1 Samuel 6 - Introduction
VI. (1 Samuel 6:1) The Philistines return the Ark to Israel. The Citizens of Beth-shemesh forget its Sanctity. Their Punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
VI. (1 Samuel 6:1) The Philistines return the Ark to Israel. The Citizens of Beth-shemesh forget its Sanctity. Their Punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT SHALL WE DO TO THE ARK OF THE LORD? — During the seven months which followed the great Philistine victory of Aphek, the Ark remained in the country of the enemies of Israel. It was removed from temple to temple in the various cities, but the same doom always followed it. The inhabitants of the... [ Continue Reading ]
SEND IT NOT EMPTY. — The advice was to propitiate with gifts the powerful Hebrew Deity, whom they imagined was offended and angry at the insult offered Him — the being placed in an inferior position in the Dagon temple. The priests and diviners evidently thought that the Hebrew Deity, in some way r... [ Continue Reading ]
FIVE GOLDEN EMERODS, AND FIVE GOLDEN MICE. — It was a general custom in the nations of antiquity to offer to the deity, to whom sickness or recovery from sickness was ascribed, likenesses of the diseased parts; so, too, those who had escaped from shipwreck would offer pictures, or perhaps their garm... [ Continue Reading ]
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 Medi... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE EGYPTIANS AND PHARAOH HARDENED THEIR HEARTS. — We have here the traditional account of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, no doubt, as it was preserved in Philistia. These constant references to the story of Moses and the Exodus are indications of the deep impression those events had made... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEREFORE MAKE A NEW CART. — The note here in the _Speaker’s Commentary_ is interesting. “This was so ordered in reverence to the Ark, and was a right and true feeling. (See Numbers 19:2; 2 Samuel 6:3.) So our Lord rode on an ass ‘whereon never man sat’ (Mark 11:2), and His holy body was laid in... [ Continue Reading ]
IN A COFFER BY THE SIDE THEREOF. — The reverent awe with which these Philistines treated the Ark, which had, they supposed, wrought them such great evil, presents a strong contrast to the careless curiosity of the men of Beth-shemesh with regard to the same sacred object — a careless curiosity, whic... [ Continue Reading ]
IT WAS A CHANCE THAT HAPPENED TO US. — The priests and diviners were not certain whether the plague had been sent by the offended God of Israel or had visited Philistia in the ordinary course of nature. This strange experiment would satisfy the minds of the Philistine people. If the cows, contrary t... [ Continue Reading ]
WENT ALONG THE HIGHWAY, LOWING. — But the dumb beasts did what the idol priests and diviners scarcely considered possible, for God’s hand drove them. The narrative here throughout is evidently unadorned, very easy and natural, and speaks of primitive customs, telling its story of the Divine interfer... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY OF BETH-SHEMESH. — Beth-shemesh, or “House of the Sun,” nearly equivalent to Heliopolis, “City of the Sun,” was a priestly city. It would thus have seemed that this was a fitting home for the Ark of the Covenant to rest in for a time. Shiloh, the old sanctuary, was, we know, now desolate an... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FIELD OF JOSHUA, A BETH-SHEMITE. — The great stone — most likely a mass of natural rock rising from the soil — was the occasion of the cart being stopped there, Beth-shemesh and its suburbs being a city of the priests (Joshua 21:16). The presence of Levites, among whom were doubtless priests, is... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY RETURNED TO EKRON. — The five Philistine princes, when they had watched the strange scene from a distance, returned; their mission was accomplished, and the question solved as to the source of the plagues which had visited their country.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GOLDEN EMERODS. — The offering of the golden emerods (or _tumours_)_,_ including one for each of the five principal cities. In the preceding chapter only Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron are mentioned as abiding places of the Ark, but there is no doubt that during the “seven months” the sacred chest was... [ Continue Reading ]
(18)AND THE GOLDEN MICE. — We have here a far greater number of “golden mice” mentioned as being offered in expiation than appear specified in the directions of the priests and diviners (1 Samuel 6:4). The truth was that whilst the human sickness was confined to the five cities, the plague of field... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAD LOOKED INTO THE ARK. — Some commentators consider that the words here should be rendered, “because they had looked at the Ark” with a foolish irreverent staring, which dishonoured the holiness of the sacred mercy-seat; but it is better far to preserve the rendering of our English Version, w... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS ABLE TO STAND? — There is some superstition involved in this exclamation, “Whither shall we send this awful visitant?” The men of the priestly city of Beth-shemesh strangely connected their invisible King with that golden Ark, which, sacred though it was, was but a lifeless chest of wood and... [ Continue Reading ]
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.... [ Continue Reading ]