Outline of Chapter 6:

       vv.    1–9        The Philistine Religious Icons Suggest that the Ark be Returned to Israel

       vv.   10–12      A Cart with the Ark of God Finds Its Way to Beth-shemesh

       vv.   13–18      The Men of Beth-shemesh Receive the Ark with Burnt Offerings to God

       vv.   19–21      The Men of Beth-shemesh Are Disciplined for Their Irreverence Toward the Ark

Outline of Chapter 7a:

       vv.    1–2a      The Ark is Taken to Kiriath-jearim

Charts and Maps:

       v.      4           The Rationale for the Offerings of the Philistines

       v.      6           Three Misconceptions About Divine Signs and Miracles

       v.      6           Scriptural References to the Exodus and Israel’s Desert-Wilderness Wanderings

       v.      6           The Contemporary English Translation of I Sam. 6:4–6

       v.      9           The Abbreviated Doctrine of Beth-Shemesh

       v.     11           Tumors from the Hebrew

       v.     12           How Did the Incidents of 1Samuel 6 find their way into Scripture?

       v.     13           How Did the Israelites Recognize the Ark?

       v.     15           The Contemporary English Version of I Sam. 6:14–15

       v.     16           Are the Lords of the Philistines at this Meeting with the Religious Leaders?

       v.     18           Various Translations of vv. 17–18

       v      19           Pros and Cons for Various Readings of v. 19

       v.     7:2a        Movement of the Ark

I ntroduction: Now, you may recall in v. 6 of the previous chapter how the Septuagint had made mention of mice, which did not match the Hebrew text at all. In this chapter, we have the return of the mice, which indicates a couple of possibilities: (1) the information on the mice was lost from the previous chapter (or edited out) and the translators of the Septuagint sought to return it to where they believed that it belonged); or, (2) the translation from the Septuagint is the accurate one, and that the Hebrew text, since that time, became corrupted. (3) A third possibility is that mice were not mentioned in the previous chapter, but the translators of the Septuagint, because of this chapter, felt that they should have been mentioned, and therefore, they did. However, what is important is that there were mice (and/or rats), they did invade Philistia, and it is very likely that they brought with their invasion the bubonic plague.

In this chapter, we will view the temporary residence of the Ark of God in Palestine as a whole. In the previous chapter, we followed its movement throughout three of the Philistine cities; however, in this chapter we view this as a whole and observe how those in Ekron sought to solve the problem. Now what is interesting is that the heathen religious hierarchy of the Philistines will actually give some very good advice to the rulers of Ekron and Philistia. Now, some of it will be crap, but there will be a lot of it that is well-thought out and logical. To give you a for instance: these Philistines religious types ask the rulers to look at what happened to Egypt when Egypt opposed the God of Israel. In the end, they let the Jews go anyway—however, prior to that time, they suffered a great deal. Why not simply bypass all that suffering and attacks from their God and give back the Ark? They also suggested some heathen sacrifices to accompany the Ark, whose efficacy is debatable, but their reverence for the power of the Ark appears to be greater than that of the Israelites in Beth-Shemesh, to whom the Ark was sent.

As you have no doubt noted from the hyperlinks above, I have included the first couple of verses from the next chapter with this one. The topic of this and the previous chapter is the location of the Ark. Therefore, ending this chapter without telling us where the Ark came to rest is like watching the first installment of “The Lord of the Rings.” It is intensely unsatisfying without an ending. I Sam. 7:1–2 provide this portion of God’s Word with a proper ending.

Actually, the division of chapters 5, 6 and 7 is a mess. 1Sam. 4 ends just as it should, with the bitter quotation of the wife of Phinehas, explaining the name of her son shortly before she dies. At that point, from 1Sam. 5:1–6:18, we have a narrative which was no doubt written by a newly converted Philistine. This should have been one chapter unit. 1Sam. 6:19–7:2 tells us about the Ark in Israel upon its return, and the associated problems with the Ark. This would have been a small, but reasonable chapter unit. Then, 1Sam. 7 would have begun in v. 3. However, I dislike dividing these chapters up too much. Now and again, I will include one or two verses from the previous chapter, or run one chapter into the next chapter for a couple of verses; however, I have attempted to avoid dividing these chapters up as I think they should have been divided up. I leave that for the reader to do in your own mental organization of the chapter. Furthermore, we have some material (1Sam. 6:13–18) whose authorship could easily be debated. All of what is there could have been recorded by a Philistine leader; however, most of it is about the Israelites and how they received the Ark (only v. 16, about the observing Philistine leaders would have to have been added or deduced at a later date).

So, to sum up, there was really no reason to separate the previous chapter from this chapter. The previous chapter was too short; this chapter carries on with the same topic (even through to the next chapter); and the separation here is borders on being arbitrary. The only reason to divide chapter 6 at all is original authorship.

With this verse, we step back and are not concerned with where in Palestine the Ark is but as to how the Philistines decided to deal with the problems of having the Ark there. These are actually the Ekronites specifically in whose city the Ark is. Let’s see how others rendered this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so is an Ark of Y^ehowah in a land of Philistines seven months.

Septuagint                             And the Ark was seven months in the country of the Philistines, and their land brought forth swarms of mice.

Significant differences:          This is one of the several instances where the LXX mentions that there was an invasion of mice into the land of Philistia because of the Ark. This is reasonable because this is an unlikely thing for a copyist to insert. I have spoken about textual criticism many times in the book of Samuel. What probably is the case here, it those with the Masoretic text probably had manuscripts where a portion was missing or unreadable. Since they cannot simply make up some additional text, the missing text was never restored. This may have even occurred prior to the Masoretes, so that they were left with a manuscript with a few missing portions, but with no explanation.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       After the sacred chest had been in Philistia for seven months,... One ancient translation adds “and rats were everywhere” or “and rats ate the crops.”

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         The ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months...

