1 Samuel 6

This chapter concludes the ark narrative that begins in 1 Samuel 4. In the previous chapter the Philistines moved the captured ark to Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron, but wherever it went, a plague of tumors (malignant swellings) broke out. This chapter recounts how the Philistines return the ark to Israel.

Outline

• Verses 1–6 After the ark has been in Philistine territory for seven months, the Philistines ask their priests and diviners what to do with it. They advise against sending it back empty and instead recommend a trespass offering (an offering to make amends for guilt): five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines. They also urge the people not to harden their hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did.
• Verses 7–9 Two milk cows that have never borne a yoke are hitched to a new cart, and their calves are taken from them and kept at home. If the cows go up toward Beth-shemesh, the Philistines will conclude that the plague came from the God of Israel; if not, they will judge it to have been chance.
• Verses 10–16 Lowing as they go, the cows take the road to Beth-shemesh without turning to the right or the left, and the lords of the Philistines follow them as far as the border. The people of Beth-shemesh, who are reaping their wheat harvest, see the ark and rejoice. The cart stops beside a great stone in the field of Joshua, and the people split the wood of the cart and offer the cows as a burnt offering. The Levites set the ark and the coffer containing the gold objects on the great stone, and the five lords return to Ekron.
• Verses 17–18 One golden tumor was offered for each of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. The golden mice were offered according to the number of all the fortified cities and country villages belonging to the five lords.
• Verses 19–21 When (fifty thousand and) seventy men of Beth-shemesh are struck down for looking into the ark, the people mourn. Asking, "Who is able to stand?" they send messengers to Kiriath-jearim, asking its inhabitants to come and take the ark away.

Key Verses

• 1 Samuel 6:9 "…then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us." — This test of whether the plague came from the hand of God or by chance is often cited in discussions of providence.
• 1 Samuel 6:12 "And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh… lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left" — The cows' going straight ahead despite leaving their calves behind answers the sign the Philistines had set.
• 1 Samuel 6:20 "Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God?" — Here the joy of recovering the ark turns into fear before the holiness of God.

Characters and Places

• The five lords of the Philistines: the rulers of the five cities of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
• The priests and diviners: Philistine religious leaders who explain how the ark should be sent back.
• Joshua: a man of Beth-shemesh who owned the field where the cart carrying the ark stopped. He is not to be confused with Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' successor.
• The Levites: they take the ark and the coffer of gold objects down from the cart and set them on the great stone.
• Beth-shemesh: a town on the border of Judah adjoining Philistine territory. Joshua 21:16 lists it among the cities given to the descendants of Aaron.
• Kiriath-jearim: the town whose inhabitants the people of Beth-shemesh asked to come and take the ark away.

Points for Reflection

• Verse 6 directly recalls how, at the Exodus, Pharaoh let the people go only after suffering the ten plagues. The Philistines, though Gentiles, are portrayed as knowing of the events of the Exodus.
• The number in verse 19 reads awkwardly in the Hebrew text, where "seventy men" and "fifty thousand men" stand side by side. For this reason the Korean Revised Version places "fifty thousand" in parentheses, and some translations render the figure simply as seventy. The Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) is known to give a different reading of the first part of this verse.
• Many interpreters read the cause of the deaths—"looking into" the ark—in light of Numbers 4:20, which forbade even the Kohathites of the tribe of Levi to look upon the holy things.
• Leviticus 1:3 requires a burnt offering to be a male, yet here cows were offered as a burnt offering. Some commentaries note this.
• Because tumors and mice appear together, some interpreters suggest a disease spread by rodents, but the text does not name the illness.
• The chapter is not directly quoted in the New Testament. In 1 Samuel 7 the ark remains at Kiriath-jearim.

In Korean Churches

The cows that went to Beth-shemesh without turning to the right or the left, lowing as they left their calves behind (verse 12), are frequently used as a sermon text on obedience and devotion.