(KJV) 1 Samuel 61

<< 1 Samuel 5 1 Samuel 7 >>

⥃The Ark Returned to Israel

[1] And the ark2 of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months.3 [2] And the Philistines called4 for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? tell us wherewith5 we shall send it to his place. [3] And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty6; but in any wise return him a trespass7 offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known8 to you why his hand is not removed from you. [4] Then said they, What [shall be] the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden9 emerods, and five golden mice, [according to] the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague [was] on you all10, and on your lords. [5] Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice11 that mar the land; and ye shall give glory12 unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten13 his hand from off you, and from off your14 gods, and from off your land. [6] Wherefore then do ye harden15 your hearts, as the Egyptians16 and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully17 among them, did they not18 let the people19 go, and they departed? [7] Now therefore make a new cart20, and take two milch kine, on which21 there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: [8] And take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels22 of gold, which ye return him [for] a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go. [9] And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth–she23mesh24, [then] he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall25 know that [it is] not his hand26 [that] smote us; it [was] a chance27 [that] happened to us.

[10] And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home: [11] And they laid28 the ark of the Lord upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods. [12] And the kine took the straight way to the way of Beth–shemesh, [and] went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside [to] the right hand or [to] the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth–shemesh. [13] And [they of] Beth–shemesh [were] reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see [it]. [14] And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth–shemite, and stood there, where [there was] a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered29 the kine a burnt offering unto the Lord. [15] And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the coffer that [was] with it, wherein the jewels of gold [were], and put [them] on the great stone: and the men of Beth–shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord. [16] And when the five30 lords of the Philistines had seen [it], they returned31 to Ekron the same day. [17] And these32 [are] the golden emerods which the Philistines returned [for] a trespass offering unto the Lord; for Ashdod33 one, for Gaza34 one, for Askelon35 one, for Gath36 one, for Ekron37 one; [18] And the golden mice, [according to] the number of all the cities of the Philistines [belonging] to the five lords38, [both] of fenced cities, and of country villages, even unto the great [stone of39] Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord: [which stone remaineth] unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Beth–shemite.

[19] And he smote40 the men of Beth–shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand41 and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten [many] of the people with a great slaughter. [20] And the men of Beth–shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us?42

[21] [¶]And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath–jearim43, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord; come ye down, [and] fetch it up to you.

<< 1 Samuel 5 1 Samuel 7 >>

  1. 1Sam 6:1, After seven months the Philistines take counsel how to send back the ark; 1Sam 6:10, They bring it on a new cart with an offering unto Beth–shemesh; 1Sam 6:19, The people are smitten for looking into the ark; 1Sam 6:21, They send to them of Kirjath–jearim to fetch it. ↩

  2. 1Sam 5:1, 1Sam 5:3, 1Sam 5:10-11; Ps 78:61 ↩

  3. am 2864, bc 1140, An, Ex, Is, 351 ↩

  4. Gen 41:8; Exod 7:11; Isa 47:12-13; Dan 2:2, Dan 5:7; Matt 2:4 ↩

  5. Mic 6:6-9 ↩

  6. Exod 23:15, Exod 34:20; Deut 16:16 ↩

  7. Lev 5:6, Lev 5:15-19, Lev 6:6, Lev 7:1-7 ↩

  8. 1Sam 6:9, 1Sam 5:7, 1Sam 5:9, 1Sam 5:11; Job 10:2, Job 34:31-32 ↩

  9. 1Sam 6:5, 1Sam 6:17-18, 1Sam 5:6, 1Sam 5:9; Exod 12:35; Josh 13:3; Judg 3:3 ↩

  10. Heb. them ↩

  11. Bochart has collected many curious accounts relative to the terrible devastations made by these mischievous animals. William, Archbishop of Tyre, records, that in the beginning of the twelfth century, a penitential council was held at Naplouse, where five and twenty canons were framed for the correction of the manners of the inhabitants of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, who they apprehended had provoked to bring upon them the calamities of earthquakes, war, and famine. This last he ascribes to locusts and devouring mice, which had for four years together so destroyed the fruits of the earth as to cause an almost total failure of their crops. It was customary for the ancient heathen to offer to their gods such monuments of their deliverance as represented the evils from which they had been rescued; and Tavernier informs us, that among the Indians, when a pilgrim goes to one of the pagodas for a cure, he brings the figure of the member affected, made of gold, silver, or copper, according to his circumstances, which he offers to his god. Exod 8:5, Exod 8:17, Exod 8:24, Exod 10:14-15; Joel 1:4-7, Joel 2:25 ↩