JPS (Tanakh)                        The Ark of the Lord remained in the territory of the Philistines seven months. [The Septuagint adds: ...and mice invaded their fields].

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

NASB                                     Now the ark of the Lord had been in the country [or, field] of the Philistines seven months.

Young's Updated LT              And the ark of Jehovah is in the field of the Philistines seven months,...

What is the gist of this verse? This is a summary verse of all that has gone before—the ark of Jehovah was in the land of the Philistines for seven months.

Translation: Now the Ark of Y^ehowah was in the land of the Philistines [for] seven months. Again, you will note that the Septuagint mentions the mice; however, it will be clear in the Hebrew that there was some sort of an invasion into Palestine by mice in subsequent verses. Again, keep in the back of your mind the three possibilities, which apply here as well as to the previous chapter.

The previous chapter covered a period of seven months, with the Ark remaining three specific cities of Philistia for several months at a time. The purpose of this verse is to refocus us on the same thing, from a different vantage point. We first looked at the Ark being moved from city to city; now we will look at Its stay in the land of the Philistines as a whole, although primarily, we are looking to see what happened in Ekron.

What is important is that the invasion of the mice and the tumors did not occur immediately (or, at least, it does not appear that way). The Ark remained in each city for an average of 2⅓ months; the Ark did not come on Tuesday, and by Tuesday night, the entire city was infested with rats and suffering the effects of the bubonic plague. When the Ark moved into the city, the rodent infestation began slowly, as did the spread of the disease (or diseases). It was not instantaneous, or the Ark would have been moved a lot sooner than it was. My guess is that the incidents in the Ashdod temple of Dagon occurred over the first couple of days. However, the spread of disease and the infestation of rats took a period of about 2–3 months. It was probably in the 4^th month when it was determined that something should be done. So the Ark is taken to Gath after 3.5 months. The people of Gath made the decision to bring the Ark to Gath, so they keep it for awhile—say, 2 months, and the disease and rodent infestation increase from noticeable after the first week or so to intolerable after the second month or perhaps midway through the third month. They move the Ark to Ekron, which starts an immediate panic. Within six weeks, the Ark is moved out of Ekron, after a meeting with the leaders and the religious types of Philistia.

The Septuagint has some additional material at this point:

Translation: ...and the their land burst out [or, boiled over] [with] rats [and mice]. I give this portion of the Septuagint credence for two reasons: (1) it is unlikely that some translator would simply add this to the verse; and (2) this helps explain the golden mice which are sent with the Ark (1Sam. 6:4).

Although one might have guessed that only Ashdod would have been affected by the mice and rats, being close to the sea (recall that their ship might have borne these rodents); it is clear here that the rodents have infested their entire land.

You will note the shift in authority here. In the previous chapter, the five Philistine lords called all the shorts; they determined where the Ark was to be sent. In this chapter, the ideas of the Philistine lords being a bust, the religious types are called in. Now, in most cases, bringing in heathen religious types would not improve the situation; it would make things worse. However, that is not the case here. The Philistine priests, although they certainly had disagreements amongst one another, came to a consensus and presented that to the leaders of Philistia; and, surprisingly, these ideas had merit.

Now the other translations:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so called Philistines for the priests and for the diviners to say, “What will we do to an Ark of Y^ehowah? Tell us in what will we send him to his place.”

Septuagint                             And the Philistines call their priests and their prophets, and their enchanters, saying, “What will we do to the Ark of the Lord? Teach us with what we will send it away to its place.”

Significant differences:          None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         ...when the Philistines called for priests and people skilled in explaining omens. The Philistines asked, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how to return it to its [proper] place.”

JPS (Tanakh)                        Then the Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and asked, “What shall we do about the Ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it off to its own place.”

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

NASB                                     And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how [or, with what] we shall send it to its place.”

Young's Updated LT              ...and the Philistines call for priests and for diviners, saying, ‘What do we do to the ark of Jehovah? Let us know with what we send it to its place?’

What is the gist of this verse? The Philistines call for their own religious types in order to determine how the Ark should be returned.

Translation: And the Philistines called for the priests and for the diviners, saying,... The NIV Study Bible calls the priests experts on religious matters and the diviners are called the discerners of hidden knowledge by interpretation of omens; very compact, yet apt descriptions. Maybe the latter were the mystics of the Philistines.

Translation: So the Philistines called for the priests and for the diviners, and said, “What will we do with the Ark of Y^ehowah? Once the priests and diviners were assembled, the following two questions were posed to them: the first question is, “What will we do with respect to the Ark of Y^ehowah?” Obviously, no matter where the Ark is kept, it causes the Philistines great problems.

Translation: Tell us with what shall we send it to its place.” The second question is: “Instruct us with what we should send it to its place.” Or, better: “Instruct us what should we send with it to its place.” Even though the Philistines specifically ask the religious hierarchy, they already know what they need to do—they need to send the Ark of God back to the Jews. Or, it is possible that they ask this question and the religious hierarchy says, “Send it back.” prompting the next question, “When we send it back, what shall we send with it (by way of sacrifice)?” In either case, it is clear that the Ark must be taken out of Philistia and returned to the Jews. What is not as clear is, what else should be done? They realized that they could not simply send the Ark back to the Israelites, with a note attached to it, my bad, and let it go at that. For seven months, the Ark has been in the land of the Philistines causing them no end trouble, revealing the power of the God of Israel. Therefore, the Philistine leaders know that some sort of obeisance should be paid to the Jews and to the God of the Jews. As I mentioned, the capture of this Ark was not some random event. There were Philistines who believed in the God of Israel after this seven month stay of the Ark.

You may recall a pharaoh of Egypt doing something similar when he had these disturbing dreams (Gen. 41:1–8). He called for the magicians and wise men of Egypt to explain this dream. When a later pharaoh of Egypt was confronted by Moses and Aaron for the first time, he brought in his wise men, magicians and sorcerers to compare notes and powers (Ex. 7:8–12). By contrast, Israel was not allowed to have such types in her country (Deut. 18:9–12 Isa. 2:6 Ezek. 21:21).

