Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 6:21
And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, [and] fetch it up to you.
21. Kirjath-jearim ] i.e. “ city of forests,” originally belonged to the Gibeonites (Jos 9:17), and was one of the frontier cities of Judah (Jos 15:9).
The site is probably to be fixed at the modern village of Kuryet-el-enab, i.e. “city of the grape,” which stands among the hills, 8 or 9 miles N.E. of Ain Shems. “A ride over ruined rocky paths, some of the worst in the country, brought us to Kureit-el-Enab, the ancient Kirjath-jearim, in a pleasant valley of olive-groves, abounding in jays and hawks. We dismounted to visit the old Gothic church, said to have been built by the English Crusaders, and still quite perfect, though desecrated by the Moslem villagers to the uses of a cow-shed.” Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 397. [See however Add. Note IX. p. 245.]
Kirjath-jearim was also called Baalah (Jos 15:9), Baale-Judah (2Sa 6:2), and Kirjath-baal (Jos 15:60), names which point to the former existence of Baal-worship in the place.
The Ark was probably taken to Kirjath-jearim, which was neither a priestly nor Levitical city, as being the nearest place of importance on the road to Shiloh, but why it was not restored to its old resting-place does not appear. Possibly Shiloh, as the central seat of worship and government, was occupied by the Philistines after the battle of Aphek. Certainly it never regained its old importance. See Jer 7:12-14; Jer 26:6.
come ye down ] Kirjath-jearim was among the hills of Judah on higher ground than Beth-shemesh.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Kirjath-jearim – See Jos 9:17 note. It has been thought that there was a high place at Kirjath-jearim (the hill, 1Sa 7:1), the remnant of its old pagan sanctity when it was called Kirjath-Baal, the city of Baal (see Jos 18:14; 2Sa 6:2); and that for this reason it was selected as a proper place to send the ark to.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. To the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim] They wished the ark away out of their village, but why they sent to this city instead of sending to Shiloh, does not appear: probably Shiloh had been destroyed by the Philistines, after the late defeat of Israel. This is most likely, as the ark was never more taken back to that place.
IT was a very ancient usage, when a plague or other calamity infested a country, city, c. for the magicians to form an image of the destroyer, or of the things on which the plague particularly rested, in gold, silver, ivory, wax, clay, c., under certain configurations of the heavens and to set this up in some proper place, that the evils thus represented might be driven away. These consecrated images were the same that are called talismans, or rather telesms, among the Asiatics. Mr. Locke calls the diviners talismans, but this is a mistake the image, not the fabricator, was called by this name.
I have seen several of these talismans, of different countries; and such images were probably the origin of all the forms of gods which, in after times, were the objects of religious worship. It is well known that Ireland is not infested with any venomous creature; no serpent of any kind is found in it: –
“No poison there infects, no scaly snake
Lurks in the grass, nor toads annoy the lake.”
This has been attributed to a telesm, formed with certain rites under the sign Scorpio. Such opinions have been drawn from very ancient pagan sources: e.g.: A stone engraved with the figure of a scorpion, while the moon is in the sign Scorpio, is said to cure those who are stung by this animal. Apollonius Tyaneus is said to have prevented flies from infesting Antioch, and storks from appearing in Byzantium, by figures of those animals formed under certain constellations. A brazen scorpion, placed on a pillar in the city of Antioch, is said to have expelled all such animals from that country. And a crocodile of lead is also said to have preserved Cairo from the depredations of those monsters. See Calmet.
Virgil refers to this custom, Eclogue viii., ver. 80, where he represents a person making two images or telesms, one of wax, another of clay, which were to represent an absent person, who was to be alternately softened or hardened, as the wax or clay image was exposed to the fire: –
Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit
Uno et eodem igni: sic nostro Daphnis amore.
“As this clay hardens, and this wax softens, by one and the same fire, so may Daphnis by my love.”
This thought is borrowed from Theocritus, Idyl. ii., ver. 28.
