Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 6:5

Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

5. images of your mice that mar the land ] The Heb. text now first definitely speaks of the plague of mice, which was alluded to in ch. 1Sa 5:6. The Sept. as we have seen mentions it in 1Sa 5:6 and 1Sa 6:1. The extraordinary voracity of field-mice, and the incredible rate at which they multiply, are noticed by many ancient writers on Natural History. Aristotle, in his History of Animals (VI. 37) says, “In many places mice are wont to appear in the fields in such unspeakable numbers, that scarce anything is left of the whole crop. So rapidly do they consume the corn, that in some cases small farmers have observed their crops ripe and ready for the sickle on one day, and coming the next with the reapers, have found them entirely devoured.”

In 1848, it is said, the coffee crop in Ceylon was entirely destroyed by mice.

These images are not to be compared with the talismans or amulets made by magicians and astrologers in later times to effect cures or avert evils, as is done by Kitto, who gives many examples of such charms ( Bible Illustrations, p. 84): nor with the thank-offerings for recovery in the form of the injured members which may be seen suspended at the altars of Roman Catholic churches in Switzerland and Italy at the present day: but with “a custom which according to the traveller Tavernier has prevailed in India from time immemorial, that when a pilgrim takes a journey to a pagoda to be cured of a disease, he offers to the idol a present, either in gold, silver, or copper, according to his ability, of the shape of the diseased or injured member. Such a present passes as a practical acknowledgment that the god has inflicted the suffering or evil.” Thus in the present case the Philistines offered “representations of the instruments of their chastisements” as an acknowledgment that the plagues of boils and mice were inflicted by the God of Israel, and were not “a chance.” Thereby they would “give glory to the God of Israel.” Cp. Rev 16:9.

The question has been raised, whether there was a plague of mice at all. The mouse was the Egyptian symbol of destruction, and the two kinds of images were, it is said, emblematic of the same thing, the pestilence. The words that mar the land may mean no more than “mice such as are commonly found in the country.” The theory is more ingenious than probable. The natural inference from the text certainly is that there was a plague of mice, and it is quite in accordance with the practice of Hebrew writers that in a condensed narrative like the present, the fact of the desolation of the country should be barely mentioned in ch. 1Sa 5:6; and the cause of it stated incidentally afterwards.

We should compare (though with caution) the Brazen Serpent (Num 21:8). ( a) It too represented the instrument of chastisement: ( b) Looking to it implied an acknowledgment of sin, and a desire for deliverance from punishment, as did the sending of these offerings by the Philistines.

1Sa 6:4-5 stand as follows in the Sept.: “And they say, What shall be the expiation for the plague which we shall return to it? And they said, According to the number of the satraps of the aliens five golden seats, for one calamity was on you, both on your rulers and on the people: and golden mice in the likeness of your mice that mar the land.” Possibly this is an intentional alteration to get rid of the apparent discrepancy with 1Sa 6:18. See note there.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 5. He will lighten his hand from off you] The whole land was afflicted; the ground was marred by the mice; the common people and the lords afflicted by the haemorrhoids, and their gods broken in pieces.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Glory unto the God of Israel; the glory of his power in conquering you, who seemed and pretended to have conquered him; of his justice in punishing you; and of his goodness if he shall relieve you.

From off your gods they so speak, either because not only Dagon, but their other gods also, were thrown down by the ark, though that be not related; or because the plural number in that case was commonly used for the singular.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. give glory unto the God ofIsraelBy these propitiatory presents, the Philistines wouldacknowledge His power and make reparation for the injury done to Hisark.

