Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 5:8
They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about [thither].
8. all the lords of the Philistines ] A peculiar term Seren is used exclusively to denote the five ‘lords’ who ruled in the five cities of the Philistine confederacy. In all probability it preserves their native title. They had all equal rights, for though Achish is called “ king of Gath” in ch. 1Sa 21:10, 1Sa 27:2, this is only from a foreign point of view, and he could not overrule the decision of his colleagues (1Sa 29:6-11). Here we find one city appealing to the rest for counsel in the calamity which had befallen it.
unto Gath ] Gath may have been chosen because there was no Dagon-temple there, the Philistines attributing the plague to the antagonism between Jehovah and Dagon.
The site of Gath cannot be fixed with certainty, but Mr Porter and Lieut. Conder agree in the conclusion that it probably stood on the conspicuous hill now called Tell-es-Sfi, 12 miles E. of Ashdod, at the foot of the mountains of Judah. “The position is one of immense strength, guarding the mouth of the valley of Elah.” Hence its importance as a border fortress, commanding one of the main approaches from Philistia to Judaea. It was captured by David (1Ch 18:1), fortified by Rehoboam (2Ch 11:8), taken by Hazael (2Ki 12:17), retaken and dismantled by Uzziah (2Ch 26:6). There is no further notice of it in the Bible: but the Crusaders occupied Tell-es-Sfi, and built the fortress of Blanche Garde upon it.
Gath was the native place of Goliath (ch. 1Sa 17:4): and the refuge of David from the persecutions of Saul (ch. 1Sa 21:10, 1Sa 27:3).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The lords (see Jdg 3:3) were very unwilling to give up their triumph, and, with the common pagan superstition, imagined that some local bad luck was against them at Ashdod. The result was to bring the whole Philistine community under the same calamity.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 5:8
What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel.
The ark of God
It often happens that when a person has at last obtained that which he most desired he does not know what to do with it. This may be said of money after a life of economy and strict attention to business; of repose after a life of toil; and of many other aims and objects in life. Now in the passage quoted you find the Philistines in a similar difficulty: they had obtained possession of that which they considered the greatest prize of warfare. It was a mighty spoil; it caused no little joy to the Philistines; but his loss was a terrible and crushing blow to Israel. The ark had changed hands. The Philistines had now in their custody the Ark of God. It was a sore trouble to them. That material construction is now long ago broken up and destroyed: the wood and gold have perished; but the Divine Presence still lives on. The Church preserves her identity under all adverse circumstances: the Ark remained the same sacred witness to Gods Truth wherever carried. (2Co 2:15-16.) It is wonderful to notice how Gods Spirit forces this fact upon the world. The world is compelled to recognise the presence of religion, however it may recoil from the claims of religion. The history of the world ever since the Christian era commenced is a proof of this: what would become of any record of the first three centuries which failed to take account of the religious element? The history of the Roman Empire at that time is, in fact, the history of the Church. History tells you how Christianity springing up in the Roman provinces perplexed the authorities; how at last it spread; how outbreaks of persecution only tended to strengthen and deepen its roots; but yet all proves how the world had begun to ask this question as to the religion of the day: What shall we do with the Ark of God? Then, again: how much more attentively the action of the Church is now watched by the public, than used to be the case formerly. Whatever it be which relates to religion, there is the same watchfulness from without. Again and again the world enquires, at moments the most trivial, at social parties, at merry meetings, just for the sake of saying something, or to start a subject, What shall we do with the Ark of God? And see only how religion is employed to puff literature. Some periodical or magazine is started: it will not sell unless there be an element of religion in it. It is only one other instance of the editor eyeing religion, considering what he can get out of the religious element which will find him readers: he only says, What shall we do with the Ark of God? And further. Consider the prejudices of the present day. Mark the obvious success of attempts which at first were regarded cynically or coldly. The world has been convinced that Church principles cannot easily be laughed out of court, and that conscientious convictions are worthy of respect; that blameless lives conduce to the welfare of society. So gradually the world tempers its opposition; it wishes to moderate religious enthusiasm; it desires to reduce the Church to its own level; it would like to enjoy all successes which the Church achieves in fashioning well-ordered citizens; but at the same time the world would tie down the action of the Church to the limits of the popular will. What shall we do to these men? For that a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all those that dwell in Jerusalem. What shall we do with the Ark of God? But with regard to your own relation to holy things; does not this perplexity of the Philistines find an answer in your own hearts? You have lived many years with the light of truth burning brightly before you, God has cast your lot in a Christian