Chapter 6.

The Ark of God Is Returned to Israel With Due Tributes and Reparations ( 1Sa 6:1-16 ).

Having determined to return the Ark to Israel the Philistines had a problem. How were they going to propitiate the God of Israel for what they had done in bringing His Ark to Philistia? They wanted to ensure that they did not antagonise Him further. So they consulted their own priests and diviners.

The solution was that they would return the Ark with a trespass ( or ‘guilt’) offering, admitting that they had trespassed and making compensation. If healing then took place in the land it would indicate that it was YHWH Who had done it.

But the question then was, what would be a suitable offering? Their solution is interesting in indicating the common customs that were shared in the Ancient Near East. The golden tumours and the golden rodents were an indication that they recognised that the tumours and the rodents in their land had been sent by YHWH, and acted as a plea that they be removed from the land in the same way as these golden replicas were being. We can compare how when the earlier Israelites had been judged by having poisonous snakes sent among them, their remedy was to make a replica of the snakes in gold and offer it to YHWH in recognition of the fact that their judgment had come from Him. Then whoever looked to it as something that was now the possession of YHWH lived. That replica was still in the Tabernacle to that day. Similarly it was the custom in India for a pilgrim who visited a pagoda seeking healing to take with him a gift offering of gold, shaped into the fashion of the diseased part, indicating their recognition that their disease had been inflicted by the gods.

The next thing was to take a new, unused cart and attach to it two milch cows which had never been under the yoke, and use them to bear the Ark. This would then make them the possession of YHWH, as the Israelites recognised when they used them for sacrificial purposes. For the use of a new cart compare 2Sa 18:18. For the use of beasts never before under the yoke as a kind of offering compare Num 19:2; Deu 21:3-4.

The final test would then be whether two cows who had never borne the yoke, and whose calves had been taken from them, would willingly pull the cart and head straight for an Israelite town. If they did this it would be a sign that YHWH wanted His Ark to return home. On the other hand if they returned to where they expected their calves to be, or refused to draw the cart, it would indicate that no god was involved at all.

Analysis.

a And the Ark of YHWH was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the Ark of YHWH? Show us by what method we shall send it to its place” (1Sa 6:1-2).

b And they said, “If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but whatever you do return Him a trespass-offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you” (1Sa 6:3).

c Then said they, “What shall be the trespass-offering which we shall return to him?” And they said, “Five golden tumours/boils, and five golden rodents, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords” (1Sa 6:4).

d For this reason you shall make images of your tumours, and images of your rodents that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land” (1Sa 6:5).

e “Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?” (1Sa 6:6).

f “Now therefore take and prepare for you a new cart, and two milch cows, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them, and take the ark of YHWH, and lay it on the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which you return him for a trespass-offering, in a container by its side, and send it away, that it may go” (1Sa 6:7-8).

g “And watch. If it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil, but if not, then we will know that it is not His hand that smote us. It was a chance that happened to us” (1Sa 6:9).

f And the men did so, and took two milch cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home, and they put the ark of YHWH on the cart, and the container with the rodents of gold and the images of their tumours/boils (1Sa 6:10-11).

e ‘And the cows took the direct way by the way to Beth-shemesh. They went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth-shemesh (1Sa 6:12).

d And they who were of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it (1Sa 6:13).

c And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt-offering to YHWH (1Sa 6:14).

b And the Levites took down the ark of YHWH, and the container that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone, and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt-offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to YHWH (1Sa 6:15).

a And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day (1Sa 6:16).

Note that in ‘a’ the Philistines wanted to know how they could satisfactorily return the Ark, and in the parallel they were satisfied that they had succeeded. In ‘b’ they were informed that they must return a trespass offering, and in the parallel the offering is put on the great stone, and burnt offerings and sacrifices were offered to YHWH. In ‘c’ whatever they did they must send a trespass offering, and in the parallel their cart and milch cows are offered as a burnt offering to YHWH. In ‘d’ the Philistines were to give glory to the God of Israel, and in the parallel the Israelites rejoiced before God at the return of the Ark. In ‘e’ reference is made to the fact that Israel had to let God’s people go, and in the parallel the Philistines let God’s Ark go. In ‘f’ the Philistines were told how to send off the Ark in a new cart with unyoked milch cows, with the golden treasure on the cart, and in the parallel they do precisely that. Centrally in ‘h’ the successful operation will reveal that it was truly YHWH Who had smitten them.

1Sa 6:1

‘ And the ark of YHWH was in the country of the Philistines seven months.’

It is possible that this should be seen as the ending of 1 Samuel 5. The point is to emphasise the drawn out sufferings of the Philistines, and it bring out why the plague had time to spread.

1Sa 6:2

‘ And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of YHWH? Show us by what method we shall send it to its place.” ’

The plagues had made the Philistines recognise that they had offended YHWH. And having decided to send the Ark back they wanted to ensure that they did not offend Him even more. So they called together their priests and their diviners in order to obtain their advice on precisely how to do it so as to pacify YHWH. The fear of YHWH had taken hold of them. Philistine soothsayers and diviners appear to have been especially well known and highly thought of (Isa 2:6)

1Sa 6:3

‘ And they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but whatever you do return him a trespass-offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.”

Their advice was that YHWH should be given a trespass offering, in order to atone for their trespass against Him. (We must not directly interpret this in terms of the Israelite trespass offering which had its own significance). Thus they must not send the Ark away just on its own, but must include a trespass offering with it. Then their land would be healed. And as a result they would know why YHWH was continuing to plague them at this point in time.

1Sa 6:4

‘Then said they, “What shall be the trespass-offering which we shall return to him?” And they said, “Five golden tumours/boils, and five golden rodents, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.” ’

The next question was as to what would be a suitable offering. The reply was that they must atone for the behaviour of all five Philistine Tyrants, together with their cities, by sending to YHWH five golden tumours or plague boils, and five golden rodents. Nothing has previously been said about rodents. It was the plague that had really upset the people. But clearly they had also noticed an increase in rodents which they had also attributed to YHWH. (They had, of course, not connected the two, but these may well have been flea-covered rats who were spreading the plague. Alternatively it might have been a separate plague of mice which were eating up their crops. Such mice can multiply rapidly and destroy huge areas of land).

The golden tumours and the golden rodents were an indication that they recognised that the tumours and the rodents in their land had been sent by YHWH, and acted as a plea that they be removed from the land in the same way as these golden replicas were being. We can compare how when the earlier Israelites had been judged by having poisonous snakes sent among them, their remedy was to make a replica of the snakes in gold and offer it to YHWH in recognition of the fact that their judgment had come from Him. Then whoever looked to it as something that was now the possession of YHWH lived. That replica was still in the Tabernacle to that day. Similarly it was the custom in India for a pilgrim who visited a pagoda seeking healing to take with him a gift offering of gold, shaped into the fashion of the diseased part, indicating their recognition that their disease had been inflicted by the gods.

1Sa 6:5

‘ For this reason you shall make images of your tumours, and images of your rodents that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.”

So these were to be made and offered to the God of Israel indicating that they recognised that it was He Who had punished them, and by this means they would give glory to the God of Israel. The hope was that He would then leave them, and their gods, and their land alone. Note how their words exalt YHWH over the Philistine gods, as the writer intends us to recognise.

(This very fact suggests that the Philistines did not in fact destroy YHWH’s Sanctuary at Shiloh around this time. Having had one experience of YHWH they would tend to be more wary how they treated what belonged personally to Him. This would not deter them from attacking His people. That would not have been seen by them as sacrilegious, for they did not realise how YHWH felt about His people when they were being faithful to the covenant. But to desecrate YHWH’s own sanctuary would have been something that they would think twice about. Possibly when the effects of this experience of YHWH died down they decided to take revenge. But we are in fact nowhere told that it was the Philistines who destroyed Shiloh. For what information we have see Psa 78:60; Jer 7:12; Jer 7:14; Jer 26:6; Jer 26:9. All we know from this is that YHWH deserted it and that it fell into ruin, perhaps because Israel itself decided to move the Tabernacle elsewhere. It was later to be found at Nob (1Sa 21:1-4) which was less accessible to the Philistines. But that was many years later).

1Sa 6:6

“Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?”

The priests and diviners now revealed their knowledge of Israel’s history for they suggested to the Philistine leaders that they should get a move on and not harden their hearts as the Egyptian Pharaoh had done. The only result for Egypt had been that the plagues had got worse. And in the end they had had to let the Israelites go anyway. So delay could only be seen as foolish.

1Sa 6:7-8

“Now therefore take and prepare for you a new cart, and two milch cows, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them, and take the ark of YHWH, and lay it on the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which you return him for a trespass-offering, in a container by its side, and send it away, that it may go.”

The trespass offering to YHWH was to be sent under suitable conditions. It should be sent on a new cart that had never been used, drawn by two milch cows (cows used specifically for providing milk) that had never known the yoke. Nothing that had been defiled by daily activities must bear the Ark of YHWH (compare 2Sa 18:18; Num 19:2; Deu 21:3-4).

But there was to be a test. The calves of the two milch cows should be returned to their homes. The natural thing for the milch cows to do would therefore be to return home to their calves. If they did so, it would demonstrate that YHWH could not even control two milch cows, and would show that YHWH had not been responsible for all that had happened.

1Sa 6:9

“And watch. If it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth-shemesh, then he has done us this great evil, but if not, then we will know that it is not his hand that smote us. It was a chance that happened to us.”

So they were to watch. If the cart with the milch cows drawing it made for Bethshemesh it would prove that YHWH was responsible for their misfortunes. On the other hand if it did not then it would demonstrate that He was powerless and had not smitten them. It would demonstrate that everything that had happened had happened by chance.

1Sa 6:10

‘ And the men did so, and took two milch cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home, and they put the ark of YHWH on the cart, and the container with the rodents of gold and the images of their tumours/boils.

So the Philistines did precisely as they were advised. It should be noted that this was seen as so important that the Philistine tyrants themselves took a personal interest in the matter, for they would accompany the cart to the border (1Sa 6:11).

1Sa 6:12

‘ And the cows took the direct way by the way to Beth-shemesh. They went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth-shemesh.’

To their partial astonishment (they had not been sure what would happen) the cows on being released made straight for Beth-shemesh. They went directly along the highway as though they were being driven by an invisible rein. They lowed as they went. This may have been because they were calling for their calves, but the writer probably wants us to see them as praising YHWH. And more importantly they did not turn aside to either the right hand or the left. What was more they were followed by the entourages of the five Philistine Tyrants. The matter was being treated very seriously.

Beth-shemesh means ‘house of the sun’. No doubt its previous inhabitants had been sun-worshippers. But that was in the past. It was now a priestly city (Jos 21:16). It would later be captured by the Philistines in the time of Ahaz (2Ch 28:18).

1Sa 6:13

‘ And they who were of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.’

The priests and their families in Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest. Men and women would both be spread widely in the fields singing and laughing as they reaped the harvest. When they saw the cart containing the Ark of the covenant of YHWH coming towards them they would hardly have been able to believe their eyes. It would have seemed like a miracle (which of course it was). And once they had got over the shock they came together and broke out in rejoicing and praising YHWH.

1Sa 6:14

‘ And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt-offering to YHWH.’

And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood by the great stone. The watching Philistines must have been impressed. The great stone was suitable for use as an altar, and the cows had gone straight up to it. And as they watched, the Israelite priests took the cart and cut it up and used the wood to light a sacrificial fire. Then they took the milch cows and offered them up as a burnt-offering. (This was quite legitimate because it was ‘before the Ark of YHWH’ which symbolised the legitimate Sanctuary).

Note how, having described the arrival of the cart, we are immediately told what they did with it, and this prior to telling us about taking down the Ark. (They could hardly have cut the cart up without taking the Ark down). This is a typically Hebrew way of presenting things that is also found elsewhere.

1Sa 6:15

‘ And the Levites had taken down the ark of YHWH, and the container that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone, and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt-offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to YHWH.’

Prior to this the Levites (that is, the priests, who were of the tribe of Levi) had previously taken down the Ark of YHWH together with the container containing the trespass offering, and placed them on the great stone. And they now proceeded to offer up further burnt-offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices. The burnt offerings were an indication of their total dedication to YHWH. The sacrifices would be freewill and thanksgiving sacrifices, the meat from which would enable them to celebrate in a feast of rejoicing.

1Sa 6:16

‘ And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.’

Meanwhile the five Tyrants, having satisfied themselves that it really was the God of Israel Who was responsible for their problems, returned with their retinues to Ekron.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Sa 6:7-12 Comments – The Philistines Test Milk Cows to See if God is Orchestrating the Return of the Ark – Normally, the two mild cows would have turned back and headed straight to their calves and tried to get out of the yokes. But miraculously, they pulled the cart straight to the Israelites, and the Philistines knew this was of God.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Ark sent back to Beth-Shemesh.

v. 1. And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months, in the three cities of the Philistine territory which were named in the preceding chapter.

v. 2. And the Philistines, as represented by their five lords, called for the priests and the diviners, all of whom were supposed to possess soothsaying power to reveal the counsel of the deity, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? What form of procedure was advisable in the circumstances? Tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place. They were especially anxious to find out what gifts of atonement must accompany the ark on its return in order that the plague might be stopped.

v. 3. And they, the soothsayers, said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty, without some expiatory gift; but in any wise return Him a trespass-offering, a sacrifice or gift to atone for their offense, to wipe out their debt; then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why His hand is not removed from you; by the cure which the soothsayers expected to follow this course the people would learn that it was actually God’s hand which was smiting them, a matter which the priests themselves were not yet quite ready to concede.

v. 4. Then said they, What shall be the trespass-offering which we shalt return to Him? They answered, Five golden emerods and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, which, in turn, agreed with that of the city-states in the federation; for one plague was on you all and on your lords. In suggesting five golden boils and five golden mice the soothsayers followed the ancient custom by which likenesses of the diseased parts were dedicated to the deity to whom the sickness was ascribed.

v. 5. Wherefore ye shall make images, carved or engraved likenesses, of your emerods and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel, confessing that the plagues with which they had been smitten had been laid upon them in justice ; peradventure He will lighten His hand from off you, by causing the punishment to stop, and from off your gods, and from off your land, the burden of the chastisement thus being taken from their entire nation. Still they are careful to speak conditionally, in order to have an excuse if their plan should fail.

v. 6. Wherefore, then, do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts, Exo 7:13 ? When He had wrought wonderfully among them, carried out His avenging purpose upon them, did they not let the people go and they departed? Cf Exo 12:31 ff. The Philistines were urged to profit by the example of the Egyptians, not as a matter of conviction or of confession of the true God, but of expediency, the God of Israel apparently being the stronger God, who therefore had to be humored.

v. 7. Now, therefore, make a new cart, take and prepare in the proper manner, and take two milch kine on which there hath come no yoke, Cf Deu 21:3, and tie the kine to the cart, hitching them before the cart to draw it, and bring their calves home from them, holding them back in the barn;

v. 8. and take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold which ye return Him for a trespass-offering, the five golden boils and the five golden mice, in a coffer, a small chest, by the side thereof; and send it away that it may go, giving the strange draft-animals their head. Only such things were to be used as had not been desecrated by profane use, in order to show proper honor to the dreaded God of Israel.

v. 9. And see, if it, the cart as thus prepared, goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth-shemesh, within the territory of Israel, then He, the God of Israel, hath done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not His hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us. The crafty priests of Dagon, who feared for their prestige, had purposely specified cows with calves, since it was probable that their instinct, their natural impulse, would tend to make them turn back to their stalls, unless a higher power restrained them, compelling them to take the road to Beth-shemesh and hold it.

v. 10. And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home;

v. 11. and they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods.

v. 12. And the kine took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh, headed directly for the highway leading to the nearest city of Israel, just beyond the boundary, and went along the highway, keeping to the road, lowing as they went, because they wanted their calves, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left, made no attempt to go back to their stalls; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth-shemesh, to find out where the animals would take the ark. It was evident that the living God directed the course of the cart, and that it was He who had sent the punishment upon the Philistines. It may well be that this realization caused at least some of the Philistines to turn to the true God. Thus many a national calamity has, in the hands of God, been a means of making people realize their sinfulness and turn to the living God for their salvation.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

RESTORATION OF THE ARK TO THE ISRAELITES (1Sa 6:1-12).

1Sa 6:1, 1Sa 6:2

The ark of Jehovah was in the countryliterally, the field, i.e. the territoryof the Philistines seven months, during which long time the people wherever the ark was deposited were afflicted in their persons with a most painful malady. The princes determined, therefore, to restore it to Israel, and convened the priests and the diviners, that they might advise them as to the manner in which this purpose should be best carried out, lest some error or want of due reverence might only serve to increase their sufferings. It would be the duty of the priests to see that the proper ceremonial was observed in moving the ark, while the diviners would decide what day and hour and special method would be lucky. The importance of the diviner, qosem, is shown by his being mentioned in Isa 3:2 in an enumeration of the leading orders in the state. He is placed there between the prophet and the elder or senator; but the A.V; displeased perhaps at finding one who practised a forbidden art nevertheless described as practically so valued, translates the word prudent. Literally it means a divider or partitioner, because it was his office to separate things into the two classes of lucky and unlucky. Tell us wherewith, etc, Though this translation is tenable, the right rendering is probably how. The princes did not assume that gifts must accompany the ark, but inquired generally as to the best method of restoring it. So the answer of the priests and diviners is not merely that expiatory offerings are to be made, but that the ark is to be sent back in such a way as to give proof that Jehovah had intervened, or the contrary (Isa 3:7, Isa 3:8, Isa 3:9).

1Sa 6:3, 1Sa 6:4

A trespass offering. The offering that was to be made when the offence had been unintentional (Le 5:15). Why his hand is not removed from you. A euphemism for “why your punishment continues to be so severe, without sign of abatement.” If healing follows the gift, you will know that the malady was Jehovah’s doing. The trespass offering was to consist of five golden emerods, and five golden mice, it being an old heathen custom, still constantly practised abroad, of presenting to the deity tokens representing the deliverance wrought for such as had implored his aid. Thus Horace (‘Carm.,’ 1Sa 1:5) speaks of the custom of hanging up in the temple of Neptune the clothes in which a man had escaped from shipwreck. Slaves when manumitted offered their chains to the Lares; and the idea is so natural that we cannot wonder at its prevalence. One plague was on you all. Rather, “is on you all.” It did not cease until the ark had been restored. The Hebrew has on them all; but as all the versions and several MSS. read you all, the substitution of them is probably the mistake of some transcriber.

1Sa 6:5

Mice that mar the land. The idea of a plague of field mice is, as we have seen, due to one of those many unauthorised insertions of the Septuagint by which they supposed that they removed difficulties from the way of their readers. As the ancients use the names of animals in a very generic way, any rodent may be meant from the jerboa downwards; but probably it was the common field mouse, arvicola arvensis, still common in Syria, which multiplies with great rapidity, and is very destructive to the crops, and so became the symbol of devastation and pestilence (see on 1Sa 5:6). When, as Herodotus relates (Book 2:141), the Assyrian army of Sennacherib had been defeated, because a vast multitude of field mice had overrun his camp and gnawed asunder the bow strings of his troops, the Egyptians raised a statue to Hephaestus, holding in his hand a mouse. But very probably this is but the literal explanation by Herodotus of what he saw, while to a well instructed Egyptian it represented their god of healing, holding in his hand the mouse, as the symbol either of the devastation which he had averted, or of the pestilence with which he had smitten the Assyrian army (see on 1Sa 5:6).

1Sa 6:6

Wherefore do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh? On this reference to Egypt see on 1Sa 4:8. It is remarkable that they so correctly point out that it was the obduracy of the Egyptians which made their punishment so severe. Yet finally even they, in spite of their determined opposition were compelled to let Israel go. So now the question is whether the Philistines will restore the ark on the warning of one plague, or whether they will hold out till they have been smitten with ten.

1Sa 6:7

Make a new cart, and take, etc. The Hebrew is, “Now take and make you a new cart, and two milch kine.” The transposition of the A.V. throws undue stress upon the verb make, whereas the Hebrew simply means that both the cart was to be new, and the heifers untrained and unbroken to the yoke. Both these were marks of reverence. Nothing was to be employed in God’s service which had been previously used for baser purposes. No animal was deemed fit for sacrifice which had laboured in the field. The separation of the kine from their calves was for the purpose of demonstrating whether the plague after all was supernatural, and it is remarkable what great care the Philistine priests take against confounding the extraordinary with the Divine. If, however, the kine act in a manner contrary to nature, their last doubt will be removed.

1Sa 6:8

Put the jewels of gold in a coffer. Instead of jewels the Hebrew word signifies any article of workmanship, and so figures, images wrought in gold. They were to be placed reverentially at the side of the ark, for it had wrought them so great evil that they had learned to look upon it with awe.

1Sa 6:9

His own coast, or “border.” The ark throughout this verse is spoken of as if it were itself a deity. Beth-shemeshi.e. “the house of the sun,” also called Irshemesh, “city of the sun” (Jos 19:41)had evidently been in the time of the Canaanites the seat of this popular idolatry. It was now a city of the priests, situated in the tribe of Judah, on its northeastern border, next the tribe of Dan, and was the nearest Israelite town to Ekron. If, then, the kine, albeit unused to the yoke, left their calves behind, and drew the cart by the most direct route unto the land of Judah, they would give the required proof that the Philistines were smitten by the hand of Jehovah, and that it was no chance that had happened unto them.

1Sa 6:12

The kine took the straight way. The Hebrew brings out the directness with which the heifers took the route to Beth-shemesh very forcibly. It says, “And the kine went straight in the way upon the way to Beth-shemesh; they went along one highway, lowing as they went,” i.e. they went in one direct course, without deviating from it. Nevertheless, their continual lowing showed the great stress that was laid upon their nature in being thus compelled to separate themselves from their calves. And the lords of the Philistines went after them. I.e. behind them, leaving the kine free to go where they chose. The usual position of the driver of an ox cart in the East is in front. Conder (‘Tent Work,’ 1:274) describes the view up the great corn valley of Sorek to the high and rugged hills above as extremely picturesque, and this it is, he adds, which was spread before the eyes of the five lords of the Philistines as they followed the lowing oxen which bore the ark on the “straight way” from Ekron to Beth-shemesh. The ruins of the latter place, he says, lie on a knoll surrounded by olive trees, near the junction of the valley of Sorek with the great gorge which bounded Judah on the north.