This appears, at first, to be a bit more complex than most of the verses than we have faced throughout most of this book. However, the Hebrew is fairly straightforward, with only a couple of minor difficulties. First, what others have done:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so they say, “If those sending away an Ark of Elohim of Israel, do not send him away empty for a returning you [all] will return to Him a guilt offering so you [all] will be healed and he was made known to you [all] for why does not turn away His hand from you.”

Septuagint                             And they said, “If you send away the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord God of Israel, do not on any account send it away empty, but by all means render to it an offering for the plague; and then will you be healed, and an atonement will be made for you; should not His hand be stayed from off you?”

Significant differences:          No significant differences, except for the addition of the short phrase noted above, which is not found in the Syriac or the Latin.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

NLT                                        “Send the Ark of the God of Israel back, along with a gift,” they were told. “Send a guilt offering so the plague will stop. Then, if the plague doesn’t stop, you will know that God didn’t send the plague after all.”

TEV                                       They answered, “If you return the Covenant Box to the God of Israel, you must, of course, send with it a gift to him to pay for your sin. The Covenant Box must not go back without a gift. In this way, you will be healed, and you will find out why he has kept on punishing you.”

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

JPS (Tanakh)                        They answered, “If you are going to send the Ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it away without anything; you must also pay an indemnity to Him. Then you will be healed, and He will make Himself known to you; otherwise, His hand will not turn away from you [or, you will know why His hand would not turn away from you; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain].”

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                And they said, If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but at least return Him a guilt offering; then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed [and healing granted you],...

NASB                                     And they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but you shall surely return to Him a guilt offering. Then you shall be healed and it shall be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.”

NRSV                                    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 will be ransomed; will not his hand then turn from you?”

Young's Updated LT              And they say, ‘If you are sending away the ark of the God of Israel, you do not send it away empty; for you certainly will send back to Him a guilt-offering; then you are healed, and it has been known to you why His hand does not turn aside from you.’

What is the gist of this verse? Those gathered by the Philistine leaders said that, if the Ark to sent back, it cannot be sent back empty—some sort of a guilt-offering must be sent with it. Only that would cause God to back off from His attacks against the Philistines.

What we find in this verse is going to be surprisingly good advice, given the source.

Translation: So they answered, “If [you are] sending away the Ark of the Elohim of Israel, do not send it away empty,... Or, more accurately: So they said, “If those sending away the Ark of the God of Israel...” It appears as though the JPS, in their primary translation, glanced at the Septuagint for some guidance; as you will see, the Hebrew will be more difficult than in most of the previous verses, but it is not really obscure or uncertain, as the JPS indicates. This takes into consideration that the ones to whom the religious hierarchy are speaking might not take the Ark back themselves. In fact, that was pretty much a foregone conclusion. The leaders who called in the religious types did not want to have anything to do with the Ark of God. As far as they were concerned, they did not see any reason to associate with that Ark. They were concerned that if they touched it themselves, they would die. So, the job of returning the Ark will be certainly given to underlings; however, realizing that there could still be consequences even if they simply returned the Ark, the Philistine leaders needed some kind of assurance that there would be no further repercussions to themselves or to their country.

The religious types continue. “Do not send it away empty...” When instructing the sons of Israel about the three feasts that they must attend, Moses adds, “And they will not appear before Jehovah empty-handed.” (Deut. 16:16b). Whether this was religious knowledge culled by the religious types of Philistia from Israel, or whether it had become a part of their religion, we don’t know.

Translation: ...for you will certainly return to Him a restitution offering... Literally, this is: “...for a returning you will return to Him a guilt offering...” The other less-literal, but more accurate, rendering would be: “...for you will certainly return to Him a restitution offering...” The Him in this verse refers to the God of Israel and not to Israel. The religious types of Philistia are showing great respect and deference to the God of Israel—some to the point of faith.

What the religious types propose is not really not too far from what God expects of Israel. “If a person acts unfaithfully and sins intentionally against Jehovah’s holy things, then he will bring his guilt offering to Jehovah: a ram without defeat from the flock, according to your valuation in silver by shekels, the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. And he will make restitution for that which he has sinned against the holy thing, and he will add to it a fifth part of it, and give it to the priests. The priest will then make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and it will be forgiven him.” (Lev. 5:15–16). At first, you may wonder from where did the Philistine heathen get these ideas? However, that will be explained in the next verse. In any case, this restitution offering shows respect toward the God of Israel, as well as repentance for what they did.

Both Barnes and the NIV Study Bible have important comments to make here: Barnes, first: The heathen idea of appeasing the gods with gifts, and the scriptural idea of expressing penitence, allegiance, or love to God, by gifts and offerings to His glory and to the comfort of our fellow worshipers, coincide in the practical result. NIV Study Bible: The priests and diviners suggest returning the ark with a gift, signifying recognition of guilt in taking the ark from Israel and compensation for this violation of the Lord’s honor.

Translation: ...[and] then you will be healed... Bear in mind that these religious types and mystics really did not know how to placate the God of Israel; however, they were giving it their best shot. They assumed that they had to placate or please or show respect to the God of Israel in some way. They promised that the end result would be that the Philistines would be healed.

Translation: Will his hand [then] not be turned from you?” [Heb.: ...then it will be made known to you why His hand has not been turned away from you.”] The Greek is stated in the form of a rhetorical question; the Hebrew indicates that they would know what God had persecuted them as He had.