land, not in a land of idols. God has blessed you with a religious home, with serious parents. How have you regarded holy things? Have not you sometimes felt them irksome? as if you did not quite know what to do with religion; as if the things of God stood in your way; as if they shackled you; as if they dwarfed the development of your life, and paralysed somewhat the hopes of your career? And yet you did not like to send the Ark away; you would not give up religion; you recognised its value too highly; you were afraid to east off God and to disown Him; yet a secret wish sprang up that you had never known so much of truth; you almost deemed the heathen happy, because you fancied that he could have no embarrassing scruples. What were you to do with the Ark of God! It so often came across your path; every now and then disputing the way; telling you that you must not do this or that. At such moments did not religion seem unwelcome? somewhat as an intruder? For thus it is that religious scruples do harass men when they least like it. Gods mercy sends the Angel to bar the way: and such is Gods love, the Angel moves further and further into narrow places, where there is no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left; narrow places where the choice more directly confronts the sinner; where he may see more evidently the blackness of sin in contrast with the pure white light of holiness. There is nothing more contemptible, or more miserable, than shifting about between two opinions. The Philistines were never more wretched than when they were employed in passing on the Ark from one city to another. Shame and disease marked that period of seven months indecision. It was far better when they sent the Ark back to its rightful owners. At least it was a decided step; there was no halting between two opinions if you want to insult God, then, use religion as a tool for your own convenience and not as a principle of life. The sin of the world has lain chiefly in this prostitution of religion. It has proved the curse and downfall of nations; the deterioration and ruin of man. Heathen ignorance is better than Christian indifference; depend upon it, nothing is so prolific of infidelity as indecision. Balaam tampering with the commands of God; Ahab sending for, but not obeying, Micaiah; Herod hearing John gladly, but persisting in his adultery; Judas following Jesus, but selling Him for silver; Demas beginning well, but falling away to self-indulgence; these are the emissaries which the devil employs to deceive mankind. Rather learn by Gods grace to regard religion and truths claims not as a moral intrusion, but as affording a principle on which to rule your life. Religion is not a subject to be handled at our will; it is not just now and then to serve our turn, and then to be laid aside for some possible future use; but it is a principle to enter into all our ways. (C. A. Raymond, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. The lords of the Philistines] The word sarney, which we translate lords, is rendered by the Chaldee tureney, tyrants. The Syriac is the same. By the Vulgate and Septuagint, satrapae, satraps. Palestine was divided into five satrapies: Ashdod, Ekron, Askelon, Gath, and Gaza. See Jos 13:8. But these were all federates and acted under one general government, for which they assembled in council.
Let the ark – be carried about] They probably thought that their affliction rose from some natural cause; and therefore they wished the ark to be carried about from place to place, to see what the effects might be. If they found the same evil produced wherever it came, then they must conclude that it was a judgment from the God of Israel.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Supposing that this plague was confined to Ashdod for some particular reasons, or that it came upon them by chance, or from some bad influence of the air, or of the stars, or for putting it into Dagons temple, which they resolved they would not do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them,…. The other four lords, for there were five with this; see Jos 13:3,
and said, what shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? they no doubt told them what they and their idol had suffered on account of it, and the resolution they were come to that it should be no longer with them; and therefore desire to know what must be done with it, whether they should return it to the people of Israel, or dispose of it somewhere else; it is probable some might be for the former, but the greater part were not, and were for keeping it in their possession somewhere or another:
and they answered, let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath; which was another of the five principalities of the Philistines, and not far from Ashdod; according to Jerom x, it is included in the remnant of Ashdod, Jer 25:20 and according to Bunting y but four miles from it. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions make this to be the answer of the men of Gath, the one reading it,
“and they of Gath said, let the ark of God come to us;”
and the other,
“they of Gath answered, let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about;”
for they suspected, as Procopius Gazaeus observes, that the destruction did not come from God, but was a disease arising from some pestilential cause. They perhaps imagined it was in the air in and about Ashdod, or that though the situation of the ark was not liked, in another place it might be otherwise, and more agreeable:
and they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither; they seem not to carry it directly to the place, but carried it in a round about way, as if they had a mind to give it an airing, before they fixed it any where.