THE ARK AT BETH–SHEMESH (1Sa 6:15-20).

1Sa 6:13

And they of Beth-shemesh. More exactly, “And Beth-shemesh was reaping its wheat harvest,” the whole population being in the fields. Though a priestly city, we find in 1Sa 6:15 the Levites distinguished from the ordinary inhabitants, as though they and the priests formed only the ruling class. In the valley. Now called the Wady Surar, branching off into another valley on the south. Robinson speaks of the site of Beth-shemesh as a very noble one, being “a low plateau at the junction of two fine plains.” The wheat harvest takes place in Palestine in May, and consequently the disastrous battle of Eben-ezer must have been fought in the previous October.

1Sa 6:14

Stood there, where there was a great stone. Probably a mass of natural rock rising through the soil. This they used as an altar, breaking up the cart for wood, and sacrificing the kine. In this joyful work all the people seem to have joined, though the sacrifice would be offered only by the priests.

1Sa 6:15

The Levites took down the ark. Naturally, in a city of which priests formed the ruling caste, the people would be acquainted with the general nature of the regulations of the law. Apparently it was only after the sacrificial feast that they forgot the reverence due to the symbol of Jehovah’s presence among them.

1Sa 6:16

They returned to Ekron the same day. The lords of the Philistines would of course take no part in this rejoicing, but, having seen the ark restored, and the people busied in making preparations for the sacrifice, returned immediately home.

1Sa 6:17, 1Sa 6:18

The golden emerods. We have here and in 1Sa 6:18 an enumeration of the gifts differing from, without being at variance with, that in 1Sa 6:4. They are still five golden emerods, for which the name here is not ophalim, but tehorim, the word always read in the synagogue (see 1Sa 5:6). From its use in the cognate languages it is pretty certain that it is rightly translated in our version. But besides these there were golden mice, according to the number of all the cities, etc. The priests had named only five mice, one for each of the lords of the Philistines; but the eagerness of the people outran their suggestion, and not only the fenced towns, but even the unwalled villages sent their offering, lest they should still be chastised. Country villages. Literally, “the village” or “hamlet of the Perazi.” The Septuagint, a trustworthy authority in such matters, makes the Perazi the same as the Perizzite. Both words really signify “the inhabitant of the lowland,” i.e. of the plain country of Phoenicia; but from Zec 2:4, where Perazoth is translated “towns without walls,” and from Eze 38:11, where it is rendered “unwalled villages,” we may conclude that it had come popularly to mean an open village, though literally, in both these places, it means “the hamlets of the lowland.” Even unto the great stone of Abel, etc. All this part of the verse is exceedingly corrupt, and requires large interpolations to obtain from it any meaning. Both the Vulgate and the Syriac retain the unmeaning word Abel; but the Septuagint gives us what is probably the true reading: “and the great stone whereon they set the ark of Jehovah, which is in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite, is a witness unto this day” (comp. Gen 31:52; Isa 30:8).

1Sa 6:19

He emote the men of Beth-shemesh, etc. In this verse also the text is undoubtedly corrupt. The Septuagint ascribes the sin not to all the people, but to “the sons of Jeconiah, who were not glad when they saw the ark, and he smote them.” But as this reading is not supported by the other versions we may pass it by. The numbers, however, are evidently wrong. Fifty thousand men would imply a population of 250,000 people, whereas Jerusalem itself in its palmiest days never had a population of even 70,000. There were no large cities among the Israelites, but a scattered population living upon their fields, and with a few small walled towns here and there to protect them and their cattle in any sudden emergency. Kennicott, however, has satisfactorily explained the mistake. In the old way of denoting numbers by the letters of the alphabet an ‘ain = 70 had been mistaken for a nun with two dots = 50,000. The Syriac has 5000, that is, a nun with one dot. We must add that the Hebrew is not fifty thousand and threescore and ten men, but “seventy men, fifty thousand men,” without any article between, and with the smaller number first, contrary to Hebrew rule. The occasion of the calamity was probably as follows:As the news of the return of the ark spread from mouth to mouth, the people flocked together to take part in the sacrifice. which would of course be followed by a feast. Heated thereat by wine, perhaps, and merriment, they lost all sense of reverence, and encouraged one another to look into the ark and examine its contents, though the words need not absolutely mean more than that “they looked at the ark.” Even so the men of Beth-shemesh, as a city of priests, must have known that death was the penalty of unhallowed gazing at holy things (Num 4:20), and it is more than probable that those who were smitten were priests, because in them it would be a heinous sin; for it was a repetition of that contempt for religion and its symbols which had been condemned so sternly in Eli’s sons. The mere seeing of the ark was no sin, and had given the people only joy (1Sa 6:13), but as soon as they had received it the priests ought to have covered it with a vail (Num 4:5). To leave it without a vail was neglectful, to pry into it was sacrilege. Because Jehovah had smitten many of the people, etc. This clause should be translated, “because Jehovah had smitten the people with a great smiting.” The sudden death even of seventy men in an agricultural district, especially if they were the heads of the priestly families there, would be a great and terrible calamity, enough to fill the whole place with grief.

1Sa 6:20, 1Sa 6:21

Who is able, etc. Literally, “Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God?” A punishment so severe following upon their unhallowed temerity made the inhabitants of this city of priests eager to pass the ark on to others. They therefore sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim to request them to fetc.h it away. Kiryath-yarimfor so it ought to be pronouncedmeans the city of forestsWoodtown, softened among us into Wooton. It was chosen apparently simply because it was the nearest town of any importance, and was therefore identified in early Christian times with the modern Kuriet-el-‘anab, grapetown, the woods having given way to vines, and which is about ten miles off, on the road to Mizpah. Conder, however, doubts the correctness of this view, and places Kirjath-jearim at Soba (see ‘Tent Work,’ 1Sa 1:18 22).

HOMILETICS

1Sa 6:1-9

Seeking light.

The facts are

1. The Philistines, oppressed by Providence, are uncertain what to do with the ark.

2. They, consulting the priests and diviners, are advised to send the ark away with all due honours and safeguards in case it is sent at all.

3. They are instructed how to carry out the advice, and warned not to refuse so to do.

4. Having done their best, they are to learn the truth from the issue. The incidents recorded furnish an instance of men seeking light. The events of the past few months had clashed with their material interests, and a series of observations had given rise to the opinion that these events were traceable to a restlessness on the part of the Hebrew Divinity. They did not wish to send back the ark. At the same time, there might be some error in the observations already made; and if so, the troubles of the land and the presence of the ark would be a mere coincidence. This then was more than an ordinary case of perplexity. The Philistines knew the ark to be a superior power. Their doubt was whether it was indicating its mind by the events which troubled the land, and if so, what should be their conduct in relation to it. Thus the crude ideas and superstitious conduct of heathens embrace truths which find expression in modern experience.

I. There ARE IN HUMAN LIFE SEASONS OF DEEP PERPLEXITY, WHEN MEN WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH CONCERNING GOD. More intelligently than the Philistines, we believe in God as the Lord of all, and the ever present Worker in human affairs. Although events move on in well defined lines of natural order, we know that God uses them to indicate his will, in conjunction with the intimations furnished by his word and Spirit. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” But amidst the voices that fall on the ear, and owing to dulness of perception, the soul sometimes is in great doubt concerning the mind of God, and what course should be pursued. This is especially true when events run counter to our desires and apparent interests, and when pride of spirit is cherished. Home may be wrecked. Business may bode disaster. Great decisions have to be taken. In each God has a will of his own, and conduct must have primary regard to him. The desire to do right is out of proportion to the perception of what in the particular instance is right.

II. The COURSE TO BE ADOPTED FOR THE REMOVAL OF PERPLEXITY. The Philistines proved themselves to be men of good sense by the course they took. The particular methods of obtaining more light will always depend on the spiritual state and previous attainments of those seeking it; yet the main lines pursued will be the same. Summarising then the reference here to men of experience, and the advice given by them, we see a course available for all.

1. To act on the experience of the past. The priests and diviners were the embodiments of generations of experience in matters pertaining to the gods. Their advice, therefore, was the product of experience. Likewise forevery man there is a rich store of wisdom in the events of his own life, in the records of history, in the judgment of contemporaries. Experience is a process which gradually enkindles and feeds a lamp within the spirit of a man. It is one of God’s ways of making our path plain. Especially should the experience of others both show us the line of duty and warn us of the risk of shutting our eyes to the light. The reference to the experience of Pharaoh, under circumstances in some respects similar to theirs, was extremely judicious on the part of the Philistine priests.

2. To fulfil all known religious obligations. The advice to send back the ark intact, with due honours and with emblems of confession of sin, was based on the best religious knowledge of the people. The only way of ascertaining the real mind of the Hebrew Divinity was to honour and propitiate it. In this crude conception we have a great principle. Our escape from many perplexities depends largely on our careful performance of such religious duties as are imposed by our present knowledge. No man can know the will of God as he ought unless he obey that will as far as he knows it, and at any cost. If prayer is a clear duty, pray; if confession of sin, confess: if some great act of self-denial, perform it. The perceptive powers are clearer when calmed by true practical religion. The discharge of high duties fits for discerning others. A sound spiritual condition, conserved by daily observance of religious obligations, is a powerful solvent of doubts. “If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.”

3. To supplement these means by watching carefully for new indications. The Philistines were to do all in their power to enable them to judge the significance of coming events. We cannot always make occasions for Providence to reveal itself; but we can fulfil all conditions for observing clearly, and then can watch the indications of the will which we know does speak to us in daily life, in the word and in the “still small voice.” Then, acting in a reverent spirit, straitness will yield to a “large place,” and darkness will be made light before us.

General lessons:

1. God has means of helping even the most ignorant to a fuller knowledge of his will.

2. By what wise and unlooked for methods God accomplishes the realisation of his purpose among men who do not love him!

3. How superior the privileges of those who in mental darkness can cry direct for more light to the Father of light!

1Sa 6:10-15

Restored blessings.

The facts are

1. The kine bearing the ark, contrary to their instincts, go away from their home to Beth-shemesh.

2. The men of Beth-shemesh, seeing the returning ark, leave their occupations, and express their joy in sacrificial worship.

3. The Levites, exceeding their privileges, open the ark and examine its sacred contents.

4. The representatives of the Philistines observe the issue of their experiment and return. The rapid succession of incidents connected with the restoration of the ark illustrates several important truths.

I. The SUPREMACY OF GOD OVER HIS CREATURES. As a human device, the means for ascertaining the will of the God of Israel were excellent; and it is a mark of condescension that God should thus use imperfect men to effect his purpose. The men argued that he who commands disease and the ravages of vermin can, if disposed, effect his will through the agency of other creatures. God is not indisposed to exert his great power, should moral cause exist, even through the actions of men who act up to the measure of light attained to. The departure of the kine from their home and young to a strange land was a remarkable instance of the control of God over the strongest instincts. The seeming unnaturalness of the event is owing to our one-sided views of God’s purposes and methods. It was contrary to their nature, as ordinarily exercised, to go from home. It was not contrary to the nature of things for them to do the will of their Maker.

1. It is a reality in every case of animal life that God’s will is done. All creatures are “HIS.” He formed their powers and gave them tendencies. Therefore every creature, in following its ordinary course, is actually carrying out a Divine intent. In this the kine were one with all cattle. Animals exist not for themselves. The end of their existence is moral and spiritual. The fabric of the universe and the lower creatures are for the development of the spiritual and eternal. In the case of the kine a great spiritual end was subservedthe restoration of the ark and consequent development of the “kingdom which cannot be moved.” The original appointment of instinct and the specific control of it are acts identical in kindsupernatural.

2. There are other instances of special control. Balaam’s ass was used to reprove the prophet. The lions were restrained from touching Daniel. In either case, as here, the event was connected with a manifest spiritual purpose; and who shall say that he who governs men and calms the sea shall not be free to control the movements of kine, as truly as when on his way to Jerusalem he guided the ass on which he sat?

3. It is a means of teaching important truth. This subordination of the most powerful impulses to the high purposes of God sets forth the truth that the most powerful natural attachments must yield to the requirements of the kingdom of God; as well perhaps as that, in coming years, the inferior creatures will subserve the advance of Christ’s kingdom as certainly as that they will share in its blessings (Isa 11:6, Isa 11:7; Mat 13:32).

II. The JOY OF RESTORED BLESSINGS. The men of Beth-shemesh were the first honoured with a sight of the ark, and with the instinct of the true Israelite they appreciated the boon.

1. The blessing now received was very great. The significance of the ark to Israel cannot be fully expressed. Its return from captivity meant to the people a reinstatement in the favour of God. Their cry of anguish and the intercession of Samuel had been heard. Likewise the Church, after seasons of chastisement and loss of privilege, knows the greatness of the boon when God makes “the place of his feet glorious,” and comforts Zion with the light of his countenance.

2. The restoration was unexpected. Both as to the fact and the means there was no anticipation of what occurred. Men were called from common toils to share in a great spiritual joy. Thus does God in his mercy break in on the cares and sorrows of common life with blessings in excess of our hopes. Israel was not able to devise means of delivery from Egypt, and surprise filled their minds when they saw the salvation of God. Christ’s appearance after death even took away the power of utterance (Luk 24:36-41). “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.”

3. The expression of joy was natural. It was most proper for a nature toned by recent chastisement to rush from the occupations of life to bid welcome to the long wept for ark of God. The recovery of property, the return of a lost son, nothing, could stir such deep feelings as the sign of the restored favour of Jehovah. The sacrifice of the kine was a form of penitence, homage, and gratitude culminating in highest joy. There is no joy like that of God’s assured .presence and favour. It is a gladness beyond that of the time when corn and wine increase. “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.”

III. UNLAWFUL CURIOSITY. A debased condition is not recovered from suddenly. Despite the repentance for past sin and gratitude for return of God’s favour, the low tone of life consequent on former practices remained. As a consequence of the singular combination of good and bad qualities at this hopeful turn in affairs, the joy of the day was marred by a wicked, profane curiosity. This was the more culpable because the inhabitants were chiefly Levites, who must have been acquainted with the very strict prohibition to manifest any rude curiosity in reference to the sacred symbols (Exo 3:5; Exo 19:21; Num 4:20).

1. Curiosity, though useful in the acquisition of knowledge, is sometimes wicked.

(1) In human affairs, as when it consists in an idle intrusion into the secret business or sorrows of others, or endeavour to obtain information with malicious intent.

(2) In Divine things, as when it consists in a restless craving to know the secret purposes of God; or an endeavour to subject the Divine nature to the same kind of criticism and analysis as the work of his hand; or a fruitless endeavour to solve the mystery of his sovereignty in relation to the existence of evil; or a rude, irreverent attempt to penetrate into the great “mystery of godliness,” the person of Christ.

2. The wickedness of such curiosity is evident; because of

(1) The relation of man to God. God is the infinite, eternal, holy One, of whom all that is is but the dim shadow. No ideas, no beings, not even the totality of the material and spiritual universe, are commensurate with him. On the other hand, man is only one among many creatures, limited in power, defective in nature, and incapable even of knowing the mysteries within his own breast. The moral evil in man unfits him for the vision of God even so far as that is possible to holy beings. The reverence due to God is due also in measure to man from man when justice and fellow feeling bar the way to secret things.

(2) The habit is destructive to all that is good. In no instance is evil better known by its fruits than in that of curiosity carried into Divine and human things. It is the ruin of reverence, which is the essence of worship, the guardian of all that is good in life, the crowning grace of conduct, and the spring of manifold virtues. It, when prevalent, renders man distrustful of his fellows, and loosens the bonds of home. No society can exist where all reverence is dead, and unbridled curiosity is its death.

IV. AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. The five lords of the Philistines witnessed the restoration of the ark and the joy of the men of Beth-shemesh, and they became wiser men. They carried back the information that Jehovah was indeed the Destroyer of Dagon, the Controller of disease, the Lord of the brute creation, and unchanged Friend of Israel. Thus in defeat there was a triumph. Thus have we an indication of what will yet be. The foes of the Church of Christ will learn that he does hold the mastery over all. Ebbs there may be in the prosperity of the Church, but the power will reassert itself, and men will marvel both at the means and the fact. A great discovery will be made to all creatures when, after the conflict of ages with the world power, the true Israel of God shall rejoice in the perfect and everlasting presence of their Lord.

1Sa 6:17-21

Trophies and chastisement.

The facts are

1. An enumeration by the Israelites of the golden images sent with the ark.

2. A terrible chastisement on the men of Beth-shemesh for their profane curiosity.

3. An effort to send the ark away, consequent on the terror created. These closing incidents of the restoration introduce for consideration

I. The TROPHIES WON IN THE CONFLICT WITH foes of the Church of God. The golden emerods and mice were expressions of pagan superstition, and yet of submission to the superior power of Jehovah. In so far as they represented the five lords of the country, they were, in the eyes of Israel, evidence of the extent to which the might of Jehovah had been recognised. As the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod were kept as memorials of what God had done, and prophetic of what he would do, so these images were noted in the annals of the time as signs of the same power in conquest. The remembrance of them would inspire courage, and also suggest due fear. The Church of Christ has won many trophies. Christ himself has led “captivity captive.” He has in many instances snatched learning, science, art, statesmanship, and literature from the hand of the enemy, and made them contribute to the splendour of his kingdom. The extent to which trophies have been gathered deserves a register as truly as that given of the offerings of the Philistine lords. A calm reflection on this subject will inspire the Church for new efforts, and awaken gratitude for the past.

II. CHASTISEMENT FOR SINS OF PROFANITY. The joy of restoration was soon beclouded by the sorrow of death. The death of seventy men for the sin of treating the ark of God profanely raises the question of what there can be in such sins to merit so severe a chastisement. A general answer to such a question is that we are not in a position to determine for God the form, time, or extent of punishment due to sin. None can adjudge sin correctly but the perfectly holy One. There may be far more in an act than comes to the surface. Hence a reverent spirit is mostly concerned to know the fact. But there are a few considerations which may throw a little light on the apparent severity of the chastisement.

1. The essential evil of the sin. Much difficulty arises from not considering that some sins, and this especially, are a most virulent moral poison. They are at the very antipodes to the true spirit of love and obedience. Hence the dire consequences of their prevalence come more sharply into view when we remember the special contagion of example in such cases as these; for profanity of spirit is easily caught from example, and at once lowers the entire nature of a man.

2. The liability to fall into it. Not only is the sin heinous, and spread by example, but there is a predisposition to it which gives to the slightest encouragement from without double power. The evil already in man is good soil for such seed. If a sinful nature means aversion to a holy God, then it requires only a small encouragement to turn that aversion into the positive form of disregard of the Divine presence.

3. The privileges of the transgressors. Punishment is always proportionate to privilege abused. As officials in the service of God, the Levites were doubly criminal. Those who grow up amidst the sanctities and quiet reverence of the sanctuary or pious home commit deadly sin when they think or act towards God profanely. Had we all the details of the behaviour of the men of Beth-shemesh, no doubt the grossness of their conduct would stand out in fearful contrast with the privileges they had enjoyed as servants of the altar.

4. The bearing on ages to come. Every sin bears on the future, and so does its punishment. The deterrent effect of punishment is important; and its infliction with this reference is equitable, seeing that the sin acts on others and in ages to come. The effect of the death of the men at Beth-shemesh was seen in the salutary fear that came on all. “This holy Lord God!” It was a great gain to the world to have driven home this great truth. Nor would the effect end there. God has taught the entire world by the terrible things in righteousness which have been recorded. Here is one of the means of the education of the future race. Men are more reverent for what they read in the Old Testament.

5. The infliction of death is a prerogative of God. God sets the appointed time. Temporal death is not less of God when it comes gradually. Its direct infliction is the form in which he marks his disfavour and impresses his creatures. If seventy men sin, and commit in the civil religious state of Israel a capital crime (Num 4:5, Num 4:15, Num 4:20), they of course must pay the prescribed penalty. It is an awful thing to die by the sudden stroke of God, but a more awful thing to be in a state of mind to deserve it. Practical lessons:

1. Let us keep watch over the first risings of a spirit of levity.

2. Cultivate in young and old, by all conceivable means, reverence for all things connected with the worship of God.

3. Remember that the severity of God is really mercy to his creatures as a whole.

HOMILIES BY B. DALE

Verse 10-7:1. (BETH-SHEMESH and KIRJATH-JEARIM.)

The return of the ark.

On the taking of the ark Israel sank to the lowest point of degradation. But “when the night is darkest then dawn is nearest.” And the return of the sacred symbol was the first gleam of returning day. It was

I. RESTORED BY DIVINE FAVOUR (1Sa 7:10-12), which was

1. Exceeding abundant (1Ti 1:14). The people of Israel do not appear to have made any effort for its restoration, but God remembered them, and for their sake constrained their enemies to send back the precious treasure. “That is free love which never has been desired, never has been deserved, and never can be requited.”

2. Shown in an extraordinary manner. It was brought by creatures acting contrary to their natural instincts, under a Divine impulse, in a direct line to the nearest border city of IsraelBeth-shemesh (the house of the sun); a sign to Israel as well as the heathen. “Two kine knew their owner as (Isa 1:3) Hophni and Phinehas knew him not” (Lightfoot). God’s favour often comes by the most unlikely agencies and means. His power is universal, and all things serve him.

3. Unexpected and surprising (1Sa 7:13). It was the time of harvest, and the men of Beth-shemesh were pursuing their ordinary secular occupations, thinking nothing of the ark, when they suddenly lifted up their eyes and beheld it approaching. It was found by them like “the treasure hid in the field.”

4. Distinguishing. Shown toward Beth-shemesh beyond other cities, and toward Joshua beyond any other man; for some reason, perchance, in the people as well as in the locality. The city we know was a priestly city (Jos 21:10). “We shall probably be doing them no wrong if we suppose that they regarded its presence as an honour to themselves. It distinguished their township above all the cities of Israel.”

II. RECEIVED WITH GREAT JOY (verses 13-18). We can imagine how promptly they put aside their harvest work and gathered with one accord around the sacred object. Their joy was the joy of

1. Gratitude for the favour shown toward them (1Ki 8:62-66; Ezr 6:16, Ezr 6:17).

2. Devotion (verses 14, 15). “They offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices (peace offerings) unto the Lord.”