lighten his hand . . . fromoff your godsElohim for god.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods,…. Which some take to be images of the five cities; others of a man at large with the disease in his back parts; others of that part of the body of a man only, in a circular form, in which the disease was, and expressing that; but the text is plain for the disease only, as high large tumours: though Maimonides f says of these images, that the word is attributed to them, not because of their external form, but because of their spiritual virtue and influence; whereby the damage or disease of the emerods in the hinder parts were removed: he seems to take them to be a sort of talismans, which were images of a disease or noxious creature a country was infected with, made under some celestial influence to remove it; and Tavernier g relates, as Bishop Patrick observes, that it is a practice with the Indians to this day, that when any pilgrim goes to a pagoda for the cure of any disease, he brings the figure of the member affected, made either of gold, silver, or copper, according to his quality, which he offers to his god. There is a tradition among the Heathens, which seems to be borrowed from this history, and serves to establish the credit of it; the Athenians not receiving Bacchus and his rites with due honour, he was angry with them, and smote them with a disease in their private parts, which was incurable; on which they consulted the oracle, which advised them in order to be rid of the disease to receive the god with all honour and respect; which order the Athenians obeyed, and made images of the several parts, privately and publicly, and with these honoured the god in memory of the disease h: both the disease and cure are here plainly pointed at:

and images of your mice that mar the land; that devoured the fruits of it, as these creatures in many instances have been known to do; and particularly in Palestine, the country of the Philistines, where in some places their fields were sometimes almost deserted because of the abundance of them; and were it not for a sort of birds that devoured them, the inhabitants could not sow their seed i: the Boeotians sacrificed to Apollo Pornopion (which signifies a mouse), to save their country from them k; Aristotle l reports of field mice, that they sometimes increase to such incredible numbers, that scarce any of the corn of the field is left by them; and so soon consumed, that some husbandmen, having appointed their labourers to cut down their corn on one day, coming to it the next day, in order to cut it down, have found it all consumed; Pliny m speaks of field mice destroying the harvest; Aelianus n relates such an incursion of field mice into some parts of Italy, as obliged the inhabitants to leave the country, and which destroyed the corn fields and plants, as if they had been consumed by heat or cold, or any unseasonable weather; and not only seeds were gnawn, but roots cut up; so the Abderites o were obliged to leave their country because of mice and frogs:

and ye shall give glory to the God of Israel; by sending these images as monuments of their shameful and painful disease, and of the ruin of their fields; owning that it was the hand of the Lord that smote their bodies with emerods, and filled their fields with mice which devoured them; seeking and asking pardoning of him by the trespass offering they sent him:

peradventure he will lighten his hand from you: abate the violence of the disease, and at length entirely remove it:

and from your gods; not Dagon only, but others seem to have suffered, wherever the ark came: for the Philistines had other deities; besides Dagon at Ashdod, there were Baalzebub at Ekron, and Marnas at Gaza, and Derceto at Ashkelon; and perhaps another at Gath, though unknown; and besides the gods suffered, or however their priests, by the number of men that died, and by the fruits of the earth being destroyed; which must in course lessen their revenues: and from off your land; the fruits of which were destroyed by mice.

f Moreh Nevochim, par. 1. c. 1. g Travels, p. 92. h Scholia in Aristoph. Acharnen. Act ii. Scen. 1. p. 383, 384. Edit. Genev. 1607. i Magini Geograph. par. 2. fol. 241. k Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 1. c. 13. l Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 37. “—-saepe exiguus mus”, &c. Virgil, Georg. l. 1. v. 181, 182. m Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 65. n De Animal. l. 17. c. 41. o Justin. l. 15. c. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(5) Images of your mice.This is the first mention of the plague of mice in the Hebrew text. The Greek Version had (see above) carefully appended to the description of the bodily disease the account of this scourge which devastated the land of Philistia. In these warm countries which border the Mediterranean vast quantities of these mice from time to time seem to have appeared and devoured the crops. Aristotle and Pliny both mention their devastations. In Egypt this visitation was so dreaded that the mouse seems to have been the hieroglyphic for destruction. The curse then weighed heavily in Philistia, both upon man and the land.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. Images of your mice that mar the land This plague is here for the first time distinctly mentioned, though something of the kind is implied, 1Sa 5:6, where the coasts of Ashdod are said to have been smitten. A sudden and rapid increase of this little animal in seven months might be a sore plague indeed to the harvest fields of the Philistines. “Of all the smaller rodentia which are injurious, both in the fields and in the woods, there is not,” says Professor Bell, “one which produces such extensive destruction as this little animal when its increase, as is sometimes the case, becomes multitudinous.”

You your gods your land Their persons were plagued with boils, their gods with disgrace, and their land with mice.