Now we need to examine the final line of this verse. This final line only appears to be rather inscrutable for several reasons: (1) the JPS calls the Hebrew uncertain, whereas, there is nothing about the Hebrew here that is uncertain. (2) What the Hebrew says is kind of meaningless, when taken in context. This verse says that God would make known to the Philistines why He had not turned His hand aside from [disciplining] them. Big frigging deal. No one at this meeting of the princes and the religious types is uncertain about this. They have the Ark of God and God is disciplining them for that. The purpose of the meeting is to determine how to placate the God of Israel. (3) Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Greek offer a much more reasonable alternative rendering, yet only the NRSV bases their translation on the DSS’s and the Greek. That is probably the most inexplicable aspect of this verse. Many modern translations are aware of the Dead Sea Scrolls and often follow the DSS’s when the rendering of the Hebrew doesn’t seem to make much sense. However, here the Hebrew really does not jive with the context, yet every English translation that I am aware of, save one, follows the Hebrew. It is as though the hundreds of translators fell asleep at the wheel right here. Whatever.

The literal rendering of the Hebrew is: “...then, He will make known to you why His hand is not turned aside from you.” Now, I am not certain about the Hebrew at the very end, where the leaders are told that they will know why God has not taken the pressure off. That would seem to be fairly self-explanatory: they took the Ark of the God of Israel out of Israel and God is pissed. The rendering of the Greek and the manuscripts found with the Dead Sea Scrolls seems to be more apropos to the context here: ...and then will you be healed, and an atonement will be made for you; should not His hand be stayed from off you?” This is what the leaders of the Philistines want to hear. They know why God is decimating them; they just want to know, how do we make it stop hurting? Surprisingly, very few modern translations follow the Greek and the DSS’s (the NRSV is the only one that I am aware of out of about 20 different translations). Why the God of Israel is severely irritated with the Philistines is obvious—they took the Ark of Israel out of Israel. Most of Ekron recognizes that, as do the priests and religious types of Philistia. Enough of the leaders are leaning toward this understanding as well. If God is Who He says He is, then certainly the Philistines knew that there would be trouble when they took the Ark of God. So, why God’s hand has not been stayed from them is not the real issue. What the Philistines want is (1) to be healed of the tumors; (2) for an atonement to be made on their behalf (they need to be ransomed or paid for; i.e., they feel they must give something to God in order to placate Him); and, (3) they desire that God’s hand be taken from upon them. This should be accomplished by (1) returning the Ark to Israel and (2) offering the God of Israel some sort of a restitution offering. Now, realize that none of this could occur unless some of the people in Philistia believe in the God of Israel. This requires that some of the religious leaders, political leaders and regular people believe that the God of Israel is the God of the Universe and trust that He will receive their restitution offering and back off from His judgments against them. That is powerful; and that tells us why God allowed His Ark to be taken out of Israel. God’s Ark was somewhat like sending Bibles to a heathen nation—it evangelized some of the Philistines. Realize that, even though there will be future conflicts between Israel and Philistia, there will be alliances as well. David will eventually forge a friendship with Achish, King of Gath. 600 men of Gath will become David’s allies, and will be a part of his army, even though he is estranged from Israel (we covered this somewhat when we examined three of the cities in Philistia).

Now, you may be confused as to, (1) how can Israel war with Philistia throughout much of the time of Saul and David; and, (2) how can there be alliances and friendships forged during this time period? We have recently waged war against a portion of Afghanistan. There were particular groups of Afghans that we were at war with. We dropped food on parts of Afghanistan, and dropped bombs on other parts. Men trained in Afghanistan used our airplanes to attack the World Trade Center in New York City. Yet, five months later, Afghan leaders were honored guests at the president’s state of the union address. So, if we can today have such a mixed relationship with a country, then the relationship between Israel and Philistia should not be so difficult to understand.

It is also imperative that we recognize that this incident did not suddenly catch God unawares. God did not simply turn His back one day, and suddenly notice that His Ark had been removed from Israel. He didn’t, in an unguarded moment, abruptly exclaim, “Oh dear, what the hell just happened now? I should have kept a closer eye on what was going on in Israel.” The removal of the Ark of the Covenant resulted in the conversion of many Philistines. Just as the signs of God performed in Egypt resulted in the conversion of many Egyptians (called the mixed multitude and often incorrectly given a bad rap).

Let me give you a more modern example: some people view slavery as being the greatest evil of early America, but it did not just accidentally occur. The United States was populated by Americans who were mostly believers (although many were cultists), and certainly, the decision to import slaves from Africa was wrong and self-serving. However, God did not simply allow random Africans to be chosen. Early American slavery was not accidental and it was not random. God specifically chose each and every African who was brought to the United States for the purpose of their salvation and the salvation of their progeny. Many Black Americans (and primarily African Americans) have a tremendous faith in God, and very often, it was because God hand-picked their ancestors to be brought to the colonies in chains. Similarly, God allowed for the capture of the Ark, as it allowed for Him to evangelize the Philistines. We receive the gospel in a lot of ways. Some of us are simply told the gospel, and we believe. Others of us have to get under a little (or, a lot) of pressure and then we believe. Without violating our free will, God guides us to His Word and to salvation. We do the same with our children. As they become older, we give them guidance and yet we also give them some free reign so that they can make some mistakes and come to our way of thinking the hard way. Some of you cannot grasp what free will is and what absolute coercion of free will is. Let me see if I can explain by analogy: you’ve got a kid and he does something wrong. Let’s say, he talks too much in the classroom. Guidance means that you discipline the child in some way: spanking, a cut back in allowance, a withdrawal of some privileges, or whatever. Coercion of his free will would mean that you remove his vocal cords or tape his mouth shut when he goes to class. In the first scenario, he still has the free will to chose to do wrong; in the second scenario, it does not matter that he chooses to do right or wrong—because he cannot do wrong (in that way, anyway). Now, the reality of free will of a child is (1) some children, after proper discipline, will choose to monitor their own behavior and to not talk excessively in the classroom; on the other hand, even after disciplinary measures have been taken, (2) others will continue to misbehave. That is free will and the proper restraint thereof. To stay with this analogy, God may put us on restriction, but He does not remove our vocal cords. We may do wrong and He may discipline us for doing wrong—but He allows our free will to remain operational. When it comes to salvation, no matter what God does to us by way of discipline, we can always still say no to His provisions.