3. Hope; for in it they saw a proof of the power of God over the heathen, and a promise of their own freedom and prosperity.

4. And the day of their abounding joy was commemorated by means of the great stone on which the ark and the coffer containing the jewels of gold were set, “which remaineth unto this day.”

III. REGARDED WITH IRREVERENT CURIOSITY (verses 19, 20).

1. Their conduct consisted of “looking into (or upon) the ark.” Whether they actually pried into it is uncertain. Whatever may have been the precise nature of their conduct, the spirit in which they acted was their chief offence in the sight of him who “looketh at the heart.” There may be much sin in a look.

2. Their sin was great; exhibiting want of reverence and godly fear, presumption, perhaps rationalism, recklessness, profanity (Le Jos 10:3). A spirit of intelligent curiosity and inquiry is of unspeakable worth, being the principal means of discovering truth and promoting human progress; but it should be ever joined with humility and reverence, as it has been in the greatest minds. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The fact that Beth-shemesh was a city of the priests would lead us to expect better things of its inhabitants. “It is not improbable that in their festive rejoicing they may have fallen into intemperance, and hence into presumptuous irreverence, as it is thought was the case with Nadab and Abihu” (‘Sp. Com.’).

3. Their punishment was severe; for “of fifty thousand men, seventy died a sudden death” (Hengstenberg; verse 19). What is sent as a blessing is often turned by men themselves into a curse.

4. The effect was morally benefical on the people generally. “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?” etc. (verse 20).

(1) A conviction of his transcendent and awful holiness. “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29).

(2) A feeling of their own deep sinfulness, which the former never fails to produce (Isa 6:5; Luk 5:8).

(3) A persuasion of the necessity of “righteousness and true holiness” in those among whom he dwells; for their request to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, “Come ye down, and fetch it up to you,” was the expression of something more than selfish dread (1Sa 5:7), being caused by the belief that it would be more worthily honoured by others than by themselves. The conduct of a single city sometimes reveals the moral condition of a whole nation. And Israel was evidently not prepared to receive openly and fully the sign of God’s presence among them, nor, until they should have passed through long and painful discipline, any further signal manifestation of his favour.

IV. REINSTATED IN RESPECTFUL BUT IMPERFECT HONOUR (verse 21; 1Sa 7:1). From Beth-shemesh it was taken (not to Shiloh, which had been rendered unworthy, and was now perhaps in ruins, but) to Kirjath-jearim (city of forests or woods, Psa 132:6), where it was

1. Settled among a willing people, and in the house of a devout manAbinadab, “on the hill.” “God will find out a resting-place for the ark.” When one people prove themselves unworthy of it, and wish to part with it, he will provide another people of greater worth, and ready to welcome it. “It is no new thing for the ark to be in a private dwelling house.”

2. Placed under special and proper guardianship. “Sanctified (consecrated) Eleazar his son to keep the ark from profane intrusion.” Even in the most corrupt times there are individual instances of true piety. These are honoured of God, and for their sakes others are spared (Isa 1:9).

3. Disassociated from the tabernacle and its services. After the capture of the ark the desecrated tabernacle appears to have been removed from Shiloh to Nob, where we find it long afterwards (1Sa 21:6), attended by more than eighty priests, and subsequently to Gibeon (1Ki 3:4; 1Ch 16:39; 1Ch 21:29; 2Ch 1:3, 2Ch 1:6, 2Ch 1:7), where it finally fell into decay and perished; the ark itself remained in Kirjath-jearim about seventy years, when it was removed to the house of Obed-edom (2Sa 6:3, 2Sa 6:11. Gibeah = the hill), and shortly afterwards to Jerusalem, where it abode “in curtains” until deposited in the temple of Solomon. The separation was anomalous, preventive of the full observance of the prescribed order of Levitical services, and indicative of the imperfect moral relations which subsisted between the people of Israel and their Divine King.

4. Long disregarded by the nation. No public assemblies appear to have met at the place where it stood; no sacrifices to have been offered there, no festivities held, as previously at Shiloh. It is not even mentioned again until the time of David, when it was said, “We inquired not at (or for) the ark in the days of Saul” (1Ch 13:3). Its neglect was permitted because its proper use was impossible until a thorough internal reformation and more complete union of the nation should be effected. “It was made evident that the nation was not yet worthy to receive the perfect fulfilment of the promise, ‘I will dwell in your midst.’ They endeavoured to dispose of the ark in the best possible way. It was buried, as it were, in Kirjath-jearim until the time when God would bring about its joyful resurrection” (Hengstenberg).D.

1Sa 6:13. (BETH-SHEMESH.)

The ark in harvest.

It was in the time of harvest that the ark was restored to Israel. Whilst the cornfields of the Philistines were wasted by an extraordinary plague, the valley of Beth-shemesh was covered with golden grain, and the men of that city were busily occupied in gathering it in (Rth 1:6). But at the sight of the sacred symbol they left their secular occupation, gathered around it with great joy, and spent the day in “offering burnt offerings and sacrificing sacrifices to the Lord” (1Sa 6:15). We may regard the harvest as representing material blessings, which are more richly bestowed at this season of the year than any other; the ark as representing spiritual blessings: “the law which came by Moses,” and “the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ;” the throne of grace, and the mercy and grace which are there obtained. And the fact just mentioned suggests a comparison between the former and the latter. Both come from the.same hand; but spiritual are superior to material blessings, inasmuch as they

I. REVEAL MORE OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS. Consider them

1. In the principle from which they proceed. The one class of benefits from benevolence in general; the other from benevolence in the form of mercy. “According to his mercy he saved us” (Tit 3:5).

2. In the mode by which they are communicated. The operation of the laws of nature (Gen 8:22; Jer 5:21); the gift and sacrifice of his only begotten Son. “Through Jesus Christ.”

3. In the nearness with which the great Benefactor comes to us. “Thou visitest the earth” (Psa 65:9); but “blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee” (Psa 65:4), in that closer fellowship which those who are reconciled in Christ enjoy, and whose hearts are the temple of thine abode, the habitation of thy Spirit. “Revelation is the voluntary approximation of the infinite Being to the ways and thoughts of finite humanity; and until this step has been taken by Almighty grace, how should man have a warrant for loving him with all his mind, and heart, and strength?” (A.H. Hallam).

II. INVOLVE MORE VALUABLE GOOD.

1. The one pertains to the body, the other to the soul.

2. The one to man considered simply as a creature, needing support; the other as a sinner, needing forgiveness, renewal, salvation.

3. The one pertains to time, the other to eternity; “bread that perisheth,” “bread that endureth to everlasting life” (Joh 6:27, Joh 6:51); “that good part which cannot be taken away” (Luk 10:42).

III. PRODUCE MORE EXALTED JOY. “Rejoiced.” “The joy in harvest” (Isa 9:3).

1. In its relation to God. The one is felt less and the other more directly in him. The difference is very much the same as that which exists between the joy felt at receiving a present from a friend at a distance, and that of seeing his face and holding personal intercourse with him. And what are all the harvests which the earth ever produced compared with one smile of the Father’s countenance, one whisper of Divine love? (Psa 4:6, Psa 4:7).

2. In its influence on the heart; elevating, purifying, enlarging, strengthening, satisfying it.

3. In its power over circumstances. The joy of our harvest may be speedily turned into sorrow by bereavement (verse 19) and other afflictions; but the joy which is felt in God is independent of outward circumstances, lifts the soul above them (Hab 3:17, Hab 3:18), lives in death, and is perfected in heavenly bliss.

IV. INCITE TO MORE COMPLETE CONSECRATION.

1. With respect to the Giver. His bestowment of “fruitful seasons, filling our heart with food and gladness,” incites to some return to him (Exo 23:14-17); but his bestowment of mercy and grace, to the “whole burnt offering” of the man himself (Rom 12:1).

2. With respect to our fellow men. The one incites to the giving of “those things which are necessary for the body” (Exo 23:11); the other incites (and effectually constrains) to the giving of what is good for the whole man, body and soul; to self-sacrifice, and the “peace offerings” of brotherly kindness, and of charity toward all men.

3. The whole course of life; not in one or two acts merely, but in a continued service of love to be completed in eternity.

Conclusion.

1. If God has bestowed upon you temporal good, rejoice not in it so much as in spiritual.

2. If he has withheld it, rejoice in the higher good which is yours.

3. “Seek first the kingdom of God,” etc. (Mat 6:33).D.

HOMILIES BY D. FRASER

1Sa 6:19, 1Sa 6:20

Irreverence.

I. THE OFFENCE. The Philistines are not blamed for sending away the ark of God on a wooden car. They did not know, or, if they knew, they had no means of observing, the mode of carriage by Levites which had been prescribed in the Mosaic law. In placing the ark on a new car never before used, and drawn by young cows that had never before worn a yoke, the Philistines meant to show respect. But the men of Beth-shemesh, being Israelites, and having Levites among them, knew, or ought to have known, the laws regarding the sacred ark. So they were more severely judged. Their familiar handling of the ark was a presumptuous sin. Irreverence had grown during the years of misgovernment and license through which Israel had passed. It is evident that before the people would have dared to send for the ark to Shiloh, and take it into the field of battle, they must have lost much of the veneration with which their fathers had regarded the symbol of Jehovah’s presence. And now the men of Beth-shemesh actually presumed to look into the ark, perhaps to ascertain whether the Philistines had put any gold into it, besides the golden offerings which they had placed in a separate coffer. So doing, they forgot, or wilfully broke, the law which allowed none of the people at large so much as to approach the ark, and required that the priests should cover it with a veil, before the Kohathites might carry it; and in carrying it those Levites might not lay their hands upon it, but were commanded to bear it on gilt staves passing through golden rings in the four corners of the sacred chest. Indeed the Kohathites, though thus honoured as the bearers of the ark, were forbidden not only to touch it, but even to go into the most holy place to see it covered under pain of death.

II. THE PENALTY. The Lord saw it needful to restore reverence for his law and for the ark of his testimony by striking a blow at presumption which would not be soon forgotten. Accordingly, seventy of the country people at Beth-shemesh were smitten with death. On the same ground, a few years later, was Uzzah the Levite stricken dead because he put his hand on the ark of God. What a warning against irreverence! For this cause men may die close to the ark of the covenant, perish beside the mercy seat. Nay, that which is the greatest blessing may be turned by presumption into the greatest disaster. The savour of life may be turned into a savour of death. It is especially a warning to those who “name the name of the Lord.” The ignorant and profane are judged, but not so strictly as those who “profess and call themselves Christians;” just as the Philistines were afflicted with boils, but the Israelites were visited with death. God is much displeased with listless minds, irreverent postures, and heedless spirits in his Church. No doubt it may be pleaded that such faults come of want of thought, and not of any evil intent; but want of thought is itself a very grave offence in such a matter as the service of God. Even levity is inexcusable; for, at all events in adult persons, it comes of hardness of heart, ingratitude to Christ, neglect of reflection on sacred themes and objects, engrossment of thought and affection with the things which are seen, and an indifference to the presence and purpose of the Holy Spirit. Let us study reverence. “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the holy ones, and to be had in reverence of all that are round about him.”F.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

2. Restoration of the Ark with Expiatory Gifts. 1Sa 6:1-11

1And the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] was in the country of the Philistines seven 2months. And the Philistines called for [together1] the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to [with] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah]? Tell us 3wherewith2 we shall send it to his [its] place. And they said, If ye3 send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty, but in any wise [om. in any wise4] return him5 a trespass-offering; then ye shall be healed,6 and it shall be known7 to 4you why his hand is not removed from you. Then said they [And they said], What shall be [is] the trespass-offering which we shall return to him? [Ins. And] they answered [said], Five golden emerods [boils] and five golden mice,8 according9 to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was [is] on you10 all 5and on your lords. Wherefore [And] ye shall make images of your emerods [boils], and images of your mice that mar [devastate] the laud; and ye shall give glory to the God of Israel; peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, 6and from off your gods, and from off your land. [Ins. And] wherefore then [om. then] do [will] ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? [ins. Did they not], when he had [om. had11] wrought wonderfully among them, did they not [om. did they not] let the people go, and they departed? 7Now therefore [And now] make12 a new cart, and take12 two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie [yoke] the kine to the cart, and bring their calves 8home from them. And take the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and lay it upon the cart, and put the jewels of gold [golden figures13], which ye return him5 for a trespass-offering, in a [the14] coffer by the side thereof, and send it away, that it may 9go. And see, if it goeth [go] up by the way of his [its] own coast to Beth-Shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not 10his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us. And the men did so, and took two milch kine, and tied [yoked] them to the cart, and shut up their 11calves at home; And they [om. they] laid the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] upon the cart, and the coffer with [and] the mice of gold [golden mice] and the images of their emerods [boils].15

3. Reception and Quartering of the Ark in Israel. 1Sa 6:12 to 1Sa 7:1

12And the kine took the straight way [went straight forward16] to the way of [on the road to] Bethshemesh, and [om. and] went along the highway [on one highway they went], lowing17 as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh. 13And they18of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley; 14and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see19 it. And the cart came into the field of Joshua a Bethshemite [the Bethshemeshite], and stood there, where [and there] there was a great stone; and they clave the wood of the 15cart, and offered the kine a burnt-offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and the coffer that was with it, wherein [ins. were] the jewels of gold [golden figures] were [om. were], and put them on the great stone; and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt-offerings, and 16sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And when [om. when] the five lords of the Philistines had seen [saw] it, they [and] returned to Ekron 17the same day. And these are the golden emerods [boils] which the Philistines returned for [as] a trespass-offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]: for Ashdod one, for 18Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one. And the golden mice [ins. were] according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages,20even unto the great stone of Abel whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite [And21 the great stone, on which they set down the ark of Jehovah, remaineth to this day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemeshite].

19And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had [om. had] looked into [at22] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], even [and] he smote of the people fifty thousand and three-score and ten men [70 men, 50,000 men23]; and the people lamented, because the Lord [Jehovah] had smitten [smote] many of [om. many of] the people 20with a great slaughter. And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before [ins. Jehovah], this holy Lord [om. Lord] God? and to whom shall he go 21up from us? And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again [back] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah]; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.

1Sa 7:1 And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and brought it into the house of Abinadab in [on] the hill, and sanctified [consecrated] Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord [Jehovah].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

I. 1Sa 6:1-11. The ark is sent back with expiatory gifts. The designation of place: in the field is here to be taken in the wider sense of territory, country, as in Rth 1:2.The seven months, during which the ark was in the country of the Philistines, was a time of uninterrupted plagues. In addition to the disease of boils came the plague of the devastation of the fields by mice. That the plague of mice was something over and above the disease is plain from 1Sa 6:5; 1Sa 6:11; 1Sa 6:18; in 1Sa 6:1 the Sept. adds, and their land swarmed with mice, which the narrator has not expressly mentioned. Thenius supposition that, from similarity of final syllables ((), a clause has fallen out of the Heb. text, is too bold a one. Maurer remarks correctly: it is generally agreed that the Hebrew writers not infrequently omit things essential, and then afterwards mention them briefly in succession.

1Sa 6:2. After it had been determined in the council of the princes to send back the ark to the Israelites, the priests and soothsayers are now to tell how it shall be sent back. Alongside of an honorable priestly class appear here the soothsayers [diviners] (that is, the organs of the deity, who reveal his counsel and will through the mantic art) as authorities, whose decision is final. The princes had to consider the political-national and social side, these the religious side of the question.,24 Inasmuch as it has already been determined to send the ark back, the question what shall we do in respect to the ark of God? is only introductory to the succeeding question, wherewith or how shall we send it to its place? The may mean either, but the rendering how, in what way (Vulg. quomodo) is favored by the connection, since the priests would else not have answered that the ark was not to be sent back without gifts.

1Sa 6:3, We must here not supply the pronoun ye to the Particip. (), but must render (as in 1Sa 2:24) impersonally,1 Samuel 25 : if one sends, if they send. The ark must be restored, not empty, but with gifts. These gifts are to be an asham (), a debt-offering or expiatory offering; the gift is thus designated, because it is a question of the payment of a debt.26 Satisfaction must be made to the angered God of the people of Israel for the contempt put on Him by the abduction of the ark. The word return, make compensation () refers to the unlawful appropriation; it is a matter of compensation. Vulg.: quod debetis, reddite ei pro peccato. [to him, to it] is to be referred not to the ark (Sept.), but to God. Send Him a gift, by which His anger shall be appeased, lest He torment you more (Cleric). According to Exo 23:15 no one was allowed to appear empty-handed () before God. Whether, as Clericus supposes, this was known to the Philistine priests, is uncertain. The words may be taken either as conditional or as assertory. The latter rendering then you shall be healed would suit the connection and the whole situation, but that these priests expressly declare it to be possible (1Sa 6:9) that this plague was to be ascribed not to the God of Israel, but to a chance. The hypothetical rendering is therefore to be preferred, which is grammatically allowable, though the conditional particle is wanting. (Comp. Ew. Gr., 357 b). We must therefore translate: and if ye shall be healed.,27 In the words and it shall be known to you why His hand is not removed from you the present tense offers no difficulty, the sense being: you shall then by the cure learn why His hand now smites you; His hand is not removed from you, because the expiation for your guilt, which will be followed by cure, is not yet made.

Bunsen: It was a universal custom of ancient nations to dedicate to the deity to whom a sickness was ascribed, or from whom cure was desired, likenesses of the diseased parts. This was true also of the cause of the plagues. The Philistines therefore (1Sa 6:4 sq.), when they inquired what they should send along as trespass or expiatory offering, received the answer: five golden boils and five golden mice. The number five is expressly fixed on with reference to the five princes of the Philistines, who represent the whole people ( is Acc. of exact determination according to, in relation to, with adverbial signification. Ges. Gr., 118, 3). The change of person in the words one plague is on them all and on your princes has occasioned the reading you all, which is for this reason to be rejected.28 People and princes are here regarded as a unit, the latter representing the former, and therefore the number of the gifts to be offered for the whole is determined by the number (five) of the princes. 1Sa 6:5 makes in a supplementary way express mention of the devastation which the mice made in the land. This plague is often far greater in southern lands than with us; so that the Egyptians use the figure of a fieldmouse to denote destruction; there are many examples, it is said, of the whole harvest in a field having been destroyed by them in one night (1 Samuel 5 : Gerl.). Comp. Boch. Hieroz. II., 429 ed. Ros.; Plin. Hist. Nat. X. c. 65. By the presentation of the likenesses in gold they were to give honor to the God of Israel. These words of the Philistine priests explain the expression pay or return a trespass-offering. By the removal of the ark, the seat of the glory of the God of Israel, His honor is violated; hence the punishment in this two-fold plague; by these gifts they are to attempt to make compensation for the violation of honor, and the wrath of the God who is wounded in His honor is to be turned aside. By bringing precisely the instrument of their chastisement as a gift to God, they confess that He Himself has punished them, and do homage to His might, hoping therefore all the more by paying their debt to be made or to remain free, (v. Gerlach). The expression perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you agrees with that in 1Sa 6:3, if ye be healed, and with 1Sa 6:9.

[It is not clear that the Philistines were visited with a plague of mice. In spite of Maurers remark (on 1Sa 6:1) endorsed by Erdmann, it is strange that no mention is made of the mice in chap. 5. Philippson (who translates akbar not mouse but boil) further objects that the assumption of a mouse-plague different from the boil-disease is incompatible with the assertion in 1Sa 6:4, one plague is on you and on your lords, which supposes a bodily infliction (on which, however, see the discussion of the Sept. text of 1Sa 6:4-5, in note to 1Sa 6:18). Nor does the Heb. text expressly state that there was such a plague. In 1Sa 6:5 nothing more is necessarily said (so Wellhausen) than that they were exposed to land devastations by mice, and that the whole land had suffered, and 1Sa 6:18 (however interpreted) adds nothing to the statement in 1Sa 6:4. We may on critical grounds keep the present Masoretic text (discarding the Sept. addition to 1Sa 6:1) without finding in it the mouse-plague. On the other hand, the figure of a mouse was in Egypt a symbol of destruction, and so might have been chosen here as a fitting expiatory offering. Possibly, as there was a Baal-zebub, lord of flies ( ), worshipped at Ekron, so there was a Baal-akbar, lord of mice, and this animal may have been connected with religious worship.Others explain the figures of the boils and mice as telesms or talismans. So Maimonides, quoted in Pooles Synopsis, in which are cited many illustrations of the wide use of talismans (figures made under planetary and astral conjunctions in the likeness of the injurious object or of the part affected) among the ancients (expanded by Kitto, Daily Bible Illust., Saul and David, p. 86 sq.). But, supposing there was a plague of mice, these figures were prepared, not by their own virtue to avert the plague (which the talismans were supposed to do), but to appease the wrath of the God of Israel.Tr.].Lighten from off you, etc., is a pregnant expression for lighten and turn away from you, so that the burden of the punishment shall be removed from you. In 1Sa 6:6 the case of the Egyptians is referred to in order to strengthen the exhortation. We have already seen in 1Sa 4:8 the mark of the deep impression made on the neighboring heathen nations by the judgments of the God of Israel on the Egyptians. The Philistine priests see in these plagues judgments like those inflicted on the Egyptians, and set forth the universal and comprehensive significance of this revelation of the heavy hand of God in the words on [rather from] you, and your god [better, perhaps, gods, as in Eng. A. V.], and your land. They thus refer this general calamity not only to its highest cause in the God of Israel and His violated honor, but also to its deepest ground in the Philistines hardening of the heart against Him after the manner of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and so show exact acquaintance with the pragmatism of the history of Gods revelations towards Egypt and its king. Comp. Exo 7:13 sqq. with Exo 8:32. It is evident from the connection that the words of the priests are to be referred only to the obligation to give honor to the God of Israel by expiatory presents, not to the restoration of the ark, which was already determined on. The hardening or obduration of the heart is the stubborn and persistent refusal to give to the God of Israel His due honor, after His honor had been violated. The word [ wrought] points to Gods mighty deeds against Pharaoh and the Egyptians; it is found in the same sense work, exercise power [work ones will on] in Exo 10:2 and 1Sa 31:4. In view of these exhibitions of Gods power, they are warned against such a persistent stiff-necked opposition to it. 1Sa 6:6 is not inconsistent with the doubt expressed in 1Sa 6:9, whether the plagues come from the God of Israel or from a chance, since it is (in 1Sa 6:9) at any rate regarded as possible that the God of Israel has thus exhibited His anger. The mere possibility of this makes it seem advisable to do every thing to appease the wrath of the God of the Israelites, which the heathen, from their fear of the gods, dreaded under the circumstances not less, yea, more than the anger of their own gods (Keil).

