Chapter Six
The Ark of the Covenant is Returned to Israel
6:1 The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. 2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.” 3 They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.”
We are not given a chronology as to how long the Ark was at each location, but we are told that it had been with the Philistines for a total time of seven months and the suffering continues. They call their priests and diviners and they are asked, “How do we send it back?” The priests and diviners suggest that they don’t send it back empty, that they should send with it a guilt offering, so that they will be healed and they will then know that it was the God of the Israelites that was responsible for their suffering.
6:4 And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. 5 So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land.
The Philistine lords ask what would be an appropriate guilt offering, and they are told five golden tumors and five golden mice (Hebrew ’ǎḵ·berê’, mice, but can also refer to a large number of other rodents). The number five was selected to represent each of the five lords and their respective regions (see verses 17-18 below for clarification). The golden tumors represent the outbreak of the painful tumors (or hemorrhoids, although it is curious as to how they knew what they looked like), but the golden mice are a little more of a mystery. There are a number of interesting speculations as we are not told anything about mice prior to this, but we do read in the Septuagint: “And the hand of the Lord was heavy on Ashdod, and he brought trouble against them, and he broke out against them in their ships, and in the midst of its region mice grew. There was great confusion of death in the city.”[1] (1 Kingdoms 5:6, LXX, equivalent to 1 Samuel 5:6) and “And the ark was in the country of the Philistines seven months, and their land broke out with mice.”[2] (1 Kingdoms 6:1, LXX, equivalent to 1 Samuel 6:1) It is possible that the mice were part of the plagues and for some unknown reason they were not previously mentioned.
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.”[3]
6:6 Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed?
This the second reference to the Israelite exodus from Egypt (see 1 Samuel 4:8), through these two rhetorical questions, they summarized the people of Egypt’s and the Pharaoh’s encounter with God, by pointing out that being stubborn only made things worse, and that when they sent the Israelites away they departed and they had no further problems.
6:7 Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. 8 And take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way 9 and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.”
Here again a lot of speculation is made in regard to the Philistine priest’s and diviners advice requiring the Ark to be loaded on a new cart, two milk cows that were never yoked to pull the cart, and the removal of their calves from the cow’s presence. They further instruct that the figures of gold (the five golden tumors and the five golden mice) are to be put in a box next to the Ark on the cart. As readers, we need to remember that the transportation requirements of the Ark applied only to the people of Israel.
The cart was then to be released and watched which way it goes. Perhaps some were still not convince that these terrors, death, and plagues were not coincidence, so they devised a test. If the cart goes in the direction towards Beth-shemesh in Judah (where there would have been a slight incline, having an increase of approximately 300 plus feet in elevation), then they could conclude that those horrific events were indeed punishments from YHWH, the God of Israel and not chance.
6:10 The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. 11 And they put the ark of the LORD on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. 12 And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
The people did as the priests and diviners recommended and the cart went straight to Beth-shemesh following the highway, lowing as they went. The Philistine lords followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.
6:13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. 14 The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. 15 And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the LORD. 16 And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.
The Ark came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped. The people of Beth-shemesh were overjoyed to see the Ark. The Levites unloaded the Ark and the box containing the golden figures, as Beth-shemesh was a Levitical city assigned to the Kohathite clan (see Judges 21:16; 1 Chronicles 6:59). There was a large rock there and they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to YHWH. On that day many sacrifices and burnt offerings were offered to YHWH by the people of Beth-shemesh. When the five Philistine lords saw all this, they returned to Ekron.
Even the Kohathites, whose God-given duty it was to transport the ark, were forbidden either to touch or view the sacred box. Thus, the first duty of the Israelites—especially the Kohathites, whose charge it was to care for the holy things of Israelite worship (cf. Num 4:2)—would have been to hide the ark from view while avoiding any physical or visual contact with it.[4]
6:17 These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron, 18 and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the LORD is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
We are told that the golden tumors that were guilt offerings were to be considered gifts from Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, the five major cities in Philistia. The gold mice guilt offerings represented the five lords and their cities, both those that were fortified and those without protective walls. The great stone where they offered the sacrifices, next to where they set down the Ark of YHWH, stands as a witness to that day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh. But that day didn’t end well for many at the city.
Acting in priestly fashion, the people prepared a great sacrifice to the Lord in celebration of the ark’s return. “The field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh” (v. 14) was turned into a temporary worship site as the cows that had pulled the cart were ritually slaughtered and presented “as a burnt offering [ʿōlâ] to the LORD” in a fire made from the chopped up remains of the wooden cart. Though this act was seemingly one of great reverence for Yahweh, it was actually a reckless one: the Torah taught that only male animals were to be used in burnt offerings (cf. Lev 1:3). The author’s description of this forbidden act of offering up heifers as burnt offerings thus serves as an early indication of impending divine judgment against the Beth Shemeshites.[5]
6:19 And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the LORD. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow.
Before continuing, once again we need to remember that there were rules from how things were to be done by the Israelites, especially pertaining to the covering and uncovering of the furnishings of the Tabernacle (see Numbers 4:15, 19-20). When some of the people looked at the Ark, they were punished by YHWH, seventy men died as a result (most Hebrew manuscripts state, "struck of the people seventy men, fifty thousand men,” and the Septuagint reports that 50,070 men were struck).[6] The people of Beth-shemesh mourned because of the heavy blow YHWH dealt them.
6:20 Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” 21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to you.”
The people then asked, “Who is able to stand in the presence of YHWH, this holy God?” They next ask, “Where can they send the Ark from here?” They sent messengers to Kiriath-jearim to report that the Ark had been returned, and would like someone to come pick it up, to remove it from the city.
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[1] Brannan, R., Penner, K. M., Loken, I., Aubrey, M., & Hoogendyk, I., eds. (2012). The Lexham English Septuagint (1 Kgdms 5:6). Lexham Press.
[2] Brannan, R., Penner, K. M., Loken, I., Aubrey, M., & Hoogendyk, I., eds. (2012). The Lexham English Septuagint (1 Kgdms 6:1). Lexham Press.
[3] Kirkpatrick, A. F. (1896). The First Book of Samuel, with Map, Notes and Introduction (p. 80). Cambridge University Press.
[4] Bergen, R. D. (1996). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 103). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Bergen, R. D. (1996). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 102). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[6] While most historians doubt that the town had a population of 50,000 plus people, many try different combinations of the numbers 50,000 and 70 to make sense of the story, the primary point is that they violated the law. The law is non-negotiable, it is only now after Jesus fulfilled the law can forgiveness be offered through Him. Some debate whether the viewing was an accidental 'glance' versus an inquiring 'stare' to satisfy a religious curiosity, we don't know, as we are not given any more details.