One of the great mistakes of modern churches is the abandonment of exegesis and almost the total abandonment of the Old Testament in any aspect of their teaching. God has presented us with the Old and New Testament’s; and, even though Church Age doctrine specifically is to come from the New Testament, this does not mean that the Old Testament has become passe. There is a tremendous amount of truth which is to be found in the Old Testament and an incredible number of times when application can be made. It is not because pastors have lost their way. They think that their job is to do a half-assed job of leading their congregation and an even more slipshod job of counseling their parishioners. This is simple: the Word of God is God’s Truth placed here for our growth. Peter tells us to Grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (I Peter 3:18a). We are repeatedly told that the pastor, in Scripture, is the one whose spiritual gift it is to unearth this truth. Paul commands Timothy: Study to show yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of Truth (II Tim. 2:15). We cannot grow and we cannot move forwards apart from God’s Truth. All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (II Tim. 3:16–17). And it is Satan’s desire to keep us from the truth. So, what better way than to suck pastors into counseling one-on-one with their parishioners. Paul told the young pastor Timothy: Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you (I Tim. 4:16). A pastor cannot study if he is continually meeting with needy individual after needy individual. Is there a place in the church for counseling? Perhaps. Should counseling be allowed to usurp the pastor’s time so that he cannot study and teach? Absolutely not. This is a simple thing to understand: Satan and his demon army will do everything that they can to take from the pastor’s time. Whether the pastor is pulled away to counsel or to involve himself in administrative functions—whatever; these things are designed to keep him from studying and teaching the Word of God. One of the greatest modern teachers of the Word of God today avoided counseling, but allowed himself to be sucked into administrative functions which robbed him of his time and his theological edge. This is what Satan does.

I asked one friend, a Lutheran, about the teaching that she receives in her church. She told me that they sing a lot. I asked about the sermon, which should be the meat of the service. 15–20 minutes. Now, certainly, that is not every Lutheran church; and Martin Luther was a great theological scholar and intellect who helped man to rediscover what Scripture taught. But 20 minutes? Perhaps three times a week for those who are really dedicated? You cannot grow on one hour of truth each week. Schools, newspapers, the Internet, television and movies all tout human viewpoint and Satanic doctrine. You don’t counteract continual exposure to lies with an hour of teaching a week. And under pressure, you rely on doctrine to pull you through. I’ve been under a great deal of pressure for various reasons and I’ve had dozen human viewpoint solutions, all sinful, occur to me. I don’t sing a hymn nor do I pray through nor do I recite the Lord’s Prayer over and over in order to guide myself. When people think the lyrics of a spiritual song or recite the Lord’s Prayer, it is because this is the only substance that they have in their souls. Your soul must be filled with God’s Truth; this way, you can face life and what it has to offer.

Back to the exegesis of this passage. So that you see the forest through the trees, the Philistine leaders will ask a question of the religious hierarchy and the religious hierarchy will answer this question in vv. 4b–9.

On the face of it, this appears to be a much more difficult verse than the previous one, however, it is fairly straightforward. First, here is what others have done with it:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And so they say, “What the guilt offering that we should cause to return to Him?” And so they say, “A number of lords of Philistines, five tumors of gold and five of mice of gold for a plague one to all of them and to your lords.

Septuagint                             And they say, “What [is] the offering for the plague [which] we will return to it? And they said, ‘According to the number of the lords of the Philistines, five golden emerods, for the plague was on you, and on your rulers, and on the people;... [part of v. 5 was included here].

Significant differences:          No significant differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

REB                                       When they were asked, ‘What should we send to him?’ they answered, ‘Send five tumors modeled in gold and five gold rats, one for each of the Philistine lords for the same plague afflicted all of you and your lords.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

JPS (Tanakh)                        They asked, “What is the indemnity that we should pay to Him?” They answered, “Five golden hemorrhoids and five golden mice, corresponding to the number of lords of the Philistines; for the same plague struck all of you and your lords.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

ESV                                       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.

NASB                                     Then they said, “What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?” And they said, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on all of you [lit., them] and on your lords.

Young's Updated LT              And they say, ‘What is the guilt-offering which we send back to Him?’ and they say, ‘The number of the princes of the Philistines—five golden emerods, and five golden mice—for one plague is to you all, and to your princes,...

What is the gist of this verse? The religious icons and the mystics are asked what sort of guilt offering should be offered to the God of Israel and they are told, 5 cancerous growths and 5 mice—1 each for each prince.

Translation: Then they asked, “What [sort of] guilt offering should we cause to return to Him?” Or, And they say, “What [sort of] restitution offering do we cause to be returned to Him?” The Hiphil form of the verb is used because these leaders are not going to go near to the Ark of God; they are going to assign that task to some underlings. To Him again refers to the God of Israel. If this referred to the Ark, then it would read with Him [It]. This is not a reference to Israel because it is not Israel which needs to be placated. They defeated Israel soundly in the last battle. They are not so much concerned about Israel. However, they recognize the power of the God of Israel, although they may not grasp how Israel lost the battle. In fact, this is simply not on their list of things to think about. Finally, it will be clear in the next verse that we are concerned with placating the God of Israel.

Translation: And they answered, “[According to] the number of lords of the Philistines, five tumors of gold... Or, So they say, “[According to the] number of Philistine lords, five tumors of gold...” In the Hebrew, we could have according to with the simple kaph preposition, which may have been left out. And, just as easily, the Greek translators could have inserted it to make more sense in their language (and ours).

