan, "Ekron of the Philistines. Part I: Where They Came From, How They Settled Down, and the Place They Worshiped In," Biblical Archaeology Review 16:1 (1990):26-36.] The reputation of the ark preceded it to that town, and its residents did not welcome it as a trophy of war. They saw it instead as a divine instrument of death (cf. Exo 2:23; Exo 11:6; Exo 12:30). The Philistines repeatedly acknowledged Yahweh’s superior power over themselves and Dagon (1Sa 5:7-12; cf. 1Sa 2:6; cf. 1Sa 2:25; Exo 10:7; Exo 12:31-33). This is another testimony to Yahweh’s sovereignty in the narrative. The cry that went up to heaven from Philistia (1Sa 5:12) recalls the death cry that went up to heaven earlier from Egypt when God afflicted that enemy (Exo 12:30; cf. 1Sa 4:8). Through the seven months that the ark was in Philistia (1Sa 6:1) the Philistines learned what the Israelites had not: Yahweh is the sovereign God. Yet they refused to bow before Him and so experienced death, though the Lord mixed mercy with judgment and did not kill all the Philistines (1Sa 5:12).
Chapters 4 and 5 both testify to God’s sovereignty. Neither Israel, in chapter 4, nor the Philistines, in chapter 5, could control or resist His will. We cannot manipulate God. We must follow Him rather than expecting Him to follow us. Had the Israelites learned this lesson they probably would not have demanded a king like the other nations (1Sa 8:5) but waited for Him to provide His choice for them.