1 Samuel 6:5

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. 1 Samuel 5:6. The Sept. as we have seen mentions it in 1 Samuel 5:6 and 1 Samuel 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 talismansor amuletsmade 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 recoveryin 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. Revelation 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 landmay 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 factof the desolation of the country should be barely mentioned in ch. 1 Samuel 5:6; and the causeof it stated incidentally afterwards.

We should compare (though with caution) the Brazen Serpent (Numbers 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.

1 Samuel 6:4 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 1 Samuel 6:18. See note there.