Translation: ...and five mice of gold... That there has been some manuscript problems should be evident by the mention of mice several times in the Greek and the mention of mice in this line in the Hebrew (as well as thrice more in this chapter). In the Hebrew, this is the first time we find mice mentioned, which does not make sense. Somewhere, in the autographs, and perhaps as often as we find it in the Greek, it would appear that mice would have been reasonably mentioned already (it is found once in the Latin prior to this in 1Sam. 5:6). Given God’s judgment of Egypt, which included extreme nuisance varmints like locusts and frogs, such a judgment on the Philistine area would make sense. Just so you know, the noun here is the masculine plural construct ׳ak^ebâr (רָכ-ע) [pronounced ģahk^e-BAWR], which means mice. For me, this gives new meaning to the proper noun Akbar. “...and five mice of gold...” Such an offering makes sense only if there has been an invasive influx of mice into the territory of the Philistines.

Translation: ...for the same plague [is] upon all of them... This is a reference to all of the people of Philistia. It is a little uncertain at this point whether the mice were spreading out and invading the other cities, as they are not really next door to one another. The idea is, in any case, that the Ark is in a Philistine city seized by the Philistine army, so it should be expected that the plague is upon all of Philistia, whether it has begun to manifest itself completely or not. This would be my interpretation, as opposed to the idea of the mice already being in every Philistine city.

Translation: ...and upon your lords. Then we have the wâw conjunction, the lâmed preposition, and your [plural] lords. This gives us: “...because of a certain plague to all them and to your lords.” All them is a reference to all of the Philistine population and your lords refers to the five lords of the Philistines and it sounds as though they did not attend this conference but sense their chief ambassadors instead. That understanding might lead to a contradiction, as the lords of the Philistines are said to personally observe the movement of the cart carrying the Ark in 1Sam. 6:16. Let me suggest one possible explanation here: this wording is simply a way to convey respect. The lords of the Philistines could be right there, in this meeting; however, they might be referred to in the 3^rd person as a point of respect. Actually, there are at least 4 ways to resolves this possible contradiction (an apparent contradiction which no one else that I am aware of ever points out ); and these 4 possible explanations will be found in 1Sam. 6:16: Are the Lords of the Philistines at this Meeting with the Religious Leaders?

Now, these kinds of offerings were not completely unprecedented in the heathen world. Keil and Delitzsch point out: ...after a shipwreck, any who escaped presented a tablet to Isis, or Neptune, with the representation of a shipwreck upon it; gladiators offered their weapons, and emancipated slaves their fetters. In some of the nations of antiquity, even representations of the private parts, in which a cure had been obtained from the deity, were hung up in the temples in honour of the gods. They further add: [this]...also agrees with a custom which has prevailed in India...from time immemorial down to the present day, viz., that when a pilgrim take 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, and then sings a hymn. Such a present passed as a practical acknowledgment that the god had inflicted the suffering or evil. If offered after recovery or deliverance, it was a public expression of thanksgiving. In the case before us, however, in which it was offered before deliverance, the presentation of the images of the things with which they had been chastised was probably a kind of find or compensation for the fault that had been committed against the Deity, to mitigate His wrath and obtain a deliverance from the evils with which they had been smitten.

On the other hand, credit must be given where credit is due. The religious hierarchy of Philistia offered a reasonable guilt offering to God, given their limited spiritual knowledge. The gift showed deference and respect to the God of Israel. The Pharaoh of Egypt, when faced with the wrath of the God of the Jews, reacted in a completely different way. He rejected the God of the Jews. He withstood God’s judgments against Egypt. And he died, and his firstborn died, and the firstborn of the population of Egypt all died; besides the many other afflictions which they faced because they rejected the power and sovereignty of God. The Philistines, in this generation, did not react that way. The Ekronites insisted that the Ark not simply be moved out of Ekron, but returned to Israel. The religious leaders suggested a reasonable and somber offering. The five Philistine leaders agreed to all of this, even though it meant that they would lose face before the Israelites, whom they had clearly defeated in battle. What I am telling you that, within this population of Philistines, there were many who became believers in the God of Israel. There were many who recognized His power and His sovereignty. Man was saved in the Old Testament just as he is saved in the New. He exercises faith toward the God of Israel, Jesus Christ, Jehovah Elohim, and he stands saved forever. In the Old Testament, you did not have to be a Jew nor did your have to follow the Law in order to be saved. Now, some who believed in the God of Israel no doubt moved to Israel, just as, when someone is exposed to outstanding Bible teaching in another city, they will often move to that city to enjoy the teaching. The Philistines, despite their animosity toward Israel, recognize that the God of Israel is the God of the Universe, and some will respond in a very positive way. Some of their children will become a part of David’s crack infantry. You must appreciate the tremendous spiritual impact that this judgment upon Philistia had upon the Philistines. We are all rightly appalled by war or by natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and tornadoes. However, where they things occur, in the wake of these disasters often comes spiritual interest and spiritual healing. When man recognizes how his life and his lifestyle is preserved only by a bit of thread, then man looks beyond that which he sees with the eyes. I don’t care how politically incorrect it may seem; when we invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban rulership, we should have followed up with Christian missionaries. When the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics suddenly disintegrated into several independent states, there was a great influx of believers, and there was a great spiritual thirst in those nations. Disaster brings in its wake spiritual thirst and this is what happened in Philistia.

This quotation is continued in the next verse (the separation of verses as found in the Greek makes a great deal more sense).

First, what others have done:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And you have made images of your tumors and images of your mice the ones ravaging the land and you have given to the Elohim of Israel glory, perhaps He will lighten His hand from upon you [all] and from upon your gods [or, god] and from upon your land.

Septuagint                             ...and golden mice, the likeness of the mice that destroy your land; and you will give glory to the Lord, that He may lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods and from off your land. [in the Greek, this is actually v. 5b]

Significant differences:          No significant differences; God is called the Elohim of Israel in the MT and Lord in the LXX.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       So make five gold models of the sores and five gold models of the rats that are wiping out your crops. If you honor the God of Israel with this gift, maybe he will stop causing trouble for you and your gods and your crops.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

JPS (Tanakh)                        You shall make figures of your hemorrhoids and of the mice that are ravaging your land; thus you shall honor the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lighten the weight of His hand upon you and your gods and your land.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                Therefore you must make images of your tumors and of your mice that destroy 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.