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

1Sa 6:5. Ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land “It was an ancient rite,” says Mr. Locke, “that in case a city or country was infected with any plague of diseases or noxious creatures, the talismans were consulted, and desired to erect an image of the plague, under a certain influence of celestial configuration; and this was the cause why the Philistine astrologers gave counsel that golden images should be made of the hemoroides, and the mice that marred the land, to give glory to the God of Israel. These astrologers, who knew the history of the Israelites, see 1Sa 6:6 had perceived that this God had been pleased with the brazen serpent which Moses the talisman [so they would account him] set upon a pole in the wilderness; Num 21:8.; and I need not hesitate to affirm, that this brazen serpent against the fiery serpents, was the first occasion, I say not given but taken, of all these talismanical practices, says the learned Gregory.” Tavernier tells us, that something similar to what is related in the text is still practised among the Indians: for when a pilgrim there goes to a pagod for the cure of any disease, he brings the figure of the member affected, made either of gold, silver, or copper, according to his quality, which he offers to his god, and then falls a singing, as all others do after they have offered. See Travels, p. 92. It was also a custom among the ancient heathens, to consecrate to their gods the monuments of their deliverances.

REFLECTIONS.At the Ekronites’ importunate request, we have here,

1. A new council assembled. The ark of God had been with them now seven months, and long months they seemed, when every day presented new scenes of sorrow. The princes consult the priests and diviners, and their unanimous voice is to send it back without delay. Note; (1.) They who keep back their sins only prolong their sorrows. (2.) The heathen princes reverenced and consulted the priests of Dagon. Shall not they condemn the present irreligious contempt of the ministers of God?

2. How it must be sent, is the next consideration; and the priests and diviners direct the manner, and urge instant compliance. (1.) They admonish them of the danger of delay, from the history of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, with which they appear to be acquainted. Experience of what Israel’s God had done, should warn them not to harden their hearts. Note, It is far better to be warned by others’ experience than by our own. (2.) They prescribe a trespass-offering, that it may not return empty, but with an acknowledgment of their humiliation according to the nature of their plagues, five golden images of the hemorrhoids, and five golden mice, according to the number of their princes; for it seems this contemptible animal made as great havock in their fields, as the vile disease did on their persons. They seem to have learnt the necessity of a satisfaction to offended justice, though they miserably mistook the way. (3.) In this case, they hoped the disease would be removed, or alleviated; and this would be a proof that their detention of the ark was the cause of it. Note; When we have repented of our sin, we may hope for the removal of our sorrow. (4.) To put the case beyond all doubt, whether their plagues were of God, they prescribe a cart to carry it, drawn by two milch-kine, whose calves being detained at home, they would naturally return thither, and who, being without a driver, would hardly be supposed of themselves to take the road of Beth-shemesh, the nearest city of Israel; yet on this they would rest the evidence, from whose hands their plagues came; and if the beasts went not the direct road, which were a miracle itself if they did, they would conclude their disease to be a mere chance, and not of God. Note; (1.) Wicked men would fain shift off their convictions, and ascribe their sufferings to any cause rather than the hand of God. (2.) The very means men take to confirm themselves in infidelity, through God’s infinite grace, sometimes turn out to their more unanswerable conviction of the truth.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Sa 6:5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

Ver. 5. Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods. ] Similitudines anorum vestrorum, so the Vulgate rendereth it. And indeed they could not well make the images of their emerods, without making images of their secret parts, where they brake out; which could not but redound to their great shame and perpetual ignominy.

And images of your mice that mar the land. ] Pliny a out of Varro telleth us of a town in Spain undermined and overturned by conies: of another in Thessaly, by moles: a third in France, by frogs: a fourth in Africa, by locusts: and a fifth in Guarus marred by mice. He writeth b also, that the inhabitants of Troas were driven out of their town by mice. And no longer since than in the year of grace 1581, in the county of Essex, an army of mice so overran the marshes in Dengey-hundred, near unto Southminster, that they ate the grass to the very roots; and so tainted the same with their venomous teeth, that a great murrain fell upon the cattle which grazed thereon. c

a Lib. viii. cap. 29.

b Lib. x. cap. 68.

c Speed, in Essex.

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