1Sa 6:7-9. The arrangements respecting the mode of sending back the ark. In 1Sa 6:7 the arrangements are made for a restoration of the ark worthy of and proportionate to the honor of the God of Israel. The Philistines are not, for this purpose, to have a new cart made, but, as the preceding shows, to take,29 one already made, in order to fit it up and prepare it for this end; this is shown by the [and make]. A new cart and two hitherto unyoked milch cows (comp. Deu 21:3) are to carry back the ark with the presents; only what had not been used, what was still undesecrated, was an appropriate means for the honor destined to be shown to the dreaded God of Israel. , properly the rolling thing, means the transport-wagon, which, according to this, was in use in Philistia, and was usually yoked with oxen. The calves were to be taken along, but afterwards to be carried from behind the drawing cows, back into the housethat is, into the stall. In reference to the cows the Masc. is thrice used in 1Sa 6:7 for the Fem., because the writer thinks of the cows as oxen (Thenius); and so in 1Sa 6:10; 1Sa 6:12. In 1Sa 6:8 a minute description is given of the manner of loading the cart with the ark and with the coffer (, found only here and 1Sa 6:11; 1Sa 6:15) in which the golden expiatory gifts were to be carried. And send it away, that it may go. From the connection it appears that the cart, with the ark, is left to the cows to draw; the direction which they take without being led or driven is decisive of the question whether the plagues are from the God of Israel or not.

1Sa 6:9. This is stated more precisely by the priests. If the cows went straight to its (the arks) territory, this would be the sign that the plagues were from the God of Israel; if not, it would show that it was only a matter of chance. From their stand-point the heathen distinguished with perfect logical consistency between the providence of the God of Israel and a mere chance. Its territory or coast () is the land of Israel as its home. Bethshemesh is one of the Israelitish priestly cities on the border of Judah and Dan (Jos 21:16), the nearest of them to Ekron, and the nearest point of entrance from Philistia into the hill-country of Judah (Jos 15:10-11). The valley in or on which (1Sa 6:13) it lay, was the same with the present Wady Surar. The present Ain Shems which rests on it is the ancient Bethshemesh.30 S. Robinson, II. 599, III. 224 sq. [ Amer. Ed. II. 14, 16, 223225.] If this direction was not taken by the cows, that was to be the sign that this was a chance ( is not adverb. by chance (Keil), but Nom. of the subject; and this is no ground for reading (with Bttcher) , by chance). The meaning of the priests was, that the cows, being unaccustomed to the yoke, and being, besides, milch cows, from which their calves had been separated, would, in obedience to their natural impulse, wish to turn about and go back to their stall, unless a higher power restrained them, and compelled them to take the road to Bethshemesh and keep it. By Gods ordination this was done, and so was for the Philistines the factual confirmation given by the God of Israel of the opinion that He had inflicted the plagues on them. 1Sa 6:10-11 relate the carrying out of the arrangements which the priests had made. The restoration is performed in the manner prescribed by the priests.

II. 1Sa 6:12-21. The ark is transported to Bethshemesh. 1Sa 6:12. They kept the road exactlylit. they were straight on the way.31 Mesillah () is a thrown up, raised way, a highway. On one highwaythat is, without going hither and thither, as is afterwards added by way of explanation, without turning aside to the right or to the left. They went going and lowing; that is, constantly lowing, because they wanted their calves; yet they did not turn about, but went on in the opposite direction. The Philistine princes went behind, not before them, because, in accordance with the suggestion of the priests, they had to observe whither the animals went. 1Sa 6:13. Bethshemesh is for the inhabitants of Bethshemesh. Though it was a priestly city, the inhabitants of Bethshemesh are expressly distinguished from the Levites. The Bethshemeshites, who were reaping wheat in the valley (Wady Surar), rejoiced to see the long-lost ark. [The wheat harvest points to May or June as the time of the return of the ark. Robinson: May 13. Most of the fields (near Jericho) were already reaped. Three days before we had left the wheat green upon the fields around Hebron and Carmel; and we afterwards found the harvest there in a less forward state on the 6th of June (I. 550, 551). We do not know what species of wheat the ancient Hebrews had; but the crop was the most important one in the country (see 1 Kings v. 11). Mr. W. Houghton says (Smiths Bib. Dict. Art. Wheat): There appear to be two or three kinds of wheat at present grown in Palestine, the Triticum vulgare (var. hybernum), the T. spelta, and another variety of bearded wheat, which appears to be the same as the Egyptian kind, the T. compositum. The phrase they lifted up their eyes and saw, being the common Heb. formula for looking, does not show that the object looked at was on a higher elevation than the spectator. Thus Stanleys argument (Sin. and Pal., p. 248) from Gen 22:4 as to the site of Moriah has no weight.Tr.] 1Sa 6:14. The great stone in the field of the Beth-shemeshite Joshua was probably the occasion of the carts being stopped here, with the design of using the stone as a sacred spot for the solemn removal of the ark and the presents, as appears from 1Sa 6:15. The Levites are expressly mentioned in connection with the setting the ark down on the great stone, a sacred act which pertained to them alone. Since the ark betokened the presence of the Lord, it could be said that they, namely, the Bethshemeshites, offered the kine to the Lord by using the wood of the cart for the burnt-offering. With this they joined a blood-offering. It was lawful to offer the sacrifice here, because, wherever the ark was, offering might be made. Though the people of Bethshemesh are expressly said to be the offerers [1Sa 6:15], this does not exclude the co-operation of the priests, especially as Bethshemesh was a priestly city. From the single burnt-offering in 1Sa 6:14, which was offered with the cart and the kine, the burnt-offerings [1Sa 6:15] and the slain-offerings, which were connected with a joyful sacrificial meal, are to be distinguished as a second sacrificial act, which, in its first element (the burnt-offering), set forth the renewed consecration and devotion of the whole life to the Lord, and in its second (the meal) expressed joyful thanksgiving for the restoration of Gods enthronement and habitation amid His people, of which they had been so long deprived. 1Sa 6:16. The five lords of the Philistines saw in this occurrence, in accordance with the instruction of their priests, a revelation of the God of Israel; they returned to Ekron the same day.

1Sa 6:17-18. A second enumeration of the expiatory gifts, comp. 1Sa 6:4. The statement here made varies from that of 1Sa 6:4 only in the fact that, while the priests had advised the presentation of only five golden figures of mice, here a much greater number, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines, are offered; because, from the expression from the fenced city to the village of the inhabitants of the low land ( Deu 3:5) [rather fenced cities and country32 villages], which shows that every Philistine locality was represented in the mouse-figures, we learn that the mouse-plague extended over the whole country, while the boil-plague prevailed only in the largest cities,33 In the second clause, instead of [and unto] read [and witness], and instead of [Abel], we must, on account of the attached Adj. and the repeated reference to the field of Joshua (1Sa 6:14; 1Sa 6:16), read [stone], and translate: and a witness is the great stone ( is found in the same sense, Gen 31:52) to this day. Kimchis explanation of as the name [the Heb. word means mourning] given to the stone on account of the mourning made there (1Sa 6:19) is a fanciful expedient, which has also no support in the context, since nothing is afterwards said of a mourning at this stone.

1Sa 6:19-21. The ark in Bethshemesh. A punishment is inflicted by God on the Bethshemeshites because they had sinned respecting the holiness of God, which was represented before their eyes by the ark. Wherein this sin consisted is stated in the words because they looked, &c. ( ), which are to be connected with the question in 1Sa 6:20. From 1Sa 6:13 (if we retain the text) it could not have been the mere looking at the ark, which stood on the cart, and was necessarily visible to every body, but, as the shows, consisted only in the manner of looking at it. As the unauthorized touching (Num 4:15; 2Sa 6:7), so the profane, prying, curious looking at the ark, as the symbol of the holy God who dwells amid His people, is forbidden on pain of death. The fundamental passage, to which we must here go back, is Num 4:20. The deepest ground of the strict prohibition to touch and look at the ark lies in the opposition which exists between man, impure through sin, and the holy God, which cannot be removed by immediate and unmediated connection with God on mans part, but only through the means which God has by special revelation ordained to this end. Against Thenius, who holds that this explanation cannot be based on Num 4:20, it is to be remarked that this passage speaks expressly not only of unauthorized intrusion, but also of a similar looking at the inner sanctuary. There is no contradiction between this verse and 1Sa 6:13, if we regard the Ace. in the latter, and the Prep. at () here; this difference in the designation of the object indicates a difference in this connection in the seeing. In Num 4:20 also the seeing is more exactly defined by an added word. Other explanations, as: because they were afraid at the ark (Syr., Arab.), or: looked into it (Rabb.), are entirely untenable. It is true, however, that the words of the text (according to which the above would be the only tenable explanation) present great difficulties, which Thenius expresses in the remark: One does not see why and he smote () is repeated, and why we have the people () again after the men of Bethshemesh ( ). Moreover, the following words of this verse, which give the number of the slain, undoubtedly offer an incorrect, or rather a corrupt text; whereby the preceding words would be involved in the corruption. The supposition of a defective text being here so natural, we should be inclined to adopt (with Thenius) the reading of the Sept.: And the children of Jechoniah among the Bethshemeshitcs were not glad (5:13) that they saw the ark, and he smote of them, etc.; but that the objection that we elsewhere find nothing at all about the race of Jechoniah is by no means so unimportant as Thenius thinks it. The reading 70 men, 50,000 men is evidently corrupt. If a process of addition were here intended, then and () must necessarily stand before the second number. If a partition were meant (70 out of 50,000 men), then, besides the grammatical difficulty, there is the objection that the city of Bethshemesh (and it alone is here spoken of), could not possibly have had so many inhabitants. The last objection applies with still more force to Ewalds translation, beginning with 70 and increasing to 50,000 men,which would require us to suppose a still larger population. The words 50,000 men are wanting in Jos. (Ant. 6,114), and in some Heb. MSS. (Cod. Kenn. 84, 210, 418), and are [to be rejected],34 since they give no sense, and probably came from the margin into the text as another solution of the numeral sign which stood there (in the original text stood [70], while in another [50,000] was found) (Thenius).The ground of the sudden death of the 70 of the race of Jechoniah is their unsympathizing, and therefore unholy bearing towards the symbol of Gods presence among His people, which showed a mind wholly estranged from the living God, a symptom of the religious-moral degeneracy, which had spread among the people, though piety was still to be found.35

1Sa 6:20. Who can stand before this holy God?This question expresses their consciousness of unworthiness, and their fear of the violated majesty of the covenant-God of Israel. The people of Bethshemesh recognize in the death of the 70 a judgment of God, in which He punishes the violation of His majesty and glory, and defends His holiness in relation to His people. God is called the holy in this connection, in that He guards and avenges His greatness and glory, which He had revealed to Israel, when they are violated and dishonored by human sin, by unholy, godless conduct.From the connection only God can be the Subj. of shall go up (). The question to whom shall he go up from us? refers then indeed to the ark, in connection with which the sin and the punishment had occurred, and supposes that the Bethshemeshites were unwilling to keep it among them, from fear of farther judgments which its stay might occasion. A superstitious idea here mingles with the fear of God, since the stay of the ark is regarded as in itself a cause of further misfortune.

1Sa 6:21. Kirjath-jearim, that is, city of forests [Forestville, Woodville], in the tribe-territory of Judah, belonged at an earlier period to Gibeon (Jos 9:17; Jos 18:25-26; Ezr 2:25; Neh 7:29), and is the present Kuryet el Enab= city of wine [literally grapes] (Rob. II. 588 sq. [Amer. ed. II. 11], and Bibl. Forschung. 205 sq. [Am. ed. III. 157], Tobler, Topogr. II. 742 sqq.).36 The embassy to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim had two objects: the announcement of the return of the ark, and the demand that they should take it. They are silent as to the misfortune which was connected with its restoration, and as to their reason for not wishing to keep it. 1Sa 7:1 mentions the safe transportation of the ark by the Kirjath-jearimites to their city. The ark is placed in the house of Abinadab , on the hill, not in Gibeah (Vulg., Luther), as if the latter were a suburb of Kirjath-jearim. The house of Abinadab was on a hill, and for this reason probably was chosen as the resting-place of the ark. They consecrated Eleazar, the son of Abinadab, that is, they chose and appointed him as a person consecrated to God for this service: he had to keep watch and guard over the ark. It is hence probable that the ark found shelter in the house of a Levite. Nothing is said of Eleazars consecration as priest.. He was constituted not priest, but watchman at the grave of the ark, by its corpse, till its future joyful resurrection (Hengst., Beitr. III. 66 [Contributions to Int. to O. T.]). Why it was not carried back to Shiloh, is uncertain. The reason may be, that the Philistines after the victory in ch. iv. had conquered Shiloh, and now held it, as Ewald (Gesch. II. 540 [Hist, of Isr.]) supposes; though his conjecture that the Philistines had destroyed Shiloh together with the old sanctuary, is to be rejected, since it is certain that the Tabernacle afterwards moved from Shiloh to Nob, and thence to Gibeon, and that the worship in connection with it was maintained (1Sa 21:6; 1Ki 3:4; 2Ch 1:3). Or, it may be that, without a special revelation of the divine will, they were unwilling to carry the ark back to the place whence it had been removed by a judgment of God in consequence of the profanation of the Sanctuary by the sons of Eli (Keil); or simply that the purpose was first and provisionally to carry it safely to a large city as far off as possible, inasmuch as, in view of the sentence of rejection which had been passed on Shiloh, they did not dare to select on their own authority a new place for the Sanctuary (comp. Hengst., ubi sup., 49). It was not till Davids time that the ark was carried hence to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6).

HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL

1. Outside the sphere of His revelations in the covenant-people, the living God has not allowed the heathen nations to be without positive testimonies to His glory; He has, by severe chastisements, made them feel His might and power over them, when they, though they were the instruments of His punitive justice on Israel, did violence to His honor, and transgressed the limits assigned them.

2. The exact knowledge that the Philistine priests and soothsayers had of the punitive revelations of God against the Egyptians, and of the cause of them in the fact that that people hardened itself against Him, is an eminent example of His government of the world, which was closely interwoven with the history of revelation in His kingdom, and in which He penetrated with the beams of His revealed light the darkness of heathenism which surrounded His people, and made preparation for the revelation of the new covenant, which was to embrace the whole world. They were in such light to seek the Lord in their ways, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him (Act 17:27).

3. The need of expiation, as well as the demand for it, is deeply grounded in the relation of man to the holy God; through sin against Gods will and ordinances man finds himself in custody under His punitive justice, whence there is no redemption except by an expiation, failing which judgment is pronounced against him. Ail need of expiation and all means thereto, not only in the sphere of Old Testament revelation, but also in heathendom, are predictions of Christ, who made the universal and all-sufficient expiation for the guilt of the world.

4. The enemies of Gods kingdom cannot and are not permitted to retain the possessions of Gods sanctuary which they have gotten by robbery, but must bow beneath His mighty hand, and give them up, yea, restore them increased by counter-gifts on their part.
5. Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God! The more clearly Gods holiness is seen in the mirror of His justice, the deeper and more energetic is the feeling of sin and unworthiness in the human heart before the holy God. The depth of the divine holiness becomes clearest and most sensible to sinful man in those of its manifestations, by which he sees God as this holy God, that is, in the vigorous exercise of His holiness, of which he has experience in Gods punitive justice directed against himself. But the deeper and more thorough the knowledge of ones own sin, the clearer the knowledge of the divine holiness. Yet, to sinful men the light of the divine holiness, which is always for him dulled, must not become intolerable, so that he shall avoid Gods face, and abandon fellowship with Him; rather must sinful man bear this light which discloses all his sin and alienation from God, and seek to learn in it the ways of grace and salvation (Psa 51:5-6 [4,5]). The contrary result of the revelation of Gods holiness and justice leads to a sundering of relations between sinful man and Him, which by mans fault makes of no effect Gods purposes of salvation.

6. The blow which fell on the inhabitants of Bethshemesh in connection with the arrival of the ark, showed the people that they were not yet worthy of the fulfilment of the promise I dwell in your midst. A condition of things had come about like that in the wilderness after the calf-worship, and in the Babylonian exile. The people must first become again inwardly Gods people before the sanctuary could be again placed among them. In what had happened they saw Gods factual declaration that He wished to dwell no longer in Shiloh (Hengst. Beitr. 3, 48 sq. [Contrib. to Introd.]).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1Sa 6:1. [Henry: Seven months Israel was punished with the absence of the ark, and the Philistines punished with its presence. A melancholy time no doubt it was to the pious in Israelparticularly to Samuelbut they had this to comfort themselves with, as we have in the like distress, when we are deprived of the comfort of public ordinances, that, wherever the ark is, the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lords throne is in heaven, and by faith and prayer we may have access with boldness to Him there. We may have God nigh unto us, when the ark is at a distance.Tr.]. S. Schmid: God cannot bear with His enemies too long, but knows how at the right time to save His honor.

1Sa 6:2-3. J. Lange: Bad men, when they are chastised for their sins, are commonly disposed not to recognize the true cause, but maintain that it all comes only from chance or from merely natural causes.Wuertemberg Bible: Even false prophets and teachers often have the gift of prophecy: Num 24:2; Joh 11:50-51; Mat 7:22-23. We must therefore not trust to outward gifts.Tuebingen Bible: Even the heathen have recognized that the justice of God must be appeased if sin is to be forgiven.

1Sa 6:6. Cramer: God is wonderful, and often even speaks His word through unbelievers and ungodly men (Num 22:28). The word of God loses nothing in certainty, power, and worth, though it is preached by ungodly men (Php 1:15). [Hall: Samuel himself could not have spoken more divinely than these priests of Dagon: they do not only talk of giving glory to the God of Israel, but fall into an holy and grave expostulation. All religions have afforded them that could speak well. These good words left them both Philistines and superstitious.Tr.].

1Sa 6:7. S. Schmid: That the irrational brutes are under Gods providence and control, even the heathen have recognized.

1Sa 6:9. Starke: Great and wonderful is the long suffering of God, that He condescends to the weakness of men and suffers Himself to be tempted by them.S. Schmid: That in which men prescribe to God and tempt Him, cannot indeed bind God; but it binds the men themselves in their consciences, who prescribe to Him.

1Sa 6:13. S. Schmid: Even in troublous times God does not cease to do good to His people.Cramer: When God brings forth again the light of His word, it ought to be recognized with the highest thankfulness.

1Sa 6:14. Seb. Schmid: It is a great favor when God comes forward before men, and voluntarily appears among them.

1Sa 6:15. Wuert. Bible: When, after we have borne trouble and need, God again manifests to us His favor and help, we should not forget to be thankful.

1Sa 6:19. Seb. Schmid: An untimely and venturesome joy God can soon turn into great sorrow.The plague is fortunate that brings the impenitent to repentance.

1Sa 6:20. Berlenb. Bible: When God so to speak only passes by us, through some temporary taste of His presence, it is a favor which He may also impart to sinners. But that He may make His abode in us, as He promises in so many passages of Holy Scripture, that He may be willing to remain with us and in us,for that there is demanded great purity in every respect.S. Schmid: Better is quite too great a fear of God than no fear, if only it does not wholly take away confidence in Gods mercy (Psa 119:120).

Footnotes:

[1][1Sa 6:2. So the verb is not unfrequently used, as in Jos 23:2.Tr.]

[2][1Sa 6:2. Or, how.Tr.]

[3][1Sa 6:3. The Pron. is not in the present Heb. text, but is found in 7 MSS., in Sept., Syr., Chald., Arab., and apparently in Vulg. It may have fallen out, as Houbigant suggests, from similarity to the following word ( ). Others (so Erdmann) take the construction as impersonal, and render: if one sends back, etc.Tr.]

[4][1Sa 6:3. This phrase in Eng. A. V. is intended to express the Heb. Inf. Abs.; but where the proper shade of intensity or emphasis cannot be given in Eng., it is better to write the verb simply, and not introduce a foreign substantive idea.Tr.]

[5][1Sa 6:3. Some ancient vss. and modern expositors refer this to the ark, and render to it, relying on the grammatical connection, and on 1Sa 6:9; but the Philistines throughout seem to regard God, and not the ark, as the author of their sufferings. Yet it is possible that, even with this view, their idolatrous ideas might have led them to appease the instrument or visible occasion of the divine infliction.Tr.]

[6][1Sa 6:3. Erdmann and others take this sentence as conditional (which is here possible, but somewhat hard) on the ground that the priests are not sure that the atonement-offering will be successful, but propose an experiment (as in 1Sa 6:9). Yet in 1Sa 6:5-6 they are sure, and the experiment in 1Sa 6:9 seems an afterthought.Tr.]

[7][1Sa 6:3. The Heb. text is here supported by Syr., Arab. and Vulg., nor is there any variation in the MSS. (De Rossi); but Sept. has expiation shall be made for you (), and Chald. healing shall be granted you (). To the first of these the repetition is an objection, to the second the order of ideas (healing, expiation). It does hot appear whether they are loose renderings of our text, or represent a different text.Tr.]

[8][1Sa 6:4. Philippson renders tumors (geschwlste), setting aside the supposed plague of field-mice. See Exeg. Notes in loco. The Sept. here departs from the Heb. text in the order of statements and in the number of mice; see the discussion in the note on the passage.Tr.]

[9][1Sa 6:4. This clause stands first in the original.Tr.]

[10][1Sa 6:4. Heb.: them all, and so Erdmann and Philippson. But all the VSS. and 10 MSS. read you, Which the sense seems to require.Tr.]

[11][1Sa 6:6. The verb () is Aor., rendered wrought in Exo 10:2 by Eng. A. V.; Sept. and Vulg. render freely smote; but Syr. has they mocked them, and did not send them away, and they went, where the wrong number of the first vb. required the negation in the second.Tr.]

[12][1Sa 6:7. Or, take and prepare (so Erdmann). But the verb may properly be taken as expletive or pleonastic here, as in 2Sa 18:18 (see Ges. Lex. s. v.), though it must be understood before the second accusative kine.Tr.]

