1 Samuel 6:17,18

We have here a specific description of the propitiatory offering actually sent; (a) a golden "boil" for each chief city: (b) a golden mouse for each city and village throughout the whole country. The apparent discrepancy between the latter statement and 1 Samuel 6:4 vanishes if we regard 1 Samuel 6:4 as merely the proposalof the priests, and 1 Samuel 6:18 as a description of what was actually done. The reason for the offering of mice from the whole country probably was that the plague of mice had ravaged the whole country, while the pestilence was chiefly confined to the great cities.

fenced cities Fortified or walled cities, contrasted with the "country villages" or unwalled towns. Cp. Deuteronomy 3:5.

even unto the great[stone of Abel If the present Heb. text is correct, Abel("lamentation") must be regarded as a proper name given to the great stone in Joshua's field from the lamentation for the disaster recorded in 1 Samuel 6:19. But there is no mention of such a name having been given to it: it is scarcely natural that this stone should be taken as the boundary of the land of the Philistines: and the sentence as it stands is ungrammatical. It seems best to follow the Targum and Sept. in reading "stone" instead of Abel, and to make a slight further alteration of the text, by which we obtain good sense and grammar: either (a) "And the great stone whereon they set down the ark of the Lord is a witness unto this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite. " (Cp. Genesis 31:52): or (b) " The great stone … remaineth unto this day."