A beautiful marble figure of Osiris, about four inches and a quarter high, now stands before me, entirely covered with hieroglyphics; he is standing, and holds in each hand a scorpion and a snake by the tails, and with each foot he stands on the neck of a crocodile. This I have no doubt was a telesm, formed under some peculiar configuration of the heavens, intended to drive away both scorpions and crocodiles. This image is of the highest antiquity, and was formed probably long before the Christian era.
Tavernier observes that something like what is mentioned in the text is practiced among the Indians; for when a pilgrim goes to one of the idol temples for a cure, he brings the figure of the member affected, made either of gold, silver, or copper, according to his circumstances, which he offers to his god. This custom was common among the heathens, and they consecrated to their gods the monuments of their deliverance. From heathenism it was adopted by corrupt Christianity; and Theodoret informs us that in his time there might be seen about the tombs of the martyrs figures of eyes, hands, feet, and other parts of the body, which represented those of the offerers which they supposed had been healed by the intercession of those holy persons! This degrading superstition is continued among the papists to the present day: I have seen at St. Winifred’s well, in Holywell, Flintshire several staves, crutches, and handbarrows, hung up in different places, which were reported to be the votive offerings of the maimed, the halt, the withered, c., who had received their cure by the virtue of the saint! It is true the crutches are such as no man or woman could ever walk with and the barrows are such as most evidently never carried any human being. But they serve the purpose of superstition, and keep up an idolatrous reverence for the well and the legendary virgin.
After all, I need not say that the system of judicial astrology is vain, unfounded, absurd, and wicked. It in effect presumes to take the government of the world out of the hand of an all-wise God, and to abandon it to the most fortuitous and unconnected occurrences of life; for the stars have their influences according to this pretended science, conformably to the occurrences here below: e.g., if a child be born but one hour sooner or later than a particular configuration of the heavens, his destiny will be widely different from what it otherwise would have been; and as an almost infinite number of casualties may accelerate or retard a birth, consequently the whole destiny of man is influenced and ruled by these casualties: to say nothing of the absurdity, that those omnipotent stars ever can affect the infant while invested with a thin covering of flesh in the womb of its parent. But the whole science is a tissue of absurdities.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They sent to Kirjath-jearim, either because the place was not far from them, and so it might soon be removed, which they mainly desired; or because it was a place of eminency and strength, and somewhat further distant from the Philistines, where therefore it was likely to be better preserved from any new attempts of the Philistines, and to be better attended by the Israelites, who would more freely and frequently come to it at such a place, than in Beth-shemesh, which was upon the border of their enemies land; or because they thought they would gladly receive it, being a pious and zealous people; or because it was in the way to Shiloh, its ancient habitation, and whither they might suppose it was to be carried by degrees and several stages, whereof this was one.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. Kirjath-jearim“thecity of woods,” also called Kirjath-baal (Jos 15:60;Jos 18:14; 1Ch 13:6;1Ch 13:7). This was the nearesttown to Beth-shemesh; and being a place of strength, it was a morefitting place for the residence of the ark. Beth-shemesh being in alow plain, and Kirjath-jearim on a hill, explains the message, “Comeye down, and fetch it up to you.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim,…. Which was a city further on in the tribe of Judah, and lay among some woods, from whence it had its name, and was formerly called Kirjathbaal, from Baal’s being worshipped there; of which see
Jos 15:9, they might choose to send hither to fetch the ark from them, because it was at a greater distance from the Philistines, their city Bethshemesh being on the borders of them; and because it might be a place of greater eminence and strength, and besides lay in the way to Shiloh, whereby they might suppose it was intended to be had; unless Shiloh was before this time destroyed:
saying, the Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord; which they doubted not would be good news to them:
come ye down, and fetch it up to you; but say not one word of the reason of this request, lest it should discourage them; but rather represent it as a favour to them, and an honour done them, as indeed it was. Kirjathjearim seems to have stood on an eminence in comparison of Bethshemesh, and therefore it is said to come down from the one, and go up to the other. That Bethshemesh was in a valley, see 1Sa 6:13 and this on a hill, 1Sa 7:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(21) Kirjath-jearim.Kirjath-jearim should be spelt and pronounced Kirjatb-jearim, the city of woods (wood-ville, wood-town, wooton). Its modern name is Kurzet-el-Erab, the city of grapes, the woods being in later days replaced by vines.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Kirjath-jearim A city about seven miles northeast of Beth-shemesh, and the nearest large town on the way from Beth-shemesh to Shiloh. This may have been one reason why the Beth-shemites sent thither for men to come down and fetch up the ark. Ancient Kirjath is represented by the modern village Kuriet-el-Enab, “city of grapes.” See note on Jos 9:17.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
(21) And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.