[13][1Sa 6:8. The word means any instrument or implement, and is used of utensils, implements, armor, weapons, vessels and jewels; here, however, it is none of these, but figures, copies or works: Luther, bilder, Erdmann, gerthe, DAllioli, figures, Cahen, empreintes, and the other modern VSS., of Martin, Diodati, DAlmeida, De S. Miguel, have figures; only the Dutch has jewels, Vulg. vasa, Sept. .Tr.]

[14][1Sa 6:8. The Art. here points out the coffer which belonged to the cart; but as this is not otherwise known or mentioned, the insertion or omission of the Art. in Eng. makes little or no difference. The Al. Sept. inserts a neg. before the word put in this verse, perhaps to avoid a supposed difficulty in the number of golden mice.Tr.]

[15][1Sa 6:11. The Vat. Sept. (but not Al.) omits the words and the images of their boils, perhaps in order to indicate that the mice were not in the argaz or box, and thus avoid the difficulty above-mentioned (see 1Sa 6:18). Wellhausen, taking exception to the inverted order here (mice, boils), to the word tehorim, and to the ambiguity of the phrase, omits all of 1Sa 6:11 after coffer, regarding the Heb. as a gloss on the already corrupt Greek. But this is improbable, and the Heb. is sustained by all the VSS. The tehorim is not improbably a marginal explanation of ophalim which has crept into the text (so Geiger and Erdmann); but the text, though not perfectly clear, must, on critical grounds, be retained, since there would have been no special reason why a scribe should insert it, but on the other hand ground for its omission, as the Greek shows tampering with the text to avoid a difficulty.Tr.]

[16][1Sa 6:12. On the form of the Heb. word see Erdmann in loco.Tr.]

[17][1Sa 6:12. Ges. Gram. (Conants transl.), 75, Rem. I. 2.Tr.]

[18][1Sa 6:13. The Heb. has simply Bethshemesh, the place put for its inhabitants.Tr.]

[19][1Sa 6:13. Sept.: to meet it (), error of copyist.Tr.]

[20][1Sa 6:18. The first clause of this verse (and along with it 1Sa 6:17) is stricken out by Wellhausen on the ground of its incompatibility with 1Sa 6:8. The external evidence for the clause is complete; on the internal evidence see the Comm. in loco and Translators note.Tr.]

[21][1Sa 6:18. Or: witness is the great stone, etc., omitting the word remaineth; so Erdmann, see Comm. in loco. The simpler translation given above is that suggested in Bib. Comm.Tr.]

[22][1Sa 6:19. This is the common meaning of the verb ( with ).Tr.]

[23][1Sa 6:19. These numbers, though probably incorrect, are left in the text, because no satisfactory reading has been settled on. The clause should be bracketed. See discussion in Comm.Tr.]

[24][The word here employed for priests (kohanim) is the same as that used to designate the priests of the true God, the distinctive word for idol-priests (kemarim) occurring only three times in O. T., though frequent in the Syriac and Chald. translations. The Arabic here renders chiefs or doctors (ahbara), probably to avoid a scandalous application of the sacred name. For etymology of kohen see Ges., Thes., and Frst, Heb. Lex.The word rendered soothsayer (qosem) is probably from a stem meaning to divide, partition, assign fortunes, and seems to be employed to denote divination by processes such as shaking arrows, consulting teraphim, inspecting livers (Eze 21:26-28 [2123]), perhaps differing thus from the mantic art proper, which involved possession or inspiration by the deity (which two methods Cicero calls divination with and without art, Div. 1, 18). The word is used in O. T. only of false diviners (for wider use in Arabic see Freytag, Ar. Lex. s. v. qasama). Comp. Art. Divination in Smiths Bib. Dict. Articles Wahrsager and Magier in Winers Bib. R. W., and Ges., Thes.Tr.]

[25][On this see Translators note in Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]

[26][The word asham rather means not debt, but offence and its punishment (comp. Gen 26:10; Ps. 14:9; Isa 53:10, and the Arab. athama), and is not restricted in the Mosaic Law to cases of restitution (see Leviticus 5 (Eng. A. Lev 5:1 to Lev 6:7), Lev 14:12; Num 6:12). Here it may be used in this latter sense, and is in general more appropriate than hattath, since the Philistines cannot be supposed to have the deeper conception of sin involved in the latter word. It is, of course, a question whether they employed this very word asham.Tr.]

[27][Against this see note under Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]

[28][For defence of the reading you all see Textual and Grammatical notes in loco.Tr.]

[29][Erdmann translates: take and make a new cart, and take two milch cows,on which see note under Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]

[30][Robinson: Just on the west of the village (Ain Shems), on and around the plateau of a low swell between the Surar on the North and a smaller Wady on the South, are the manifest traces of an ancient site. Here are the vestiges of a former extensive city, consisting of many foundations and the remains of ancient walls of hewn stone. The materials have indeed been chiefly swallowed up in the probably repeated constructions of the modern village; but enough yet remains to make it one of the largest and most marked sites which we had any where seen. On the north the great Wady-es-Suraritself a plainruns off first west and then north-west into the great plain; while on the south the smaller Wady comes down from the south-east, and uniting with the one down which we had traveled, they enter the Surar below the ruins.Tr.]

[31] is for , and the for . On this form comp. Ew. 191 b, and Gesen. 47, R. 3.

[32][The word is explained by the Mishna and the Jews generally, and by Gesenius, to mean open country, and this signification for the adj. form in the text is required by the contrast with fenced cities. See Ges. Thes. s. v. The Arab. stem pharaza is to separateand the derived nouns have the sense of planeness, whence the rural districts may have been called plane, that is, unwalled.Tr.]

[33][On the supposition that there was no mouse-plague, the mouse-figures equally represented the whole country. In this connection the Greek text of 1Sa 6:4-5 is worthy of attention. It reads: (1Sa 6:4), five golden hedras (ophalim, boils), according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; (1Sa 6:5), and golden mice, like the mice, etc.; thus separating the two statements, and omitting the second number five. If this reading were adopted, it-would relieve the Heb. text, which, in several places in this chapter, shows traces of corruption. See note under Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]

[34][The words in brackets are not in the Germanomitted probably by typographical error.Tr.]

[35][On the criticism of this verse see De Rossi, Var. Lcct., and a good note in Bib. Comm. As to the numbers, it seems impossible to determine anything with certainty, and the conjecture of Thenius (that we read 70, omitting the 50,000) is as probable as any other. That the first part of the verse is corrupt is evident from the variations in the VSS. and the confused character of the Heb. text itself. Two hints for the reconstruction of the true text appear to be given us, one by the Chald., the other by the Sept. The former reads: and He slew among the men of Bethshemesh, because they rejoiced when they saw the ark, etc. (where the rejoiced is apparently taken from 1Sa 6:13); the latter reads: and not pleased were the sons of Jechoniah among the men of Bethshemeshites, that they saw the ark, etc. Combining these, we may perhaps infer 1) that the rejoice or pleased was inserted by a translator or copyist and 2) that a phrase of several words preceded the words with the men of Bethshemesh, The verse then, may have begun somewhat so: , , and read and Jehovah was angry with the Bethshemeshites, because, etc., and smote among them (reading for ). From this the present Heb. text might have come by substituting (by homoteleuton or otherwise) for the first words, and omitting or , and the Sept. text might be explained as a duplet, in which the is a corruption of the Heb., and the displeased taken from the same source as the Chald.Wellhausen translates the Sept. into Heb. by the words , and adopts this as the true text. But this is not in itself very satisfactory (and the sons of Jechoniah were not guiltless, etc.), and does not answer the demands of the VSS. and the context.Tr.]

[36][Mr. Grove (Smiths Bib. Dict., Art. Kirjath-jearim ) suggests that the ancient sanctity of Kirjath-jearim (it was called Baalah and Kirjath-Baal, and may have been a seat of worship of the Canaanitish deity Baal) was the ground of the arks being sent thither. He points out also a difficulty in its identification with Kuryet el Enab from the distance (ten miles over an uneven country) between it and Bethshemesh (Ain Shems), and further from the absence (so far as known) of a hill corresponding to that mentioned in 1Sa 7:1. But see Porter, p. 270.Tr.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

As it was impossible not to take interest in whatever concerned the ark of God, the contents of this Chapter becomes very pleasing, in that it relates to us the conduct of the Philistines in sending away the ark of God. The great joy of the men of Bethshemesh in beholding the return of the ark. The presumption of the Bethshemites in looking into the ark, is punished by the Lord: they send to the men of Kirjath-jearim to fetch the Ark. These are the contents of this Chapter.

1Sa 6:1

(1) And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.

We ought to pause over this verse, and reflect on the state of Israel, deprived of the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts, for no less a period than seven months. No doubt many a pious Israelite felt it, and lamented it in secret. And many of those who went up to Shiloh to worship God in public, openly deplored the vacancy in the tabernacle. Ah! how precious are our gospel mercies, in that we have not simply the outer tokens of God’s presence, but the spiritual manifestations of him whom the ark prefigured, always present, wherever two or three are gathered together in his name; Mat 18:20 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Ark in the Harvest-field

1Sa 6:13

The ark had been a prisoner in the land of the Philistines since the fatal day when the army of Israel was completely overthrown. Its presence had brought mischief and misery, plague and death to the cities of Ashdod and Ekron, and after seven months’ sojourn it was sent back to its own country with all respect and with all care.

I. The coming of the ark at that time to that particular occupation of the men of Beth-shemesh was to them a great reminder, a striking memorial. God brought Himself to the level of their intelligence by sending the ark into their harvest-field as a sacrament of sacred realities, to press home this truth to them that it was to God they owed the harvest they were reaping.

II. It is just as much our duty to recognize the same source of all our good, but possibly we need this reminder, God in the harvest-field, more forcibly even than they did. The world has grown much older since then; childlike faith is not so evident and worthy, simple trust is obscured or pushed out of the way by habits of doubting, of accepting things as of use and wont, and of explaining away the supernatural by natural reasons and processes. Romance, imagination, wonder are gone; and with these often goes the sense of blest dependence on the great Creator, and of gratitude to the great Giver of all food. But this decay of interest is, in its way, a sign of the superficiality of much of the age in which we live.

III. What we need above all to see is the ark of God standing in the harvest-field, the great source of all our supply. We need to rub our sleepy eyes and yet awake to the presence of the great Creator. The ark in the harvest-field teaches us also that the harvest-field is sacred ground; the field is holy. The ark in the harvest-field was a summons to the men of Beth-shemesh to present the firstfruits of their harvest to God. And as the harvesters saw it safely placed in their midst, it renewed to them the message of the Law, that to God were due the firstfruits of their reaping and in special measure for such special restoration of the Divine presence and smile.

W. A. Swanson, Homiletic Review, November, 1906, vol. LII. p. 388.

References. VII. 11. C. Perren, Outline Sermons, p. 272. VII. 12. F. Bourdillon, Plain Sermons for Family Reading (2nd Series), p. 105.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

III

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ELI, AND THE RISE OF SAMUEL

1Sa 4:1-7:17

I will give, in order, the passages showing the rise of Samuel over against the descent of Eli. Samuel, more than any other book of the Bible, excels in vividness of detail, and especially in showing progressiveness in character, either upward or downward growing either better or worse. Over against the iniquities of Eli’s sons and the doom pronounced on his house, we have in order, these passages: 1Sa 1:27-28 ; 1Sa 2:18 , and the last clause of 1Sa 2:21 ; 1Sa 2:26 ; 1Sa 3:1-4 ; 1Sa 1 Samuel 19-21; 1Sa 4:1 .

The progress is: (1) For this child I prayed. (2) The child prayed for is devoted to Jehovah. (3) His home is God’s house and there he serves and worships. (4) The child is called. (5) The child grew in favor with God and man. (6) The child kept on growing. (7) He is recognized as a prophet by all Israel from Dan to Beersheba. In the meantime Eli’s house steadily descends until the bottom is reached. Macaulay, in his History of England, in telling about the great men in power at a certain time, including Lord Halifax, substantially makes this remark: “These great men did not know that they were even then being eclipsed by two young men who were rising up, that would attain to greater heights and influence than the others had ever attained,” and he gives the names of the two young men as John Somers and Charles Montagu.

We may apply this throughout life: A train once in motion will run for a while on its own impetus, but in both cases the motion will gradually cease unless new power be applied. So in every community there are leaders holding positions from past momentum, while new men are rising that will eclipse and succeed them. As in nature when a tree quits growing it begins to die, and when a stream quits flowing its waters stagnate, so when a leader quits studying he begins to lose power and must give place to younger men who are studious. And it will some day be so with you, and you will enter what is called the declining period of your life. For a while it will astonish you that you are not cutting as wide a swath as you used to cut, and unless you live only in God, that will be the bitterest hour of your life. Very few people know how to grow old gracefully; some of them become very bitter as they grow old. The following is a summary of the events connected with the fall of the house of Eli:

1. An enemy is strengthened to smite them. The absence of purity, piety, veneration, and fidelity in God’s people, either his nominal people like Hophni and Phinehas, or his real people, as Eli, always develops a conquering enemy. The case of Samson, Eli’s contemporaneous judge, illustrates this. When he betrayed the secret of his strength, he went out as aforetime and knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him, and so became an easy victim of the Philistines, bound, eyes put out, enslaved, grinding in the mills of God’s enemies, a sport to them, with the added despair that the cause suffered in his downfall.

The devil has known from the beginning that his only chance to win against God’s people is, by their sins, to turn God against them. He knows that as long as God is for you, nobody can be against you. He knows that he cannot fight against you when you have God back of you, but if you become estranged from God, the devil will show you very quickly that when it comes to a wrestle he can give you a fall, and it does not take him long to do it.

It was in this way that he influenced Balaam to suggest to Balak the plan to make Israel sin with women, as a step toward idolatry. His slogan was: “If you can make them sin against their God and put him against them, then you can down them.” The Phinehas of that day, how different from this Phinehas, Eli’s son! Naming a child after a great and good man does not make him like his namesake.

One of the most unpatriotic men I ever knew was named after George Washington; one of the greatest failures as a preacher was named after Spurgeon; one of the poorest excuses for a statesman was named after Sam Houston. Now here is Phinehas, the son of Eli, named after that other Phinehas of Balaam’s time.

The devil, here called Belial, is never more satisfied than when he can nominate his own children as ministers of religion. Hophni and Phinehas, children of Belial, were priests. The prevalent evils of today arise from the fact that children of Belial occupy many pulpits and many chairs in theological seminaries and Christian schools. Always they are the advance couriers of disaster to God’s cause, and herald the coming of a triumphant adversary.

When preachers and professors, in schools begin to hawk at and peck at the Bible, and rend it with their talons, or defile the spiritual feasts like harpies) you should not only count them as unclean birds of prey, but should begin to set your own house in order, for trouble is coming fast.

2. The Philistines won a battle. Four thousand Israelites were slain.

3. Stimulated by fear, the sons of Eli resorted to an expedient, tempting God. They sent for the ark of the covenant, taking it from its appointed place to be used as a fetish or charm. So used as an instrument of superstition it had no more power to avert evil than a Negro’s use of a rabbit’s foot, or the nailing up of a horseshoe over a door to keep off witches.

As religion becomes decadent its votaries resort to charms, amulets, relics of the saints, alleged pieces of the cross, images and other kinds of evil, instead of resorting to repentance, faith, and obedience. So used, the most sacred symbol becomes worse than any common thing.

We will see later in Jewish history the idolatrous worship of the brazen serpent made by Moses, and we will hear good King Hezekiah say, as he breaks it to pieces, “Nehushtan,” i.e., “it is only a piece of brass.” As a symbol, when lifted up, it was of great use, but when used as an object of worship it became only a piece of brass. A student of history knows that a multiplication of holy days, pyrotechnic displays, games, festivities, plays, and cruel sports, until there are no days to work, marks the decadence of a people. We need not be afraid of any nation that gives great attention to fireworks, a characteristic of the Latin races.

We shout in vain: “The ark of the Lord! The ark of the Lord!” when we fail to follow the Lord himself. No issue is made in that way, as it is not an issue of the Lord against Dagon, but a superstitious and impious use of sacred symbols against the devil, and the devil will whip every time. In the medieval times, early in the history of the crusades, we see that even the cross so used falls before the crescent, the sign of Mohammed followers.

We might as well seek the remission of sins in baptism, or salvation in the bread of the Supper, as to expect God’s favor sought by any such means.

When Elisha smote the Jordan with Elijah’s mantle, he trusted not to the mantle, nor did he say, “Where is Elijah?” but he said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” and so he divided the waters.

4. The Philistines won another battle. Thirty thousand Israelites perished; Hophni and Phinehas were slain; the ark was captured; Eli died, and the wife of Phinehas died in premature labor, naming her new born babe, “Ichabod,” that is, “The glory is departed from Israel”; Shiloh was captured and made desolate forever, ceasing to be the central place of worship; both the ark and the tabernacle became fugitives, separating never to meet again, and so Israel lamented after the Lord.

5. The Philistines regarded the capture of the ark, (1). as a triumph of their god, Dagon, over Jehovah, the God of Israel, and so they placed it in a subordinate position before Dagon in their temple. (2) They regarded it as the capture of Jehovah himself, obligated by his captivity now to serve the Philistines as be had heretofore ministered to Israel.

The prevalence of such conceptions in ancient times is very evident. For ages the presence of a deity was associated with his symbol. To capture his symbol, or image, was to capture the deity, as in the story of Aladdin in The Arabian Nights, whoever held the lamp of the genie controlled the genie himself. Assyrian sculptures today exhibit the idols of vanished nations borne in triumphant procession, and the parade is always to show that they have triumphed over the gods of that country.

The Hebrew prophets allude to this custom frequently. The passages are: Isa 46:1 ; Jer 48:7 ; Jer 49:3 ; Hos 10:6 ; Dan 11:8 . Cyrus, when he captured Babylon, adopted its gods, but the Romans under Marcellus brought to adorn their own cities the captured images and pictures of the Greek gods. Nebuchadnezzar carried away the sacred symbols of Jerusalem when he captured that city, as did Titus after our Lord’s time, and we see in Rome today carved on the Arch, the sevenbranched golden candlestick which Titus carried from the Temple of Jerusalem in triumph to Rome. The Roman general, Fabius, when he captured the city of Tarentum, said to his soldiers, “Leave their gods here; their gods are mad at them; so let us leave them with their gods which they have offended,” and so they left the idols. It would have been a good thing, as after-events show, had Nebuchadnezzar done the same thing, for when Belshazzar, his successor, on a certain night at a drunken feast, used the sacred vessels of the Temple for desecration, it was then that the hand came out and wrote on the wall, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.

Jehovah showed the Philistines that their victory was not over him: (1) By causing the image of Dagon to fall down before the ark, and when they set it up again, caused it to fall down again, and to break its head and arms off; (2) by sending two great plagues: tumors or boils, violent and fatal, under which thousands died, and field mice that swarmed so as to destroy the great harvests of grain that made their land famous; (3) by causing the cessation of the worship of Dagon in Ashdod, for after taking the falls and breaking his head and arms off, no man would go in and worship Dagon.

A natural inquiry when an individual or a people is subject to a series of severe and extraordinary disasters is, What sin have we committed and how may we expiate it, or avert its judgment? Such an inquiry is inseparably connected with any conception of the moral government of God. Men may indeed often fail to note that all afflictions are not punitive, some being disciplinary, or preparatory to greater displays of mercy. We see this problem discussed in the case of Job and his friends; also to those who asked Jesus, “Who did sin, this man or his parents?” He answered that this affliction did not result from personal sin of either of them, but that the glory of God might be manifested. It is the most natural thing in the world for anybody who has suffered one buffet of ill fortune after another, to ask, “What have I done?” and it is perfectly natural for the neighbors to point out that one and say, “Ah, you have been doing something against the Lord: your sin is finding you out.” Therefore it was the most natural thing in the world for the Philistines, when they saw such disasters coming in connection with the capture of the ark, to put the question, “What is our sin?”

We will see what expedients the Philistines adopted to determine whether their calamities came only in a natural way, or were supernatural afflictions connected with the ark and coming from the offended Jehovah, and if from Jehovah, how be was to be appeased. 1Sa 5:7-11 gives us the first expedient: “We will move this ark from Ashdod to the next one of the five cities, and see what happens then. If the same things happen there, we will move it to the next city, and if the same things happen there we will move it to the next city, and so on around the circle of the five cities, and if the same results follow all of these cities, such a series of incidents will be regarded as full proof that the judgments are from Jehovah.”

We recall the story of the boy and the cow bells: He said, “When my father found a cow bell, Ma and I were mighty glad, for we needed one. And when he found another cow bell we were glad again, for we really needed another one, but when Dad found another cow bell, Ma and I became suspicious.” A man would not naturally find three cow bells one after another, so they thought that “Dad” had stolen them. So when five cities, one after the other, had the same afflictions, they could not call that chance.

I knew of a general in a terrible battle who, when a bombshell as big as a water bucket came from a gunboat, cut through a tree and sank into the ground, making an excavation that you could put a house in, ran and put his head right into the hole where the shell came. Somebody asked him why, and he said that such a shell as that would never come twice in the same place. And so the Philistine idea was to move the ark from Ashdod to the next city, and if nothing happened, then they were mistaken about this being chastisement from Jehovah, but if wherever they took it there came the mice and boils on the inhabitants, they were not mistaken, and they could not misunderstand.

That was their first expedient. Their second expedient was to call upon their religious leaders, their diviners and soothsayers, and to ask them to tell them how they could conciliate Jehovah. And the diviners told them that the ark must be sent back, and it must be sent back with a gift, and the gift must signify their confession of sin. In the olden times if a man was healed of a wound in his hand, the Lord was presented with a silver offering to commemorate the healing of the hand. So they had five golden mice made, one for each city, and five golden tumors, one for each city, to symbolize their conception that the evils had come upon them for this offense to Jehovah. But as there still might be a question as to whether these afflictions were natural or supernatural, they tested it in this way: They went to the pen where were cows with young calves (you know what a fool a cow is over her first calf when it is little) and hitched two of these cows to a cart, put the ark on it, to see if the cows, against nature, would go away and leave their calves willingly, and still thinking about the calves and calling them, would carry the ark back to some city of the Levites; that would show that Jehovah was in it.