  12. Josh 7:19; Ps 18:44, Ps 66:3 *marg. Isa 42:12; Jer 3:13, Jer 13:16; Mal 2:2; John 9:24; Rev 11:13, Rev 16:9 ↩

  13. 1Sam 5:6, 1Sam 5:11; Ps 32:4, Ps 39:10 ↩

  14. 1Sam 5:3-4, 1Sam 5:7; Exod 12:12; Num 33:4; Isa 19:1 ↩

  15. Job 9:4; Ps 95:8; Rom 2:5; Heb 3:13 ↩

  16. Exod 7:13, Exod 8:15, Exod 9:16, Exod 9:34, Exod 10:3, Exod 14:17, Exod 14:23, Exod 15:14-16 ↩

  17. or, reproachfully ↩

  18. Exod 12:31-33 ↩

  19. Heb. them ↩

  20. 2Sam 6:3; 1Chr 13:7 ↩

  21. Num 19:2 ↩

  22. 1Sam 6:4-5 ↩

  23. Josh 15:10, Josh 21:16 ↩

  24. or, it, Amos 3:6 ↩

  25. 1Sam 6:3 ↩

  26. Isa 26:11 ↩

  27. 2Sam 1:6; Eccl 9:11; Luke 10:31 ↩

  28. 2Sam 6:3; 1Chr 13:7, 1Chr 15:13-15 ↩

  29. 1Sam 7:9-17, 1Sam 11:5, 1Sam 20:29; Exod 20:24; Judg 6:26, Judg 21:4; 2Sam 24:18, 2Sam 24:22, 2Sam 24:25; 1Kgs 18:30-38 ↩

  30. 1Sam 6:4, 1Sam 6:12; Josh 13:3; Judg 3:3, Judg 16:5, Judg 16:23-30 ↩

  31. 1Sam 5:10 ↩

  32. 1Sam 6:4 ↩

  33. 1Sam 5:1; 2Chr 26:6; Jer 25:20; Zech 9:6 ↩

  34. Judg 16:1, Judg 16:21; Amos 1:7-8 ↩

  35. Judg 1:18; Zech 9:5 ↩

  36. 1Sam 5:8; 2Sam 1:20, 2Sam 21:22; Amos 6:2 ↩

  37. 1Sam 5:10; 2Kgs 1:2; Amos 1:8 ↩

  38. 1Sam 6:16; Josh 13:3 ↩

  39. or, great stone ↩

  40. Exod 19:21; Lev 10:1-3; Num 4:4-5, Num 4:15, Num 4:20; Deut 29:29; 2Sam 6:7; 1Chr 13:9-10; Col 2:18; 1Pet 4:17 ↩

  41. As it is very improbable that the village of Beth–shemesh should contain, or be capable of employing, 50,070 men in the fields at wheat harvest, much less that they could all peep into the ark, and from the uncommon manner in which it is expressed in the original, it is generally allowed that there is some corruption in the text, or that some explanatory word is omitted. The Hebrew is shivim ish, chamishim aileph ish, literally, "seventy men, fifty thousand men." So LXX εβδομηκοντα ανδρας και πεντηκοντα χιλιαδας ανδρων. Vulgate, septuaginta viros, et quinquaginta millia plebis. "70 (chief) men, and 50,000 common people." Targum, besabey amma, "of the elders of the people 70 men, ovekahala, and in the congregation 50,000 men." But the Syriac, chamsho alphin weshivin gavrin, "5,000 and 70 men;" with which the Arabic agrees; while Josephus has only εβδομηκοντα, seventy men; and three reputable manuscripts of Dr. Kennicott's also omit "50,000 men." Some learned men, however, would render, by supplying ξ, mem, "70 men; fifty out of a thousand;" which supposes about 1,400 present, and that a twentieth part were slain. ↩

  42. 1Sam 5:8-12; Num 17:12-13; 2Sam 6:7, 2Sam 6:9; 1Chr 13:11-13; Ps 76:7; Mal 3:2; Luke 5:8, Luke 8:37 ↩

  43. Josh 18:14; Judg 18:12; 1Chr 13:5-6; Ps 78:60; Jer 7:12, Jer 7:14 ↩