Kirjath-jearim means the city of woods: and it belonged to Judah. It was one of the cities of the Gibeonites originally, see Jos 9:17 . Alas! for the men of Bethshemesh, had they known the preciousness of the presence of him whom the ark represented, how reluctantly would they have parted with the ark. We meet with a yet more striking instance of ignorance and blindness in the Gergesenes in the days of our Lord, who having given such a decided demonstration of his power and Godhead in the dispossessing of devils, the whole city besought him to depart out of their coasts. Mat 8:34 . Precious Jesus! how sweet the thought! that neither my ingratitude for all thy mercies, nor all my neglect of thee, which seemed to wish thy departure from me, hath provoked thee to leave me. No, dear Lord! thou wilt never leave me nor forsake me.
REFLECTIONS
THINK my soul, how awful the state of Israel was during the seven months God was pleased to punish them for their transgressions, in depriving them of the ark. Truly awful indeed, is the condition of all men who live without God, and without Christ in the world. But chiefly ye people of God, whose backslidings make barren your ordinances and leave them but as the mere shell and carcase of religion. Let such determine what it is to visit ordinances, and find not the God of ordinances. To have the form, but not the power of godliness. Oh! for the unceasing presence of God in Christ, in the assemblies of his people.
But behold my soul in what is here represented of the bringing back the ark, how the Lord works when as he saith himself, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. It is all of divine grace. Not our merit, not our exertions, not our prayers, not our labours; but thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, O Lord, are the sole cause for which thou savest and redeemest thy people, for thy name’s sake.
Precious Jesus! thou everlasting ark of thy church and people, thou art eternally fixed in Zion. And oh! how divinely reared for the security of my soul. Never, like the men of Beth-shemesh, would I presumptuously look into the secret things which belong unto the Lord our God. But with an eye unto thee and all thy suitableness, and all-sufficiency for the sinner’s security, would I come unto thee in the way appointed. Surely, blessed Jesus, thou art thyself the very throne of grace, the very ark and mercy-seat, from whence all tokens of salvation come, and in whom Jehovah is accessible to all the humble requests of my soul. In thy blood and righteousness I find the removal of guilt, and the confidence of justification. In thy dear person I have all I need, both for security and comfort. Thou art my dwelling place whereunto I may always resort. Lord Jesus! cause me never to lose sight of thee in all my approaches. In thy name would I rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness make my boast; for thou art both the ark and the glory of our strength, and in thy favor our horn shall be exalted.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 6:21 And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, [and] fetch it up to you.
Ver. 21. Fetch it up to you, ] viz., Lest the Philistines fetch it again; so they pretend, howsoever. Nature need not be taught to tell her own tale.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Kirjathjearim: Jos 18:14, Jdg 18:12, 1Ch 13:5, 1Ch 13:6, Psa 78:60, Jer 7:12, Jer 7:14
Reciprocal: 1Sa 7:1 – Kirjathjearim Psa 78:67 – General Eze 25:15 – to destroy Mar 5:15 – and they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 6:21. Kirjath-jearim Whither they sent, either because the place was not far off from them, and so it might soon be removed: or, because it was a place of eminence and strength, and somewhat farther distant from the Philistines, where therefore it was likely to be better preserved from any new attempts of the Philistines, and to be better attended by the Israelites, who would more freely and frequently come to it at such a place than in Beth-shemesh, which was upon the border of their enemies land.