That was a pretty wise idea of those Philistines, and so when they took a new cart and put the ark on it, and took those two mother cows, they never hesitated but struck a beeline for the nearest Levite city, about twelve miles, and they went bellowing, showing that they felt the absence from their calves. These were their two expedients.

1Sa 6:19-20 says that some of the people at Bethshemesh looked into the ark to see what was in there, and the blow fell in a minute. No man was authorized to open that sacred chamber over which the mercy seat rested and on which the cherubs sat, but the high priests of God. If you will turn to the Septuagint, you will find another remarkable thing which does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, viz.: all of the Levites of the city of Bethshemesh rejoiced at the return of the ark of God, except one man, Jeconiah, and his family, who refused to rejoice at its homecoming, and God smote that family in a moment.

Now, a later instance: The ark, at the request of the citizens of Bethshemesh, was moved to Kirjathjearim, and stayed there until David had been reigning a long time; he sent after it, and Uzzah, when the ark was shaken by the oxen stumbling, reached up his hand to steady the ark and God struck him dead. His attempt was well meant, but it presumed that God was not able to take care of himself. It was a violation of the law for any man to touch that ark except the ones appointed by Jehovah. Which one of the Psalms commemorates the capture and restoration of the ark?

After twenty years Samuel led Israel to repentance and victory. 1Sa 7:3-12 tells us all about it. It says that Samuel called upon them to repent truly of their sins; if they ever wanted the favor of God any more, to cast off their idols and obey God. This is like John the Baptist saying, “Repent ye, repent ye.” Every prophet, in order to be a reformer, was a preacher of repentance. The people repented of their sins, turned from their idols, and returned to God. He assembled all Israel at Mizpah; the Philistines heard of it and came with a great army. Samuel and Israel met them and smote them hip and thigh, and broke their power.

The next paragraph in the Harmony tells how Samuel judged Israel and the regular circuit he made while living at Ramah. He would go to Beth-el, Gilgal, and Mizpah, then come back, holding special courts of judgment, and with such wisdom, purity, and impartiality that he must be classed as the last, best, and greatest of the judges.

QUESTIONS

1. Cite, in order, the passages showing Samuel’s rise over against the descent of Eli.

2. What said Macaulay on this point, and what other examples cited by the author?

3. Give a summary of the events connected with the fall of the house of Eli.

4. How did the Philistines regard the capture of the ark?

5. Show the prevalence of such conceptions in ancient times.

6. How did Jehovah show the Philistines that their victory was not over him?

7. What is the natural inquiry when an individual or a people is subject to a series of severe and extraordinary disasters?

8. To what expedients did the Philistines resort to determine whether their calamities came only in a natural way, or were supernatural afflictions connected with the ark and coming from the offended Jehovah, and if from Jehovah, how was he to be appeased?

9. How else did Jehovah manifest the sanctity of his ark, both at Bethshemesh and later, as we will find in the history?

10. What Psalm commemorates the capture and restoration of the ark?

11. How does Samuel lead Israel, after twenty years, to repentance and victory?

12. What cities did Samuel visit in his judgeship, and what can you say of the judgments rendered by him?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

IV

THE SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS

The more important passages bearing on this subject are 1Sa 3:1-4 ; 1Sa 10:5 ; 1Sa 10:9-12 ; 1Sa 18:13-24 ; 1Ki 19:18 ; 1Ki 19:20-21 ; 1Ki 20:35 ; 2Ki 2:3-5 ; 2Ki 4:38 ; 2Ki 6:1 ; 1Ch 29:29 ; 2Ch 9:29 ; 2Ch 12:15 ; 2Ch 13:22 and other chapters in that book I do not enumerate. The last one is Amo 7:14-15 . The reader will understand that I give these instead of a prescribed section in the Harmony. These constitute the basis of this discussion.

Let us distinguish between the prophetic gift and the prophetic office , and give some examples. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, his seventy elders, Balaam, Joshua, and others before Samuel’s time had the gift, but not the office; perhaps we may except Moses as in a measure having the office. After Samuel’s time, David, many of his singers, and particularly Daniel, had the gift in a high degree, but not the office. Moreover, the high priests from Aaron to Caiphas in Christ’s time, were supposed to have officially the gift of prophecy that is, to hear and report what the Oracle said but Samuel is the first who held the office.

The distinction between a prophet and a son of a prophet is this: A son of a prophet was a candidate for the office, ministering to the prophet, a disciple instructed by him, consecrated to the work, and qualifying himself to perform the services of the office with the highest efficiency. A prophet is one who, through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks or writes for God. In this inspiration he is God’s mouth or pen, speaking or writing not his own words, but God’s words. This inspiration guides and superintends his speech and his silence; what is recorded and what is omitted from the record. The gift of prophecy was not one of uniform quantity nor necessarily enduring. The gifts were various in kind, and might be for one occasion only. As to variety of kinds, the revelation might come in dreams or open visions, or it might consist of an ecstatic trance expressed in praise or song or prayer. If praise, song, or prayer, its form was apt to be poetic, particularly if accompanied by instrumental music.

As to the duration of the gift, it might be for one occasion only, or a few, or many. The scriptures show that the spirit of prophecy came upon King Saul twice only, and each time in the form of an ecstatic trance. In his early life it came as a sign that God had chosen him as king. In his later life the object of it was to bar his harmful approach to David. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12-14 inclusive, explains the diversity of these gifts and their relative importance.

There are two periods of Hebrew history in which we find clearest notices of the schools of the prophets, the proofs of their persistence between the periods, and their influence on the nation. The notices are abundant in the time of Samuel, and in the time of Elijah and Elisha, but you have only to study the book of Chronicles to see that the prophetic order, as an office, continued through these periods and far beyond. Later you will learn that in the time of persecution fifty of these prophets were hidden in a cave and fed regularly. The object of the enemy was to destroy these theological seminaries, believing that they could never lead the nation astray while these schools of the prophets continued. Their object, therefore, was to destroy these seats of theological education. Elijah supposed that every one of them was killed except himself, but he was mistaken.

Samuel was the founder of the first school of the prophets, and the scripture which shows his headship 1Sa 19:20 , where Saul is sending messengers to take David, and finally goes himself and finds the school of the prophets, with Samuel as its appointed head. The reason for such a school in Samuel’s time is shown, first, by an extract from Kirkpatrick’s Commentary on 1 Samuel, page 33. He says:

Samuel was the founder of the prophetic order. Individuals in previous ages had been endowed with prophetic gifts, but with Samuel commenced the regular succession of prophets which lasted through all the period of the monarchy, and did not cease until after the captivity. The degeneracy into which the priesthood had fallen through the period of the judges demanded the establishment of a new order for the religious training of the nation.

For this purpose Samuel founded the institutions known as the schools of the prophets. The “company of prophets” at Gibeah (1Sa 10:10 ) and the scene at Ramah described in 1Sa 19:18 ff., imply a regular organization. These societies are only definitely mentioned again in connection with the history’ of Elijah and Elisha but doubtless continued to exist in the interval. By means of these the Order was maintained, students were educated, and common religious exercises nurtured and developed spiritual gifts.

Kirkpatrick’s is a fine commentary. The priests indeed were instructors of the people, but the tendency of the priesthood was to rest in external sacrifices, and to trust in a mere ritualistic form of sacrifice. That is the trouble always where you have a ritual. And after a while both priest and worshiper began to rely upon the external type, and on external conformity with the ritual. God needed better mouthpieces than those, hence while in the past there was a prophetic gift here and there, he now establishes the prophetic school, or society, in which training, bearing upon the prophetic office, should be continuous. The value of these schools of the prophets is also seen from Kirkpatrick, page 1 Samuel 34:

The value of the prophetic order to the Jewish nation was immense. The prophets were privy-counsellors of kings, the historians of the nation, the instructors of the people. It was their function to be preachers of righteousness to rich and poor alike: to condemn idolatry in the court, oppression among the nobles, injustice among the judges, formality among the priests. They were the interpreters of the law who drew out by degrees the spiritual significance which underlay ritual observance, and labored to prevent sacrifice and sabbath and festival from becoming dead and unmeaning forms. Strong in the unshaken consciousness that they were expressing the divine will, they spoke and acted with a fearless courage which no threats could daunt or silence.

Thus they proved a counterpoise to the despotism of monarchy and the formalism of priesthood. In a remarkable passage in his essay on “Representative Government,” Mr. John Stuart Mill attributes to their influence the progress which distinguished the Jews from other Oriental nations. “The Jews,” he writes, “had an absolute monarchy and hierarchy. These did for them what was done for other Oriental races by their institutions subdued them to industry and order, and gave them a national life. . . . Their religion gave existence to an inestimably precious institution, the order of prophets. Under the protection, generally though not always effectual, of their sacred character, the prophets were a power in the nation, often more than a match for kings and priests, and kept up in that little corner of the earth the antagonism of influences which is the only real security for continued progress.”

I was surprised the first time I ever saw the statement from Mill. He was a radical evolutionist and infidel, but a statesman, and in studying the development of statesmanship among the nations, he saw this singular thing in the history of the Jews, unlike anything he saw anywhere else, and saw what it was that led that nation, when it went into backsliding, to repentance; what power it was that brought about the reformation when their morals were corrupted; what power it was that was the real light of the nation and the salt of the earth, and saw that it was this order of prophets which was the conservator of national unity, purity, and perpetuity. I have the more pleasure in quoting that passage, as it comes from a witness in no way friendly to Christianity, just as when I was discussing missions I quoted the testimony of Charles Darwin to the tremendous influence for good wrought by the missionaries of South America.

Particularly in this case of the schools of the prophets we find their value, by noting very carefully the bearing on the case under Samuel. We have already noticed the corruption of the priesthood under Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas; how the ark was captured, the central place of worship desecrated; how Samuel, called to the office of prophet, needed assistance, and how he instituted this school of the prophets. He gathered around him the brightest young men of the nation and had the Spirit of God rest on them, and in order that their instruction might be regular he organized them into companies, or schools; he would go from one to another, and these young “theologs” were under the instruction of Samuel and for twenty years worked as evangelists in making sensitive the national conscience. It took twenty years to do it, and he could not have done it by himself, but with that tremendous power, the help he had, at the end of twenty years, he saw the nation repentant and once more worshiping God. I am for a theological seminary that will do that.

I give a modern example somewhat parallel: Mr. Spurgeon was called to the city of London, when about nineteen years old, to be the pastor of the old historic church of Dr. Gill, and in his evangelical preaching impressed a number of men to feel that they were also called to preach (if your preaching does not impress somebody else to preach, you may be sure that you are not called to preach), and it impressed the women and a multitude of laymen to do active Christian service. Therefore, Mr. Spurgeon organized what is called “The Pastoral College.” He wouldn’t let a drone be in it; he did not want anybody in it that was not spiritually minded. In other words, he insisted that a preacher should be religiously inclined, and should be ready to do any kind of work. He supported this institution largely through his own contributions, although the men and women all over England, when they saw what it was doing, would send money for its support. I used to read the monthly reports of the contributions and the list of donors that accompanied them.

Mr. Spurgeon determined to work a revolution, just as Samuel did, and he used this school of the prophets for that purpose. Consequently, hundreds of young preachers belonging to that school of the prophets preached in the slums of the city, in the byways, in the highways, in the hedges, in the mines, on the wharves to the sailors, and in the hospitals. Hundreds of laymen said, “Put us to work,” and he did; he had pushcarts made for them, and filled them with books and so sent out over the town literature that was not poisonous. He put the women to work, and established) or rather perpetuated in better form, a number of the almshouses for the venerable old women who were poor and helpless, following out the suggestion in 2 Timothy, and he erected a hospital. Then they got to going further afield. They went all over England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, crossed over into the Continent, crossed the seas to Australia, and the islands of the seas, and into heathen lands. I have always said that Spurgeon’s Pastoral College came nearer to the Bible idea of a seminary than any other in existence. There was not so much stress laid on mere scholarship as on spiritual efficiency.

It is important to note particularly what I am saying now, because it was burnt into my heart as one of the reasons for establishing a theological seminary. The nature of that society was that it was a school. They left their homes and came to stay at this school, with what we now call a mess hall in which all the theological students, by contributing so much, have their table in common. It was that way then; they had their meals in common. In preparing dinner one day for the sons of the prophets, somebody put a lot of wild gourds into the pot, and when they began to eat it, one of them cried out: “Ah, man of God, there’s death in the pot!” Once I preached a sermon on this theme: “Wild Gourds and Theological Seminaries,” to show that to feed the students in theological seminaries on wild gourds of heresy is to put death in the pot; they will do more harm than good, as they will become instruments of evil.

In determining what were their duties, we must consult quite a number of passages. We gather from this passage that they were thoroughly instructed in the necessity of repentance, individually and nationally, and of turning from their sins and coming back to God with faithful obedience. That lesson was ground in them. They were taught the interpretation of the spiritual meaning of the law, all its sacrifices, its feasts, its types, and therefore when you are studying a prophet in the Old Testament you will notice how different his idea of types and ceremonies from that of the priests. They will tell you that to do without eating is fasting, but the prophet will show that literal fasting is not true fasting; that there must be fasting at heart; that there must be a rending of the soul and not the garment as an expression of repentance; that to obey God w better than a formal sacrifice.

Another thing they were taught, which I wish particularly to emphasize, was music, both vocal and instrumental. In that school of the prophets started the tremendous power of music in religion so wonderfully developed by David, who got many of his ideas from associating with the schools of the prophets. And from that time unto this, every evangelical work, and all powerful religious work, has been associated with music, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament; not merely vocal, but instrumental music. The heart of a religion is expressed in its songs, and if you want to get at the heart of your Old Testament you find it in the hymnbook of the Hebrew nation the Psalter. It is indeed an interesting study to see what has been the influence of great hymns on the national life. There is an old proverb: “You may make the laws of the people, if you will let me write their ballads.” Where is there a man capable of measuring the influence of “How Firm a Foundation,” or “Come, Thou Fount,” or “Did Christ O’er Sinners Weep?” There is a rich literature on the influence of hymns on the life.

In the awful times of the struggle in England, Charles I against the Parliament, one faction of the nation held to ritualism, while the other followed spirituality, even to the extreme of not allowing any form, not even allowing any instruments of music. One of the finest stories of this period is the account of a church that observed the happy medium, using instrumental as well as vocal music, and congregational singing as well as the use of the choir; every sabbath somebody’s soul was melted in the power of that mighty singing. I can’t sing myself, but I can carry the tunes in my mind, and I can be more influenced by singing than by preaching. It was singing that convicted me of sin. It was on a waving, soaring melody of song that my soul was converted. I once knew a rugged, one-eyed, homely, old pioneer Baptist preacher, who looked like a pirate until his religion manifested itself, and then he was beautiful. I heard him one day when a telegram was put into his hand stating that his only son had just been killed by being thrown from a horse. While weeping, his face became illumined; he got up and clapped his hands and walked through that audience, singing, “O, Jesus, My Saviour, to Thee I Submit.”

John Bunyan wrote that song while in Bedford Jail. They had put him there to keep him from preaching, and looking out through the bars of the dungeon he saw his poor blind girl, Mary, begging bread, and he sat down and wrote that hymn. The effect of the old preacher’s singing John Bunyan’s song was a mighty revival.

The relation of the schools of the prophets to modern theological seminaries is this: The purpose was the same. And so in New Testament times, Jesus recognized that if he wanted to revolutionize the world by evangelism he must do it with trained men. He did not insist that they be rich, great or mighty men. He did not insist that they be scholars. He called them from among the common people, and he kept them right with him for three years and a half, and diligently instructed them in the principles and spirit of his kingdom. He taught them in a variety of forms; in parables, in proverbs, in exposition, illustrating his teachings by miracles, and in hundreds of ways in order that they might be equipped to go out and lead the world to Christ. You cannot help being impressed with this fact: That the theological seminaries in Samuel’s time and in Christ’s time were intensely practical, the object being not to make learned professors, but to fill each one with electricity until you could call him a “live wire,” so that it burnt whoever touched it.

This is why I called Samuel a great man, and why in a previous discussion, counting the men as the peaks in a mountain range, sighting back from Samuel to Abraham, only one other peak comes into line of vision, and that is Moses.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the more important passages bearing on the schools of the prophets?

2. Distinguish between the prophetic gift and the prophetic office and illustrate by examples.

3. Distinguish between a prophet and a son of a prophet.

4. What is the meaning of prophet?

5. In what two periods of Hebrew history do we find the clearest notices of the school of prophets, what are the proofs of their persistence between these periods, and what is their influence on the nation?

6. Who was the founder of the first school of the prophets?

7. What scripture shows his headship?

8. What was the reason for such school in Samuel’s time?

9. What was the value of these schools of the prophets, and particularly in this case, and what illustration from modern instances?

10. What was the nature of that society, and what was the instruction given?

11. What was the relation of the schools of the prophets to modern theological seminaries?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

1Sa 6:1 And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.

Ver. 1. And the ark of the Lord was in the country. ] Heb., In the field of the Philistines: whence some have thought, that being plagued for it while in their houses, they set it in the open fields, and were thereupon plagued with mice and moles, that turned up their fields and devoured their grain.

Seven months. ] Not four months only, as Josephus, falsely. This was a long while for God’s people to be without that visible pawn of his presence and glory; so that they might seem to be as forlorn and forsaken of him. Such a misery may befall any people, to be bereft of God’s ordinances; or any soul, to be for a time without the sense of his gracious presence and light of his countenance. But God hath promised to his to be “a little sanctuary unto them,” Eze 11:16 and “not to leave them,” or if he do so, yet “not to forsake them,” Heb 13:5 provided that they look upon all other comforts as so many Ichabods, till he return unto them in mercy and lovingkindness.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4. The Ark now gets its own Divine title.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 6

So they called some of their diviners and seers and all, and they said, “What shall we do with this thing? So they said, Well the thing is, send it back to the people of Israel. But don’t send it back without an offering. So make some golden things like boils, because of the boils that broke out, and make little mice, golden mice also and put it with the ark of the covenant. And take two cows, and take a new cart, and put it on the cart. And let these two cows take the young away from them. And let these two cows go, and let them take it back to the children of Israel. Now if the cows make a direct line for the camp of Israel, then you know that it was the Lord in all this thing. But if the cows just don’t seem to know where to go, and start to wander in the fields, or turn back for their calves, then you’ll know that it was just an accident, [some kind of a weird coincidence that it happened]. And so they made this cart, and they got these two cows, and they took them from their calves, and harnessed them to this cart with the little golden emerods, or boils, and the little golden mice as an offering unto the Lord. And they set them loose and the cows made a direct line for the camp of Israel, just sort of mooing all the way. And so the lords of the Philistines followed to see the thing [and of course] as the ark came and approached the camp of Israel again the people shouted for joy there around Bethshemesh, where the ark was returning… So when the lords of the Philistines saw it, [they went back and they said, Boy it was, they went right there. And they recognized that it was the hand of the Lord that was against them.] Now the men of Bethshemesh were curious and they began to look into the ark ( 1Sa 6:1-19 ).

Now this is something that was strictly forbidden under the law of God to look into the ark of God. Only the priests were allowed to see the ark of God, and before they would remove it out of the Holy of Holies they would cover it with these blankets. But these men, out of curiosity began to peer at it, and actually seventy of them died who curiously were looking at the ark of God. Now there is a statement here which is a difficult translation in verse nineteen.

And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men ( 1Sa 6:19 ):

Actually it should read, “Of the city, or of the people of fifty thousand, seventy were slain, seventy men were slain.” In other words, of that population of the area, approximately fifty thousand people, seventy of them were slain.

and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten the people with this great slaughter. And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us ( 1Sa 6:19-20 )?

In other words, “We gotta get rid of this thing, who of us can stand before the holiness of God?” Interesting question and one that we should be interested in. We should recognize first of all the holiness of God. That absolute holiness of God is actually deadly for sinful man to approach. We, none of us dare try to stand before a holy God in our own righteousness. We remember on the mount when God gave the law, He said, “Now put a fence around. Don’t let anybody approach lest they be slain by the presence of God.”

Access to God in the Old Testament was not a simple thing. The high priest could only approach once a year, and that after many sacrifices. When he approached God he had bells on the borders of his garments, a rope tied around his ankle. As he was in the Holy of Holies, they would stand without listening for the bells. If the bells would stop ringing they knew that there was some flaw in the priest or in the offering, and they’d been smitten dead before the holiness of God. They’d pull him out with a rope. They wouldn’t dare go in to fetch him. The holiness of God was something that they highly respected in those days. Tragically we don’t really respect the holiness of God that much today.

In the early church when there was such great purity, when Ananias and Sapphira decided that they were going to pull off their little scam and pretend that they were giving everything to God, when in reality they were holding back from God, because of the purity of the early church, there was such purity that this sin could not abide. When Ananias laid it down, Peter says, “That’s what you sold it for?”

He said, “Yep.”

He said, “Why have you decided to lie against God?” And, Ananias fell over dead. The holiness of God. He dared to come into the purity of the assembly with this scam. His wife being a party to the whole thing, not knowing what happened to her husband, came in a little later, put down her half, and he said, “Did you sell the property for that much?”

“Yep.”

He said, “Look, you and your husband have agreed together to lie against the Holy Spirit. You’ve not lied to man; you’ve lied to God. Behold, the feet of those who carried your husband out, are gonna carry you out.” She fell over dead.

Now some people say, “Oh God, return purity to your church.” Well you better be careful how you pray. You might not last if God will return such purity to the church. That holiness of God, something that they highly respected, especially when they saw these guys dropping over dead who dared to presume to look at the ark of God, and so they said, “Who amongst us can dwell amongst this holy God? Who of us can stand amongst this holy God?” You know, “Where are we gonna send this thing? Let’s get rid of it.” “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

The authorities in Philistia now called a council, and sought the advice of their diviners. It is intensely interesting to observe how unanimously they recognized the action of Jehovah. Whatever the long years had done for Israel itself, it is perfectly certain that the fear and the dread of Jehovah had been implanted in the hearts of the surrounding peoples.

The counselors advised sending the Ark back, accompanied by offerings intended to indicate their recognition that the plagues of mice and tumors constituted a visitation of God.