x Comment. in Hierem. c. 25. fol. 151. B. y Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 123.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(8) Gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them.The Philistine federation seems to have been a very powerful one, and owing to the disinclination of the Israelites to maritime pursuits and foreign commerce[the foreign commercial expeditions of King Solomon were apparently quite exceptional]held in their hands a large proportion of the Mediterranean tradethe Mediterranean being the great highway between Eastern and Western nations; hence, no doubt, the worship of Dagon, the fish-god. It seems to have been something more than mere Nature worship, the devotion of the Phnician settlers on the sea-board of Syria and Canaan to a marine deity. The constitution of Philistia was oligarchical: that is, the government was in the hands of a College of Princes, whose decision no individual could oppose. The princes (seranim) are the heads of the several city districts, which formed a confederation, each one of the five chief cities holding a number of places, country cities, or daughter cities, as its special district. (See Erdmann in Langes Commentary.) Dr. Payne Smith (Dean of Canterbury) has an ingenious and scholarly derivation for the titular designation of these lords (Hebrew, seranim), in which, rejecting the usual root sar, a prince, he connects the word with seren, a hinge; just, he says, as the cardinals of the Church of Rome take their name from cardo, which has the same meaning.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. They sent Feeling now that, though they had vanquished the Israelites, they could not endure the severe hand of their God, the lords of the Philistines come together in solemn convocation, and the great question before them is:
What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel Their prize has become a sore burden on their hands, and they know not how to dispose of it. At length they decide:
Let the ark be carried about unto Gath They seem to have imagined that the difficulty might have arisen from some local cause, and that a change of place might disarm the ark of its power. The site of Gath has long remained unknown. In 1857 Revelation J.L. Porter explored Philistia in special search of it, and supposes he has identified it with Tell-es-Safieh, which is situated ten miles east of Ashdod, and nearly the same distance south of Ekron.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Ark in Gath and Ekron
v. 8. They sent, therefore, and gathered all the lords of the Philistines, v. 9. And it was so that, after they had carried it about, v. 10. Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron, v. 11. So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, v. 12. And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
(8) They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. (9) And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. (10) Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. (11) So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. (12) And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
Is it not strange that men’s minds should be so far convinced by God’s judgments, as to see God’s hand in their afflictions: and yet should not be led further humbly to enquire the cause and seek relief. Alas, Reader! the history of this disease of the mind in the blindness and ignorance induced by the fall, is not confined to the Philistines. Elihu tells us in the book of Job, that by reason of the multitude of oppressions the oppressed are made to cry: but none saith, Where is God my Maker? Groans and cries even to Heaven, shall go forth and go up, but not to the God of Heaven. Blindness still reigns and ever must reign, until God who commands the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in the heart. The world by wisdom knew not God. See Job 35:9 ; 2Co 4:6 ; 1Co 1:21 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 5:8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about [thither].
Ver. 8. What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? ] Vexation should have given them understanding: and they should have consulted in this case with the priests and people of God, who could best have directed them what to do: but this they were farthest from. Afflictions, God’s hammers, without the Holy Ghost and his fire, do but beat upon cold iron.
Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about.
a Joseph., lib. vi. cap. 1.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
lords = princes. See note on Jos 13:3.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
What shall: Zec 12:3
Gath: 1Sa 17:4, Amo 6:2
Reciprocal: 1Sa 6:17 – Gath 1Sa 6:20 – General 1Sa 29:2 – the lords 1Ch 18:1 – Gath
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, {d} What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about [thither].
(d) Though they had felt God’s power and were afraid of it, yet they tried him even further, which God turned to their destruction and his glory.