NASB                                     “So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that ravage the eland, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will ease His hand from you, your gods, and your land.

Young's Updated LT              ...and you [all] have made images of your emerods, and images of your mice that are corrupting the land, and have given honour to the God of Israel; it may be He does lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land;...

What is the gist of this verse? The religious types and mystics suggest that images of the cancerous growths and of the mice be made in order to placate the God of Israel and His attack upon their gods and their land.

Translation: And [once] you have made images of your tumors and images of your mice, the ones [who are] ravaging the land;... Or,“And you [must] make images of your tumors and images of your mice, the ones ruining the land,...” In the Hebrew, this is the first mention of the mice and their actions (in the previous verse, the Philistine priests suggested that five golden mice be offered with the return of the Ark). Keil and Delitzsch claim that the additions to vv. 3 and 6 in the previous chapter in to v. 1 of this chapter are nothing more than explanatory glosses added by the translators or even perhaps by a copyist. Mice are mentioned in the previous verse, and in this verse, what they have done is mentioned. To me, this suggests that there may be things missing in our present-day Hebrew manuscripts from the previous chapter. The perfect tense tells us one of the two things which must come to pass before God will lighten His attack upon the Philistines.

The destructiveness of field mice are mentioned by Keil and Delitzsch: It is a well-known fact that field-mice, with their enormous rate of increase and their great voracity, do extraordinary damage to the fields. In southern lands they sometimes destroy entire harvests in a very short space of time.

Translation: ...and [when] you have given glory to the Elohim of Israel,... The Qal perfect of this verb and the one in the previous line emphasize that they must do this thing. They must make the images and they must give glory to God. The perfect tense is that of accomplished action, and the religious hierarchy does not simply say, you should do this but you will do this. That is the force of the perfect tense in this situation. “...and you will give unto the God of Israel glory...” Again, the perfect tense tells us what must occur first, and the result will be expressed by the imperfect tense.

Translation: ...perhaps [then] He will lighten His hand from upon you... The verb found here is the 3^rd person masculine singular, Hiphil imperfect of qâlal (ל ַל ָק) [pronounced kaw-LAL] and it means to treat something lightly, in a trifling manner. In the Hiphil, it means to make light, to lighten, to treat with contempt, to bring contempt, to bring dishonor [on someone]. What God might perhaps lighten is His hand (which is preceded by the sign of the direct object). This means that even the religious types and mystics of the Philistines recognized that the God of Israel had His hand upon them, causing these ills.

Translation: ...and from upon your god [or, gods]... Then we have and from upon your gods. Elohim is a plural noun, but it is possible that they referred to the god of the Philistines, Dagon, by Elohim, just as Israel referred to their God as Elohim. I have mentioned previously that I believe that this was originally a plural noun used as a plural (as we find in Gen. 1); but that later usage changed this into a singular intensive sense. This is a theory of my part; one which I have not investigated.

Translation: ...and from upon you land. Recall that Satan is a counterfeiter and he will try to counterfeit the True God of Israel as closely as possible. So, in this way, this sort of counterfeiting would be expected. Then we have, and from upon your land, giving us: “...and from upon your god [or, gods] and from upon your land.” What is quite interesting is this: those from the religious hierarchy are speaking to the Philistine leaders. When referring to the gods of the Philistines, they do not use the words our gods or our god, but your gods. The implication is that some of the religious types of Philistines had, in their hearts, deserted their god for the God of Israel.

For religious types, these men are doing their best. They recognize the power of the God of Israel, and what they suggest is not idolatry, but gifts of obeisance and apology. These gifts recognize what the God of Israel has done to the Philistines—it acknowledges what He has done to them. Their rationale for this action is given in the next verse, and indicates that some of these religious types have become believers.

First, what others have done:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And for why [would] you [all] harden your heart as which hardened Egyptians and Pharaoh their heart? Was not as which He dealt severely in them and so they send away them and so they depart?

The Septuagint                      And why do you harden your hearts, as Egypt and Pharao hardened their hearts? Not when He mocked them, they let the people go, and they departed?

Significant differences:          It is possible that the slight differences here are a result of translation rather than anything more fundamental than that.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

The Message                         Why be stubborn like the Egyptians and Pharaoh? God didn't quit pounding on them until they let the people go. Only then did he let up.

TEV                                       Why should you be stubborn, as the king of Egypt and the Egyptians were? Don’t forget how God made fools of them until they let the Israelites leave Egypt.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         Why should you be as stubborn as the Egyptians and their Pharaoh were? After he toyed with the Egyptians, didn’t they send the Israelites on their way?

JPS (Tanakh)                        Don’t harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts. As you know, when He made a mockery of them, they had to let Israel [Hebrew, them] go, and they departed.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

NASB                                     “Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people [lit., them] to go, and they departed?

Young's Updated LT              ...and why do you [all] harden your heart as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart? Do they not—when He had rolled Himself upon them—send them away, and they go?

What is the gist of this verse? The religious types and mystics warn the Philistines not to harden their hearts as the pharaoh and the Egyptians had, warning that the Jews did eventually leave Egypt.

Translation: And why do you harden your heart... God got a lot of mileage out of His dealings with the Pharaoh when the Jews were enslaved to Egypt. Here it is, about 400 years later, and the religious types of Palestine still recognize that as God’s hand upon Egypt. The verb here is the 2^nd person masculine plural, Piel imperfect of (ד ֵב ָ) [pronounced kaw^b-VADE], which means to honor, to glorify, to be great, to be vehement, to be heavy, weighty, burdensome. In the Piel, it means (1) to make heavy, to make insensible as well as (2) to honor, to do honor to. They are warned not to be insensible toward the God of Israel.