The method of sending the Ark back was in the nature of an experiment, and the facts which followed show how conclusively their own test must have proved to them that God had been at work. As the kine drawing the new cart took their way directly to Bethshemesh, it was clearly evident that God was overruling. That they should go quietly, lowing as they went, was in itself a remarkable fact, for they had not been trained to draw loads. That they should travel away from their calves was even more remarkable, and that they should thus take their way directly to the first city of Israel was conclusive. Joshua of Bethshemesh received the Ark in a way worthy of an Israelite. He clave the cart for wood, and slew the kine for sacrifice, and worshiped.

Moreover, so jealous was he for the honor of the sacred symbol that he smote seventy men who, with curious eyes, had dared to attempt to examine it.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Returned with a Trespass-Offering

1Sa 6:1-12

There is reason to suppose that when the Philistines got possession of the Ark, they destroyed Shiloh. See Psa 78:60; Psa 78:64; Jer 26:9. They could not imagine how to rid themselves of the sacred emblem, which brought only destruction in its train, until they had consulted the priests. These priests appear to have been well acquainted with the previous history of the Israelites, though centuries had passed since the passage of the Red Sea. How ignorantly men think of God! He is not their enemy, but the enemy of their sin.

What a striking illustration is afforded by these lowing kine! Their maternal instincts yearned for their young, detained behind; but they were urged forward by a supernatural impulse. So the missionary may leave wife and child, that he may carry the Gospel to the heathen; so the slum-worker may abandon all that others hold dear, in order to change some wretched district into a city of God. Our weak heart clings, but the love of Christ constrains us, and we go forward, urged by a divine and overmastering motive.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

CHAPTERS 6:1-7:2

1. The counsel of the Philistines (1Sa 6:1-9)

2. The ark at Beth-shemesh (1Sa 6:10-20)

3. The ark at Kirjath-jearim (1Sa 6:21; 1Sa 7:1-2)

The ark had remained among the Philistines seven months. For them they were months of suffering and deadly destruction. Now they plot to get rid of the ark and of Him whose hand rested so heavily in judgment upon them. The advice of the heathen priests and diviners is that the ark should be sent away with votive offerings of gold, representing that which had plagued them. This was a heathen custom, which has also been adopted and is practiced by Roman Catholicism, the great Philistine system of Christendom. In Romish churches, especially at shrines, one can find hundreds of votive offerings to God by those who are suffering affliction to appease the wrath of God. It is heathenish and denies Him who shed His blood for our redemption. And as these Philistine priests had some knowledge of Gods judgment upon Egypt they added to their counsel a warning reminding them of Pharaoh and Egypt. Their unbelief and superstition are manifested by the way they returned the ark. But the power of the Creator is seen in the incident.

In result it is proved conclusively that Jehovah is the God of Creation, supreme above all the natural instincts: the kine, though unaccustomed to a yoke, take the cart with its sacred burden directly away from where their calves are shut up, even while lowing after them, and take the straight road to Bethshemesh, a priestly city near the Israelite border. There, at the border, they stop, still under the eyes of the Philistine lords, at a great stone upon which the Levites place the ark, and where the kine are offered up a burnt offering to Jehovah.

Thus the Philistines have Jehovahs sovereignty demonstrated to them in the precise terms which they have themselves chosen,–the goodness of God thus meeting them with what should have turned them from idolatry forever and brought them to His feet. But they go back, after all, to worship instead the humbled Dagon (Numerical Bible).

The ark reaches Beth-shemesh (house of the sun) the nearest point across the border. It is welcomed with much rejoicing, but they forgot the holiness of God and looked into the ark, and the people of Beth-shemesh were smitten. As Beth-shemesh was only a small town it is generally taken that the number of the slain as given in verse 19 was changed by the mistake of a copyist. Various readings give smaller numbers; but that is immaterial.

The ark is removed from Beth-shemesh to Kirjath-jearim, the city of the woods. It was an humble place where the ark abode for twenty years. It was brought into the house of Abinadab; his son Eleazar (my God is help) was set aside to keep it. David found it there (Psa 132:6). The ark never returned to Shiloh again.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

am 2864, bc 1140, An, Ex, Is, 351

the ark: 1Sa 5:1, 1Sa 5:3, 1Sa 5:10, 1Sa 5:11, Psa 78:61

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The Ark in the Land of the Philistines

1Sa 5:1-12; 1Sa 6:1-11

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

There are several things we think should be emphasized.

1. Ebenezer means “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” What! Was the Ark of God taken from the place “where the Lord helped us,” to the place of utter and ignominious defeat? Even so.

It is written that He could do no mighty works in Nazareth because of their unbelief. Why was Christ helpless to demonstrate His power and His glory in the city where He had been brought up? It was because, to them, He was, “Jesus the carpenter’s son,” or, “Jesus, the son of Joseph.” They did, to be sure, marvel at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth; but yet, when He made manifest His Deity, they dragged Him to the brow of the hill, on which the city was built, intent on casting Him off to His death.

Unbelief is not the only thing that limits the power of God in behalf of His own. It is also written, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God.” If any man regards sin in his heart the Lord cannot hear, and will not hear. David in sin, was David in the place of defeat.

2. From Ebenezer to Ashdod, and from Ashdod to the house of Dagon. It seems that we are now reading the impossible. Surely there is no place for our God in the city of Ashdod, and in the temple of Dagon. He might, indeed, go there to give a testimony for the truth, to preach the Gospel; but how can He be dragged there by His opponents? How can He be placed there, in company with Dagon, as another of the Philistines’ false gods?

Is it not written “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”?

I. DAGON WAS FALLEN ON HIS FACE (1Sa 5:3-4)

When the disciples sought to make three tabernacles, it did not take God long to rebuke them with “This is My beloved Son: hear Him!”

When the Ark was taken into the house of Dagon, it did not take God long to cast down Dagon. His keepers set Dagon once again on his pedestal, but the next morning Dagon was again prostrate on his face to the ground before the Ark. This time the head of Dagon and both his hands were cut off upon the threshold, and only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

1. The supremacy of God over all is clearly before us. No hand lifted up against the Lord can prevail. He only is God, and there is none other.

In Isaiah it is written: “The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low * *. And the idols He shall utterly abolish.”

It is at the Name of Jesus that every knee shall bow; everything in Heaven, everything on earth, or under the earth-all must bend the knee to Him. Think you then that the Ark, where God met His people, the Ark that stood for things Divine, could be housed alongside of false gods? Nay! Down fell Dagon, his head and hands broken off.

2. The power of God over all powers is clearly before us. Not only is God to be first in all things, and every power to fall at His presence, but God is able to subdue all things that lift up themselves against Him. Every high thing, and every thing mighty, must succumb to God’s almightiness.

Even we, as saints, are panoplied with power from on High, for the weapons of our warfare are mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. To Christ seated at the Father’s right hand, God says, “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”

II. THE MEN OF ASHDOD WERE DESTROYED (1Sa 5:6-7)

1. God works His judgments unseen and unheard. Not alone did God break down the idol Dagon, but He brought low the people of Ashdod, who worshiped the idol.

The Philistines thought that they could conquer God, for they had met Him on the field of battle and vanquished His armies, and taken the Ark which was the symbol of His presence with His people Israel.

If they could conquer so great a people, what had they to fear of the people’s God? Little did they know of the might of Jehovah. God who created the heavens and the earth with His Word, could easily send forth His judgments by His Word. God is not dependent upon armies and men. He uses His own when they are faithful to work His purposes; but when men fail, He can work marvels unseen by men.

Thus it was in the days of Elisha. “For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host * *. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses,” etc. Thus God worked when no man lifted a hand to fight.

2. God works His judgments with unlikely things. We read, “The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and He destroyed them, and smote them with emerods.”

The men who gather themselves together against God should remember that He who sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh at them, and hold them in derision. God may, for a while suffer men to continue in their evil ways. He is longsuffering, and not willing that any should perish. However, when the harvest of their iniquity is ripe, and the time of opportunity is past, He will arise and send upon them the judgment that is meet.

So it was that the men of Ashdod cried out, and said, “The Ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us.”

III. SEEKING TO GET RID OF THE ARK (1Sa 5:7-8)

1. The men of Ashdod were afraid of God. Someone says, “And well they might have been afraid.” Dost thou think so? “Certainly,” you say; “look at the way He killed them off.”

Yes, we suppose the sinner always has, and always will be afraid of God, when he sees the judgments of God falling upon him.

In Rev 6:1-17 the wicked are so filled with the fear of His wrath that they cry for the rocks and mountains to fall upon them and hide them from His face. Yes, they are afraid. Adam and Eve were afraid and hid themselves in the trees of the Garden.

No doubt the wicked will be filled with fear at the Great White Throne, as they are judged according to their works.

2. The men of Ashdod sought to send away their greatest friend. Suppose they had believed God; suppose they had gladly sought His grace, and had come to Him under a true token; He surely would have gladly received them. It is written, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” There was the Ark, where they could have found the mercy seat, and have come to God as suppliants of grace. But they did not.

Why should the wicked fear the wrath of God, when the God of wrath is the God of love? In the Book of Revelation where the Lord Jesus is treading out the winepress of God’s wrath, it says, “He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” The word “Almighty” refers to the God who is enough.

Wrath never falls until mercy has spent its all in behalf of the wicked. Sinner, there is One standing at your side even now. He is the once crucified, but now risen and exalted Christ. Wilt thou send Him away? He is thine only Hope of peace.

“There’s a Stranger at the door,

Let Him in;

He has been there oft before,

Let Him in;

Let Him in, ere He is gone,

Let Him in, the Holy One,

Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son;

Let Him in.”

IV. SENDING THE ARK BACK TO ISRAEL (1Sa 5:11)

1. The Ark sent from Ashdod to Gath. We would not say that it was exactly kind of the citizens of Ashdod to send the Ark to the people of Gath. That is just what they; did. Perhaps the lesson for us to learn is that everyone who sins passes his penalties on to others.

Perhaps we should consider that it is a poor way to rid oneself of any evil by passing it over to another town. How can this be done?

We remember in a Georgia town when the people got aroused because of the houses of shame in their midst, that a committee waited on a certain judge and urged him to issue orders to make the evil women leave the city. The judge quietly said, “To which of the neighboring cities would you suggest that I send them?” Then he soberly asked the committee, “Gentlemen, have you tried to save these wicked women from their sins?”

2. The people of Gath suffered a very great destruction. Wherever there is sin, there is wrath revealed from Heaven. God is not a respecter of persons. Neither are sinners so different; for the people of Gath sent the ark to Ekron. Then the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought about the Ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.”

Thus the lords of the Philistines hastened together, and they decided to send the Ark back to its own place.

Back went the Ark. Not only was the Ark returned but it was returned in a very brilliant way. This we will consider shortly. Let us now admit that the Philistines had learned something of the greatness and the power of the God of Israel. They may have discovered the folly of fighting against God. When they had been victor over the Israelites, and had taken the Ark away from them, they no doubt thought themselves worthy of praise and they re-joked greatly. However, they now saw that what seemed a victory was a defeat.

V. SENDING THE ARK BACK TO ISRAEL WITH GREAT POMP (1Sa 6:2-4)

1. “Send it not empty.” The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners to inquire as to how the Ark should be sent back. “Send it not empty,” said they. We are reminded of the folly of the king of Syria when he sent Naaman to be healed of his leprosy. First of all, he sent him to the king instead of to the Prophet; secondly He sent him with ten talents of gold, and six thousand pieces of silver, and ten changes of raiment.

People, to this day, think God can be bought. The song may say

“Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy Cross I cling,”

but not so says the religion of the twentieth century before, or of the twentieth century after Christ.

O foolish priests and diviners, think ye to appease the wrath of God by the works of the flesh? Is this what God requires at your hand?

2. “In any wise return Him a trespass offering.” Yes, the Israelites were instructed as to a trespass offering; but their trespass offering lost all of its blessing, as the people of Israel lost all of its Calvary significance.

The Philistines knew nothing of Christ and the Cross; they were not pleading the merits of the Atonement. They were more like the unbelieving prophets of Baal, who sacrificed their bullock, and cried aloud, and cut themselves with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them; yet there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.

“There is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

3. The Philistines made images of emerods and of mice to give glory unto God. These were images of the very things that God commanded should not be made. They made images of the things which God had sent to bite them, and to slay them. Most of the gods and idols of the heathen are made in order to appease the wrath of the god whom they ignorantly worship.

VI. THE WARNING OF THE PRIESTS AND DIVINERS (1Sa 6:5-6)

1. Grasping at straws. The diviners and the priests said: “Do this, and do that, peradventure the God of Israel will lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your lands.” They gave to the Philistines no positive assurance and no certain hope.

The best they could say was “Peradventure.” As we see it the whole worship of heathendom centers in a “peradventure.” They are always trying to appease the wrath of the gods. They are always hoping to find God, or to make themselves like God. They never know anything of peace or of a certain rest, such as the Christians know.

To them the pathway to peace is a long and arduous one-an unhill climb, through which they hope, sometime, to attain unto a place of rest. In heathendom, peace is the final goal that lies at the top or summit of all human endeavor; to the Christian, peace lies at the foot of the mountain, and is given to the lost sinner the moment he believes.

2. Building a new cart. The next thing the priests and diviners of the Philistines suggested was that they should make a new cart, and take two milk kine, on which there had come no yoke. Thus they were to take the Ark of the Lord home again. It was some gorgeous affair they had. The cart was only to carry the Ark, but along with the Ark they were to send jewels of gold, in a coffer, by the side of the Ark as a trespass offering.

We feel sure that the church is losing the simplicity of worship and service. More and more we are looking to fine structures, embellished and made beautiful to behold. Embellishment has nothing whatsoever to do with our approach to God. There is but one thing necessary to come to the Father, and that is, the Son. “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”

Would that we might get back to the simplicity of the Gospel, and spend our excess wealth on preaching Christ to the ends of the earth.

VII. THE HOMEWARD MARCH (1Sa 6:11-12)

1. A sad combination. Think of it! There was the cart, something that had absolutely no affiliation with the Ark, for the Ark was made to be carried and not carted. There was the coffer, within which were placed the mice of gold, and the images of their emerods. There were the kine that drew the cart. There were the Philistines who were servants of Belial. You will all grant me that the combination was most unhallowed and almost uncanny.

We write with a tinge of sadness. Is it not so even today? We are tagging on or tying on to the worship of our God, many, many things that are altogether obnoxious to Him and wholly contrary to both His Person and His command.

We have plenty of men and women taking active part in the service of the Lord who are altogether unholy, and are even children of Belial.

If we marvel that God would permit the combination we set forth, in the days of the Philistines, should we not, the rather, marvel that God permits so many unhallowed affiliations in our own day?

2. A satisfied people. When at last the march was over and the Ark was delivered into the hands of Israel, the Philistines felt that they had gotten rid of a great and dark cloud that had hung over their land. God, at least, was gone and they thought that perhaps they would get along all right now with Him away.

Alas, alas, that such is the conception of many today.

The prodigal son wanted to get away from the father, from the environments of home life, and from the constraints of parenthood. Young people, themselves, too often want to break the ties that bind them to the church, to God, and to holy living. The spirit of the Philistines is still abroad in the land.

AN ILLUSTRATION

We are in India with idols all around us. Are the Hindus and the Philistines all the peoples who have their Dagons?

How many hours-how many days-years-are wasted kneeling before some idol-an idol who is not fit to tie the shoe latchet of the true and only King. Here is a pastor who is endeavoring to put his son through college. Unmindful of the spiritual life of his church, he strives assiduously to get his salary. But the Lord said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” Business men cry, “My business! I must look out for my business!” A mother exclaims, “My girl go to Africa? I will not permit it!” Some fascinating personality comes on the scene. Down on their knees, in absolute thralldom, fall the people. Could anyone, they say, be more wonderful?

And all the while the Saviour stands patiently by, waiting for the scales to fall from blinded eyes. Yes, He lives in our hearts. Shall He have second place, or will you give Him the throne? Remember, He must be “Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.”

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

1Sa 6:1. The ark was in the country of the Philistines seven months So long they kept it, as being loath to lose so great a prize, and willing to try all ways to keep it.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Sa 6:2. The ark of the LordHebrews of Jehovah. The Philistines knew the name of the Lord; and had heard of his wondrous works in Egypt, 1Sa 6:6. They had great light, as indeed all the surrounding nations of Israel must have had.

1Sa 6:4. Five golden mice. See on 1Sa 5:6.

1Sa 6:9. A chance that happened to us. mikreh, a natural consequence, after the fatigues of war, which implies the care of God; for what is accounted chance by men, is all the operations of heaven. See on chap. 10. Luk 10:31. It would seem that the Spirit of God moved the tongue of this pythoness to deliver this oracle, though she might not know it; nor do such favours prove the divine approbation of heathen oracles, more than the rain which falls on the just and the unjust. Isa 41:23.

1Sa 6:15. Offered burnt-offerings. This was often done, as well by prophets as by gentiles, under visible marks of the divine presence; and no complaint is made against it, though the law required the usual oblations to be offered on his altar alone: 1Sa 7:9.

1Sa 6:19. He smotefifty thousand and threescore and ten men. Josephus, relating this, mentions no more than seventy men; and as Beth-shemesh was but a small city, originally allotted for the priests, it is probable that the number has been mis-written in the Hebrew copy. Tremellius conjectures the sense of the text to be, that the Lord smote them with emerods, as he had smitten fifty thousand and seventy of the Philistines. Another critic contends that the number should be five hundred and seventy men.

REFLECTIONS.

While all Israel was mourning and troubled for the loss of the ark; all Philistia was mourning and troubled because of its presence. And if all Israel was astonished that the ark should exert no powers for their salvation; both they and their neighbours were soon convinced that it exerted astonishing powers for the punishment of sin. Dagon was confounded, and fell vanquished in its presence. The Philistines died with pestilence, and the survivors were afflicted with disease; and the corn was consumed in the field as soon as it began to shoot in the earth. Here was Gods threefold scourge on the enemy, and by these scourges they were brought to repentance.

Mark next the fruits of their repentance. Humbled under the hand of heaven, they consulted the ministers of their religion what they should do. Religion is the only refuge and comfort of the afflicted: let us never neglect it in health, for we know not but the heaviest affliction may be at the door. Let us never dream of turning to God without the trespass-offerings of a broken spirit and a contrite heart; but let us at the same time be fully assured, that no tears are acceptable to God unless the sinner, according to the utmost of his power, endeavour to repair his faults.

Repentance, accompanied with proper fruits, shall soon receive tokens of Gods approbation. The two cows, forgetful of their tender calves, looked not behind: the two cows, untutored to the yoke, tractably proceeded with the symbols of JEHOVAHS presence: the two cows unacquainted with the road, but guided by a divine instinct, proceeded in the highway leading towards Shiloh. Then Philistia saw the profaneness of her sins: then she was humbled before Israels God, and glorified him in his judgments: then Israel heard and was instructed. Here are the true characters of national repentance; here is the genuine ground of national reform. So the penitent enemy of Israel learned to put away his sin, and God graciously removed his afflicting hand. Learn, oh my soul, even of these young cows, to subject thy carnal nature to the yoke, without making the smallest retrograde motion; and let it be offered up a burnt-sacrifice to the Lord, that the body of sin may be destroyed.

The men of Beth-shemesh were the first to see, and the first to rejoice at the arks return. How happy did they account themselves to give this early welcome to the return of the hallowed tokens of the Lords presence. Yes, and happy they were, had they been contented within the line prescribed. But curiosity prompted them to look into the ark; for they could not presume that the Philistines had plundered it of the tables, the parchments, the manna, and the almond rod, seeing it was returned with a trespass- offering. This was a violation of the law fully known and understood, therefore God smote them as he had smitten the Philistines; for with him is no respect of persons. He also designed thereby to make all Israel revere the ark of his strength. Learn then, reader, to revere the mysteries of the christian faith. The touching of the hallowed emblems of bread and wine belongs to hallowed men: without their blessing it is no sacrament. Adore, where thou canst not comprehend. Presume not to decide on secret and future things; and whatever can augment thy happiness shall be revealed in due time. Be assured it is far best to know secret things precisely in the order of providence.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Sa 6:1 to 1Sa 7:1. Ark Brought back to Beth-shemesh; Plague Breaks out there; Ark Housed at Kiriath-jearim.

1Sa 6:1 may not belong to the main story; 2 would be a better continuation of 1Sa 5:12. At the end of the verse LXX adds And their land swarmed with mice. This would prepare for the mice in 1Sa 6:4 f., 1Sa 6:11, 1Sa 6:18. Possibly these references to mice are survivals from a fuller form of the story, in which the mice figured more largely, or mice may have symbolised plague. One doubts whether it was known then that vermin carried the infection.

1Sa 6:2. diviners: qosem (see Deu 18:10).

1Sa 6:3. guilt-offering: asham, here not a sacrifice, but a compensation for injury; so also 2Ki 12:16; later on in the Priestly Code, a form of sacrifice (Lev 5:6).

1Sa 6:4. tumours: homoeopathic treatment; magic often seeks to control a person or thing by an image thereof. [This is especially the case with disease or loss. The sufferer takes to the sanctuary a figure of the diseased part of his body, fashioned of clay, bronze, or wax, and the peasant who has suffered a loss of cattle brings a representation of the animal. In the animistic stage of thought the image is thought to have a soul. Through its immanent psychical power it is to exercise magical coercion over the soul of the god. See Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology, pp. 438440.A. S. P.]

1Sa 6:6. wrought wonderfully among them: better made a mock of them (mg.).

1Sa 6:8 f. If the kine made straight for the nearest point of Israelite territory, it would show that they were under the control of the God of Israel and that it was His will that the Ark should be returned to its own country.

1Sa 6:8. coffer: The word so translated occurs only in this narrative and its meaning is not certain.

1Sa 6:9. Beth-shemesh: Jos 15:10, p. 31.

1Sa 6:14. There is no question of limiting sacrifice to the Tabernacle. The great stone may have been a sacred stone, or may have been used as an altar (1Sa 14:33-35).

1Sa 6:15. Editorial addition; later custom required that Levites should be present, both in connexion with the sacrifice, and as guardians of the Ark. The offering of further sacrifices seems out of place.

1Sa 6:16 continues 1Sa 6:14.

1Sa 6:17. Gaza: p. 28, Jdg 16:1*.Ashkelon: see p. 28.

