1 Samuel 6

The Philistines, plagued for seven months, decide to send the captured ark back to Israel with a guilt offering. God guides two cows to carry it straight to Beth-shemesh, where the people rejoice and sacrifice. But some treat the ark carelessly and many die, and the town sends it on to Kiriath-jearim.

1 Samuel 6:1-2

The ark has brought the Philistines no victory, only trouble. After seven months of suffering they turn to their own priests and diviners for a way out. They know the ark must go back to where it belongs, but they do not know how to do it safely.

BSA: diviners (“those who practice magic or fortune-telling, to discern the future”): Their own spiritual experts are asked to settle a matter that only the God of Israel could really answer.

1 Samuel 6:3

Their advice is not to send the ark away empty. A guilt offering must go with it, a payment acknowledging wrong done. They hope for healing and for an answer to why God’s hand has stayed heavy on them. Even pagan advisers sense that God must be honored.

BSA: guilt offering (“a trespass-offering, a sin-offering, to atone for wrongdoing”): They admit, in their own way, that they have wronged Israel’s God and owe him something. healed (“restored to health, made whole”): What they hope for is wholeness, not just an end to the plague.

See also: 1 Samuel 5:6.

1 Samuel 6:4-5

The offering is five gold tumors and five gold rats, one set for each ruler and city, matching the plague that struck both people and land. Making likenesses of their afflictions was an old way of presenting a trouble before a god. They are told to give glory to Israel’s God, hoping he will lighten his hand.

BSA: glory (“honor, praise”): They are urged to give Israel’s God the honor they had denied him by treating him as a war trophy.

1 Samuel 6:6

The priests recall Egypt. Pharaoh hardened his heart, was struck again and again, and finally let Israel go. They warn their people not to repeat that foolishness. The memory of the Exodus had clearly spread far beyond Israel.

BSA: harden (“make stubborn, be obstinate”): Hardening is stubborn refusal to yield to God, and it only prolongs the suffering.

See also: Exodus 7:13; Exodus 12:31-32.

1 Samuel 6:7-9

They design a test. Two cows that have never pulled a yoke, with their calves penned away, are hitched to a new cart. Mothers would naturally turn back to their young. If they instead walk to Beth-shemesh in Israel, it proves the LORD sent the plague. If not, it was chance.

BSA: chance (“accident, unexpected event”): The alternative they allow is that nothing guided events at all, which the test is meant to rule out.

1 Samuel 6:10-12

The test is carried out, and the result is plain. The untrained cows go straight along one road toward Israel, lowing as if pulled by their calves behind them, yet never turning aside. The Philistine rulers watch all the way to the border and see their answer.

BSA: lowing (“making a loud, mournful sound”): The cows’ cries show how strongly they were drawn the other way, which makes their steady walk more striking.

1 Samuel 6:13-14

The people of Beth-shemesh are harvesting wheat when the ark appears, and they are overjoyed. The cart stops at a field with a large rock. They split up the wooden cart for fuel and offer the cows as a burnt offering, giving back to God what had brought his ark home.

BSA: overjoyed (“rejoiced greatly, delighted”): The ark’s return after years of loss and shame brings a joy that breaks into the harvest work.

See also: Leviticus 1:3-4.

1 Samuel 6:15-16

The Levites, whose duty it was to handle the ark, lift it down and set it on the rock, together with the chest of gold. The town offers sacrifices, and the five Philistine rulers, having seen it all, go home to Ekron the same day.

BSA: Levites (“descendants of Levi, a tribe of Israel”): The ark was to be handled only by the tribe set apart for that service.

See also: Numbers 4:15.

1 Samuel 6:17-18

The writer lists the five Philistine cities that each sent a gold tumor: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. The gold rats matched all their towns and villages. The large rock was still there when this was written, standing as a witness.

BSA: fortified (“strongly protected, walled”): Even the walled cities could not protect their people from God’s hand.

1 Samuel 6:19

Joy turns to sorrow. Some men of Beth-shemesh looked inside the ark, treating the holy thing as ordinary, and God struck many of them down. The number is given as seventy. The ark was not a prize or a curiosity, and the people mourned.

BSA: looked (“gazed, saw”): This was not an accidental glance but a prying look into what God had covered and set apart.

See also: Numbers 4:20; 2 Samuel 6:6-7.

1 Samuel 6:20

The survivors ask the right question: who can stand before this holy God? They have learned that God is not merely powerful, he is pure. But instead of drawing near on his terms, they ask where the ark can go away from them.

BSA: holy (“set apart, sacred”): Holy means God is utterly distinct from us, and his presence cannot be treated casually.

Hebrew: קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, H6918) — “holy, set apart.” The word carries the idea of being cut off and separate from the common. It says God is in a class of his own, not merely good.

See also: Isaiah 6:3; Psalm 24:3-4.

1 Samuel 6:21

Beth-shemesh sends messengers to Kiriath-jearim, a town further up in the hills, asking them to come and take the ark up. The ark is on its way home, though its full restoration comes later. The chapter leaves us with a holy God who must be approached rightly.

BSA: take it up (“ascend, go up”): Because Kiriath-jearim sits higher in the hill country, the ark is carried up toward the center of Israel.

See also: 1 Samuel 7:1.