There is a debate here, which does not include all of the back and forth which is found. The discussion may have preceded what the religious types and mystics are saying and it might be simultaneous with them. There is every indication that what is being said is either from the mouths of several religious leaders or represents a consensus of several religious leaders. In order to explain their position, a case history is given:

Translation: ...as the Egyptians and Pharaoh harden their heart? Here, we have the kaph preposition (as, like, according to) followed by the relative pronoun, followed by the 3^rd person plural, Piel perfect of kâbêd again, the difference being the tense. The imperfect tense is used of the Philistines, who are in a present state of hardening their hearts toward God; and the Egyptians, who had hardened their hearts toward God. The subject of the verb follows—Egyptians and Pharaoh—followed by the sign of the direct object and their heart, giving us: “And why should you [all] harden your heart as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart?” The obvious question is, what’s the benefit in that? The position which they are presenting is clear: this situation has occurred before in history; God made it clear to the Egyptians to let the Jews go, but they instead hardened their hearts. Do you expect to do the same thing and get away with it?

The religious types further explain:

Translation: Was it not as this [lit., was is not as which]: He dealt severely with them... Or,“As [to] which, did He not act severely towards them...?” The idea is that there is a futility in being hard-hearted against the God of Israel. It doesn’t pay. Egypt was placed under a great deal of hardship and suffering, and eventually did what God through Moses told them to do anyway. Philistia was going through the same sort of attack by the God of Israel and there was no reason to think that this attack would just stop while their negative volition continued.

By the way, note the details which we get from this meeting. We are not getting each and every thing which is said, nor are we getting any of the debate which probably took place; however, we are getting enough of the reasoning of the religious types (which is the evangelistic portion of this passage) to realize that this information probably came from an eyewitness to this discussion.

Translation: ...and then they sent them away... The Egyptians finally relented, after vicious plagues against them, and they sent the Jews out of the land of Egypt. The idea is, what the God of Israel wants will be the end of this matter. That is, the Philistines can do whatever they want, but God will continue to put on the pressure until His will is done, just as He did in Egypt.

Translation: ...and they departed? Or, “...so they departed.” All that Moses had asked for was for Pharaoh to let His (God’s) people go. Obviously, this is not a little thing. This was a major portion of the slave force of Egypt, responsible for some of the great structures of Egypt at that time. However, God showed great power through Moses, and the hard-heartedness of the Pharaoh and of his people were for naught. The Jews were still sent away and they still departed. The idea is obvious here: why not bypass all the upcoming judgment that would be a part of defying the God of Israel. It was clear that He was still powerful and He was still able to judge. Why tempt God any more than they had so far? History tells them that it is a waste of their time and severely dangerous to defy Him. What had happened to date revealed that it was not in their best interest to defy the God of Israel—therefore, the religious hierarchy suggests to return the Ark and to return it with gifts indicating repentance and obeisance. In case this is unclear to you, the upshot is that some of these religious types had believed in the God of Israel. Some of the leaders who heed their advice also now believe in the God of Israel.

We do not know exactly how the Philistine religious types knew all of this information. More than likely, because of their vocation and interest, they were educated in the religious beliefs of those around them and, even prior to this meeting, many of them knew about Moses and Pharaoh and the exodus. Others likely learned of it from those who knew.

First, what others have done:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       And then take and make a cart, new, one, and a pair of cows nursing which has not ascended upon them a yoke; and you [all] have bound the cows in the cart and you have caused to return their sons from behind them the house-ward.

Septuagint                             “And now take wood and make a new wagon and take two cows that have calved for the first time, without their calves; and you will yoke the cows to the wagon, and lead away the calves from behind them home.”

Significant differences:          No significant differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

The Message                         "So here's what you do: Take a brand-new oxcart and two cows that have never been in harness. Hitch the cows to the oxcart and send their calves back to the barn.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

JPS (Tanakh)                        Therefore, get a new cart ready and two milch cows that have not born a yoke; harness the cows to the cart, but take back indoors the calves that follow them.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

NASB                                     “Now therefore take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them.

Young's Updated LT              ‘And now, take and make one new cart, and two suckling kine, on which a yoke has not gone up, and you [all] have bound the kine to the cart, and caused their young ones to turn back from after them to the houses,...

What is the gist of this verse? They are told to construct a new cart and to find two cows who are giving milk and who have never been yoked before, and yoke them to the new cart. They nursing young are to be sent back.

Translation: Then take and construct one new cart... The general idea of this verse is fairly clear. They will get two cows who have recently born calves and who have never been yoked before—they will yoke these cows together in a new cart, and send their calves back toward the house. What will come in the next verse is how this will be the transportation for the Ark.

Keil and Delitzsch: To place it [the Ark] upon an old cart, which had already been used for all kinds of earthly purposes, would have been an offence against the holy thing, and it would have been just the same to yoke to the cart animals that had already been used for drawing, and had had their strength impaired by the yoke see Deut. 21:3).

My guess here is, the newly constructed cart shows deference and respect to the God of Israel. This cart will carry upon it the most sacred thing which the Jews have; therefore, not just any cart will do.

Translation: ...and two nursing cows upon whom a yoke has not ascended;... I am not certain as to their reasoning about the nursing cows. These are not simply cows who are giving milk, but cows who are nursing calves at this point in time. Now, certainly, such cows would not have led a cart before, which would be part of the reasoning. My guess is, this represents a complete separation between Philistia and the Ark of God. The cows will be suddenly and completely separated from their calves; and the Ark will be completely and suddenly separated from Philistia.

Don’t misunderstand me—there is nothing in Scripture which outlines for us what must be done. These religious types were earning their keep here, improvising a procedure with the idea that this procedure will properly show respect to the God of Israel.

Translation: ...and you will bind the cows to the cart... Or, “...and you [all] have yoked the cows to the cart...” The perfect tense emphasizes that this will be done. The cows separated from their calves here are yoked to the newly built cart, built for one reason only—to transport the Ark of God.