1Sa 6:19. Read (mg.) with LXX, And the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the men of Beth-shemesh when they saw the ark of the Lord, and he smote of them seventy men, and the people mourned, etc.

1Sa 6:20. Identifies the Ark with Yahweh. Holy here denotes terrible majesty, which brings disaster on those who do not show due reverence.

1Sa 6:21. Kiriath-jearim: see Jos 9:17.

1Sa 7:1. sanctified: performed certain rites, ablutions, etc., which would be thought necessary to qualify Eleazar to become the custodian or priest of the Ark, and to protect him from its baleful holiness.The Ark now disappears from the history till 2Sa 6:2, which see for its fortunes in the interval. Its presence in 1Sa 14:18 is due to a mistake of a scribe. Probably the sanctuary at Shiloh was destroyed at this time, and our documents contained a statement to that effect, which for some reason has been omitted (cf. Jer 7:12*).

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

The seven months during which the Philistines had possessor of the ark was a full time in which to prove the severity of God’s hand in solemn displeasure. How could they bear it any longer? There is a question in their minds, however, as to how to send it back. If, as they discern, it has been an offense to God that they have taken the ark, how is that offense to be paid for? For this they consult their idolatrous priests and diviners, who tell them they must return it with a trespass offering.

Yet, how ignorant they are of what a true trespass offering is! For this God required a blood sacrifice, which is totally foreign to the unbelieving mind. They conceive the rather amusing notion (thinking it wise, no doubt) of sending five golden images of hemorrhoids and five of mice. Here we are told also that an infestation of mice had damaged their land, and they connected this also with God’s dealing with them on account on the ark. In this the five cities of the Philistines were represented. Men of the world are the same today, in spite of God’s having shown clearly that only the blood of Christ shed at Calvary can possibly atone for man’s sins. They think that some gift of their own temporal possessions ought to ingratiate God toward them, as though God, the Maker of the universe, possesses the same selfish nature as man does, grasping for material things! But God thinks no more of this than He did of Cain’s offering of the fruit of the ground (Gen 4:3-5). Still, these were not Jews, and God made no issue of it with the Philistines: the question of the ark’s return was the matter of greatest importance.

Verse 6 shows they were well acquainted with Israel’s deliverance from Egypt in the face of Pharoah’s cruel opposition, and that Pharoah’s stubbornness was eventually broken by God’s many miracles that caused great suffering in Egypt. So history warns them that if they harden their hearts they will prolong their suffering.

Though fully purposed to return the ark to Israel, the Philistines know nothing of God’s ways as to this, and resort to the natural expedient of sending it back to Israel on a new cart. Of course they might have invited the Jews to come and take it back to their land by means of the priests carrying it, as was God’s order. But God makes no issue of this with the Philistines. The cows they chose to pull the cart were not accustomed to this, and also were milk cows having new-born calves. They propose to give them no driver, but let them go as they will. With their calves locked up at home, their natural bent would have been to return directly to them. The images of gold were put in a coffer beside the ark.

This was to be the one last clear evidence to the Philistines of whether or not it was God who had plagued them because of the ark. If the cattle would go straight toward Beth-shemesh in Israel (the most direct route), then they would know that this affliction had been from God’s hand: if not, they would consider that only chance had been involved in the whole ordeal. Even though the previous evidence had been very clear, men are extremely slow to give God the honor that is rightly His.

But God allows no slightest question to remain. The cows take the straight road toward Beth-shemesh, in spite of their natural aversion to doing so, protesting all the way by lowing for their calves. The rulers of the Philistines followed them all the way to the border of Israel to make sure they did not turn back.

Of course the men of Beth-shemesh, busy at the time of harvest, were astonished and joyful to see the ark. The cows turned into a field of a certain man named Joshua and stopped beside a great stone. Levites came and removed the ark and the coffer of golden jewels from the cart to the stone, then cut up the wood of the ark and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. As to the five rulers of the Philistines, it is said only that they witnessed this and returned to Ekron. No mention is made of whether or not the plague was immediately eased in their land.

Verses 17 and 18 record the names of the five Philistine cities represented by the golden images of the hemorrhoids and mice, including their adjacent villages, and the fact that the great stone in Joshua’s field was still remaining when this record was written.

However, God proves again that He is no respecter of men. If the Philistines had suffered for their having the ark among them, the Israelites of Beth-shemesh suffer for daring to look into the ark. This would not have been allowed while the ark was in the temple, but men’s foolish curiosity evidently moved them to open the ark and look into it, at Beth-shemesh. The Lord Himself smote a large number of them, though Hebrew scholars consider that 50,000 is not a correct translation, and that 70 seems more likely. The spiritual significance of this is most important. The ark was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, the wood speaking of the humanity of the Lord Jesus, and the gold of His eternal deity. We must simply adore Him, not daring to speculate as regards how He can be God and Man in one Person. This would be looking into the ark.

Those who remained were rightly subdued with awe at this contemplation of the holiness of God. Of course the ark, the very representation of the throne of God, was rightly held in sacred esteem by Israel, and it was gross negligence for the men of Beth-shemesh to ignore this. They may have been greatly blessed if they had given it the solemn respect that was due, but being smitten as they had, they want the ark taken elsewhere. Apparently Kirjath-jearim was the closest town of any size, and was in the direction of Jerusalem, but they send messengers there to ask that someone from there should come down and bring the ark to Kirjath-jearim. Of course the ark should have been where a priest could care for it, but there is no mention of priests at all at this time, and evidently no-one was in the position of high priest. As to Shiloh and what had been called the temple there, we have no word whatever, or of anyone taking Eli’s place in the priesthood. How disordered everything had become in Israel, the priesthood having so failed that it held no apparent influence over the people at all.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

6:1 And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines {a} seven months.

(a) They thought by continuance of time the plague would have ceased, and so would have kept the ark still.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

1. The plan to terminate God’s judgment 6:1-9

The Philistines acknowledged Yahweh’s superiority over Dagon, but they believed they could manipulate Him (1Sa 6:3). Guilt offerings were common in ancient Near Eastern religions.

"Ancient religious protocol mandated that the worshiper not approach his god(s) empty-handed (cf. Exo 23:15; Deu 16:16)." [Note: Youngblood, p. 604.]

Evidently the reason the Philistines fashioned images of mice (1Sa 6:4) was that there was some connection between rodents and the swellings the Philistines suffered. [Note: John B. Geyer, "Mice and Rites in 1 Samuel V-VI," Vetus Testamentum 31:3 (July 1981):293-304.] This connection has led many interpreters to conclude that perhaps the Philistines had experienced something such as bubonic plague, which fleas living on rodents transmit. Bubonic plague causes swollen buboes or tumors. [Note: See Nicole Duplaix, "Fleas: The Lethal Leapers," National Geographic 173:5 (May 1988):672-94, for more information on bubonic plague.] Josephus diagnosed the problem as dysentery, which may have been an accompanying symptom. [Note: Josephus, 6:1:1.] Probably the Philistines intended that the models would trigger sympathetic magic, that is, that they would accomplish what they wanted when they did a similar thing. By sending the models out of their country they hoped the tumors and mice would depart too.

Yahweh had reduced the fertility of the crops of the Philistines as well as afflicting the people and their gods (1Sa 6:5). The Philistines remembered that this is what Yahweh had done to the Egyptians earlier (1Sa 6:6). The priests counseled the people not to harden their hearts as Pharaoh had done. Hardening the heart only brings divine retribution (cf. Jos 7:19).

"Milch" cows (1Sa 6:7; 1Sa 6:10) are cows that are still nursing their calves. It would be very unusual for nursing cows to leave their young and head for a town some 10 miles away. Indeed the Philistines regarded this behavior as miraculous and indicative that Yahweh had been punishing them.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

C. The Ark Returned to Israel by God 6:1-7:1

The writer added further evidence of the Philistines’ reverence for Yahweh and the Israelites’ spiritual blindness in this section.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER VII.

THE ARK AMONG THE PHILISTINES.

1Sa 5:1-12; 1Sa 6:1-21

ALTHOUGH the history in Samuel is silent as to the doings of the Philistines immediately after their great victory over Israel, yet we learn from other parts of the Bible (Psa 78:60-64 ) Jer 7:12; Jer 26:9) that they proceeded to Shiloh, massacred the priests, wrecked the city, and left it a monument of desolation, as it continued to be ever after. Probably this was considered an appropriate sequel to the capture of the ark – a fitting mode of completing and commemorating their victory over the national God of the Hebrews. For we may well believe that it was this unprecedented feature of their success that was uppermost in the Philistines’ mind. The prevalent idea among the surrounding nations regarding the God of the Hebrews was that He was a God of exceeding power. The wonders done by Him in Egypt still filled the popular imagination (1Sa 6:6); the strong hand and the outstretched arm with which He had driven out the seven nations of Canaan and prepared the way for His people were not forgotten. Neither in more recent conflicts had any of the surrounding nations obtained the slightest advantage over Him. It was in His name that Barak and Deborah had defeated the Canaanites; it was the sword of the Lord and of Gideon that had thrown such consternation into the hearts of the Midianites. But now the tide was completely turned; not only had the Hebrew God failed to protect His people, but ruin had come on both Him and them, and His very sanctuary was in Philistine hands. No wonder the Philistines were marvelously elated Let us sweep from the face of the earth every trace and memorial of His worship, was their cry. Let us inflict such humiliation on the spot sacred to His name that never again shall His worshippers be able to regain their courage and lift up their heads, and neither we nor our children shall tremble any more at the mention of His terrible deeds.

We have not one word about Samuel in connection with all this. The news from the battlefield, followed by the death of Eli and of the wife of Phinehas, must have been a terrible blow to him. But besides being calm of nature (as his bearing showed after he got the message about Eli’s house), he was habitually in fellowship with God, and in this habit enjoyed a great help towards self-possession and promptitude of action in sudden emergencies and perplexities. That the ill- advised scheme for carrying the ark into battle implied any real humiliation of the God of Israel, or would have any evil effect on the covenant sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he could not for a moment suppose. But the confusion and trouble that would arise, especially if the Philistines advanced upon Shiloh, was a very serious consideration. There was much left at Shiloh which needed to be cared for. There were sacred vessels, and possibly national records, which must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy. By what means Samuel was able to secure the safety of these; by what means he secured his own personal safety when “the priests fell by the sword” (Psa 78:64), we cannot say. But the Lord was with Samuel, and even in this hour of national horror He directed his proceedings, and established upon him the work of his hands.

The fact to which we have drawn attention, that it was over the God of Israel that the Philistines had triumphed, is the key to the transactions recorded so minutely in the fifth and sixth chapters. The great object of these chapters is to show how God undeceived the Philistines on this all-important point. He undeceived them in a very quiet, undemonstrative manner. On certain occasions God impresses men by His great agencies, – by fire and earthquake and tempest, by “stormy wind fulfilling His word.” But these are not needed on this occasion. Agencies much less striking will do the work. God will recover His name and fame among the nations by much humbler forces. By the most trifling exertion of His power, these Philistines will be brought to their wit’s end, and all the wisdom of their wisest men and all the craft of their most cunning priests will be needed to devise some propitiation for One who is infinitely too strong for them, and to prevent their country from being brought to ruin by the silent working of His resistless power.

1. First of all, the ark is carried to Ashdod, where stood the great temple of their God, Dagon. It is placed within the precincts of the temple, in some place of subordination, doubtless, to the place of the idol. Perhaps the expectation of the Philistines was that in the exercise of his supernatural might their god would bring about the mutilation or destruction of the Hebrew symbol. The morning showed another sight. It was Dagon that was humiliated before the ark – fallen to the ground upon his face. Next day a worse humiliation had befallen him. Besides having fallen, his head and hands were severed from the image, and only the stump remained. And besides this, the people were suffering extensively from a painful disease, emerods or hemorrhoids, and this too was ascribed to the influence of the God of the Hebrews. The people of Ashdod had no desire to prolong the contest. They gathered the lords of the Philistines and asked what was to be done. The lords probably concluded that it was a case of mere local ill-luck. But what had happened at Ashdod would not happen elsewhere. Let the ark be carried to Gath.

2. To Gath, accordingly, the ark is brought. But no sooner is it there than the disease that had broken out at Ashdod falls upon the Gittites, and the mortality is terrible. The people of Gath are in too great haste to call again on the lords of the Philistines to say what is to be done. They simply carry the ark to Ekron.

3. And little welcome it gets from the Ekronites. It is now recognized as the symbol of an angry God, whose power to punish and to destroy is unlimited. The Ekronites are indignant at the people of Gath. “They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.” The destruction at Ekron seems to have been more awful than at the other places – “The cry of the city went up to heaven.” The lords of the Philistines are again convened, to deliberate over the failure of their last advice. There is no use trying any other place in the country. The idea of local ill-luck is preposterous. Let it go again to its own place! is the cry. Alas that we have destroyed Shiloh, for where can we send it now? We can risk no further mistakes. Let us convene the priests and the diviners to determine how it is to be got quit of, and with what gifts or offerings it is to be accompanied. Would only we had never touched it!

The priests and the diviners give a full answer on all the points submitted to them. First, the ark when sent away must contain an offering, in order to propitiate the Hebrew God for the insults heaped on Him. The offering was to be in the form of golden emerods and golden mice. It would appear that in addition to the disease that had broken out on the bodies of the people they had had in their fields the plague of mice. These field-mice bred with amazing rapidity, and sometimes consumed the whole produce of the field. There is a slight difficulty about numbers here. There are to be five golden emerods and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines (1Sa 6:3); but it is said after (1Sa 6:18) that the number of the golden mice was according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities and country villages. It is surmised, however, that (as in the Septuagint) the number five should not be repeated in the middle of the first passage (1Sa 6:4-5), but that it should run, “five golden emerods, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, and golden mice, images of the mice that destroy the land.” The idea of presenting offerings to the gods corresponding with the object in connection with which they were presented was often given effect to by heathen nations. “Those saved from shipwreck offered pictures of the shipwreck, or of the clothes which they had on at the time, in the Temple of Isis; slaves and captives, in gratitude for the recovery of their liberty, offered chains to the Lares; retired gladiators, their arms to Hercules; and in the fifth century a custom prevailed among Christians of offering in their churches gold or silver hands, feet, eyes, etc., in return for cures effected in those members respectively in answer to prayer. This was probably a heathen custom transferred into the Christian Church; for a similar usage is still found among the heathen in India” (Speakers Commentary).

4. Next, as to the manner in which the ark was to be sent away. A new cart was to be made, and two milch cows which had never been in harness before were to be fastened to the cart. This was to be out of respect to the God of Israel; new things were counted more honourable, as our Lord rode on a colt “whereon never man had yet sat,” and His body was laid in a new sepulchre. The cows were to be left without guidance to determine their path; if they took the road to Judea, the road up the valley to Bethshemesh, that would be a token that all their trouble had come from the God of the Hebrews; but if they took any other road, the road to any place in the Philistine country, that would prove that there had only been a coincidence, and no relation of cause and effect between the capture of the ark and the evils that had befallen them. It was the principle of the lot applied to determine a grave moral question. It was a method which, in the absence of better light, men were ready enough to resort to in those times, and which on one memorable occasion was resorted to in the early Christian Church (Act 1:1-26). The much fuller light which God has given men on moral and religious questions greatly restricts, if it does not indeed abolish, the lawful occasions of resorting to such a method. If it be ever lawful, it can only be so in the exercise of a devout and solemn spirit, for the apostles did not make use of it by itself, but only after earnest prayer that God would make the lot the instrument of making known His will.

At last the ark leaves the land of the Philistines. For seven terrible months it had spread among them anxiety, terror, and death. Nothing but utter ruin seemed likely to spring from a longer residence of the ark in their territories. Glad were they to get rid of it, golden emerods, golden mice, new cart, milch kine, and all. We are reminded of a scene in Gospel history, that took place at Gadara after the devils drove the herd of swine over the cliff into the lake. The people of the place besought Jesus to depart out of their coasts. It is a solemn truth that there are aspects of God’s character, aspects of the Saviour’s character, in which He is only a terror and a trouble. These are the aspects in which God is seen opposed to what men love and prize, tearing their treasures away from them, or tearing them away from their treasures. It is an awful thing to know God in these aspects alone. Yet it is the aspect in which God usually appears to the sinner. It is the aspect in which our consciences present Him when we are conscious of having incurred His displeasure. And while man remains a sinner and in love with his sin, he may try to disguise the solemn fact to his own mind, but it is nevertheless true that his secret desire is to get rid of God. As the apostle puts it, he does not like to retain God in his knowledge (Rom 1:28). He says to God, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways” (Job 31:14). Nay, he goes a step further – “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psa 14:1). Where he still makes some acknowledgment of Him, he may try to propitiate Him by offerings, and to make up for the transgressions he commits in some things by acts of will-worship, or voluntary humiliation in other things. But alas! of how large a portion even of men in Christian lands is it true that they do not love God. Their hearts have no yearning for Him. The thought of Him is a disturbing, uncomfortable element. Heart communion with Him is a difficulty not to be overcome. Forms of worship that leave the heart unexercised are a great relief. Worship performed by choirs and instruments and aesthetic rules comes welcome as a substitute for the intercourse and homage of the soul. Could anything demonstrate more clearly the need of a great spiritual change? What but the vision of God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself can effect it? And even the glorious truths of redemption are not in themselves efficacious. The seed needs to fall on good soil. He that commanded the light to shine out of darkness must shine in our minds to give the light of the glory of God in the face of His Anointed. But surely it is a great step towards this change to feel the need of it. The heart that is honest with God, and that says, “O God Almighty, I do not love Thee, I am not happy in Thy presence, I like life better without Thee; but I am convinced that this is a most wretched condition, and most sinful. Wilt Thou, in infinite mercy, have compassion on me? Wilt Thou so change me that I may come to love Thee, to love Thy company, to welcome the thought of Thee, and to worship Thee in spirit and in truth?” – such a heart, expressing itself thus, will surely not be forsaken. How long it may be ere its quest is granted we cannot tell; but surely the day will come when the new song shall be put in its mouth – “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

5. And now the ark has reached Bethshemesh, in the tribe of Judah. The lords of the Philistines have followed it, watching it, as Miriam watched her infant brother on the Nile, to see what would become of it. Nor do they turn back till they have seen the men of Bethshemesh welcome it, till they have seen the Levites take it down from the cart, till they have seen the cart cleft, and the cows offered as a trespass offering, and till they have seen their own golden jewels, along with the burnt-offerings and sacrifices of the people of Bethshemesh, presented in due form to the Lord.

Thus far all goes well at Bethshemesh. The ark is on Hebrew soil. The people there have no fear either of the emerods or of the mice that so terribly distressed their Philistine neighbours. After a time of great depression the sun is beginning to smile on Israel again. The men of Bethshemesh are reaping their barley-harvest – that is one mercy from God. And here most unexpectedly appears the sight that of all possible sights was the most welcome to their eyes; here, unhurt and unrifled, is the ark of the covenant that had been given up for lost, despaired of probably, even by its most ardent friends. How could Israel hope to gain possession of that apparently insignificant box except by an invasion of the Philistines in overwhelming force – in such force as a nation that had but lately lost thirty thousand men was not able to command? And even if such an overwhelming expedition were to be arranged, how easy would it not be for the Philistines to burn the ark, and thus annihilate the very thing to recover which the war was undertaken? Yet here is the ark back without the intervention of a single soldier. No ransom has been given for it, no blow struck, nothing promised, nothing threatened. Here it comes, as if unseen angels had fetched it, with its precious treasures and still more precious memories just as before! It was like a foreshadow of the return from the captivity – an experience that might have found expression in the words, “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.”

Happy men of Bethshemesh, for whom God prepared so delightful a surprise. Truly He is able to do in us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! Never let us despair of God, or of any cause with which He is identified. ” Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;” “The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought; He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, and the thoughts of His heart to all generations.”

But alas! the men of Bethshemesh did not act according to the benefit received. Their curiosity prevailed above their reverence: they looked into the ark of the Lord. As if the sacred vessel had not had enough of indignity in the din of battle, in the temples of the uncircumcised Philistines, and in the cart drawn by the kine, they must expose it to a yet further profanation! Alas for them! their curiosity prevailed over their reverence. And for this they had to pay a terrible penalty. “The Lord smote of the men of Bethshemesh fifty thousand and three score and ten men.” It is the general opinion, however, that an error has slipped into the text that makes the deaths amount to fifty thousand threescore and ten. Bethshemesh was never more than a village or little town, and could not have had anything like so great a population. Probably the threescore and ten, without the fifty thousand, is all that was originally in the text. Even that would be ”a great slaughter” in the population of a little town. It was a very sad thing that an event so joyous should be clouded by such a judgment. But how often are times and scenes which God has made very bright marred by the folly and recklessness of men!

The prying men of Bethshemesh have had their counterparts many a time in more recent days. Many men, with strong theological proclivities, have evinced a strong desire to pry into the ”secret things which belong to the Lord our God.” Foreknowledge, election, free will, sin’s punishment – men have often forgot that there is much in such subjects that exceeds the capacity of the human mind, and that as God has shown reserve in what He has revealed about them, so men ought to show a holy modesty in their manner of treating them. And even in the handling of sacred things generally, in the way of theological discussion, a want of reverence has very often been shown. It becomes us all most carefully to beware of abusing the gracious condescension which God has shown in His revelation, and in the use which He designs us to make of it. It was an excellent rule a foreign theologian laid down for himself, to keep up the spirit of reverence – never to speak of God without speaking to God.

God has drawn very near to us in Christ, and given to all that accept of Him the place and privileges of children. He allows us to come very near to Him in prayer. “In everything,” He says, “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known unto God.” But while we gratefully accept these privileges, and while m the enjoyment of them we become very intimate with God, never let us forget the infinite distance between us, and the infinite condescension manifested in His allowing us to enter into the holiest of all. Never let us forget that in His sight we are “as dust and ashes,” unworthy to lift up our eyes to the place where His honour dwelleth. To combine reverence and intimacy in our dealings with God, – the profoundest reverence with the closest intimacy, is to realize the highest ideal of worship. God Himself would have us remember, in our approaches to Him, that He is in heaven and we on the earth. “Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity and whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, but with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the hearts of the contrite ones.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary