1 Samuel 6

Chap. VI. Ver. 1—21, The ark returned to Israel, many of whom are slain for their presumption.—Those who have no God to go to, are very apt to seek “to priests and to diviners.” Ver. 6. He smote them with emerods.—It is generally agreed, that this is the as was the case here, who often direct them to superstitious or unappointed means. There is reason, however, in their proposals not to send back the ark without a trespass-offering; and to form images of those objects which had constituted their plague was in perfect conformity with the custom of the heathen, and of some persons to the present day. The impression made by this visitation on the Philistines, seems to have been not wholly in vain.

They had learned the danger of hardening their hearts against the Lord, for “* who ever hardened their hearts against him and prospered?” and they are careful to return the ark upon a new cart, and by kine never before yoked; and yet these are directed by an unseen hand to go of their own accord to Beth-shemesh, a circumstance that satisfied these heathen that the visitation was from heaven. The golden emerods were one for each of the five satraps already mentioned; but the golden mice, if not more numerous, were furnished from all their towns and villages; which seems to indicate that if the plague of the mice were less distressing, it had been more extensive. As we read of no farther judgments on the Philistines, it should seem that the Lord accepted their thank-offering; but the judgment which fell on the men of Beth-shemesh is more mysterious, and apparently more severe.

Let us inquire, first, as to the nature of their crime, and, secondly, into the extent of their punishment. 1. We inquire into the nature of their inflammatory disease, arising perhaps from the climate, which made it so crime. They were Israelites, and knew, or ought to have known, as this was one of the cities of the priests, that none but the sons of Aaron were suffered to meddle with the ark. (See (Numbers 4:15); xvii. 13.) But these Beth-shemites presumed to pry into the holy coffer, with an unholy curiosity, and were therefore slain. But, 2. What was the extent of the punishment; or, in other words, what was the number slain? “‘The number, as it stands in our version, (says Scott,) is so very large to be found in one small city, and the expression in the original is so uncommon, that it is generally allowed some mistake is [here] made: Josephus mentions only seventy.

The passage may be rendered, ‘He smote seventy men, even fifty out of a thousand men;’ which supposes that 1,400 persons were present, and that a twentieth part was slain; and this appears to be the genuine meaning of the passage.” Others render it, ‘he slew seventy men out of 50,000,” which comes nearly to the same. It appears to us that the people were smitten, like the Philistines, with some sore disorder, of which seventy of the chief offenders died, and the whole surrounding population of 50,000 bitterly lamented, and were greatly terrified, saying, ‘‘Who is able to stand before the Holy Lord God?’’ in which they justify his character while they lament his judgment. Our proper improvement of this alarming incident is briefly couched in those memorable words of Moses: “Secret things belong to the Lord our God,”

and it is not for us curiously to inquire into them; ‘but those [things] which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever; that we may do [practise] all the words of this law.” ((Deuteronomy 29:29).)

Notes on the verses

Chap. VI. Ver. 4. Five golden emerods.—The heathen used to consecrate to their gods such monuments of their deliverances as represented the evils from which they were rescued. In Popish countries it is common to see the figures of “heads, eyes, hands, feet,’ &c. exhibited as votive offerings in the churches, indicative of benefits received in the healing the diseases of the offerers in those parts. As to the mice, it has been thought that the jerboa, or fieldmouse, is here referred to, which did vast damage in eating the tops of the young corn on its first sprouting. [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 God 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 almost a total failure of their crops. |—Bagster. Ver. 18. According to the number, &c.—Ver. 4. golden mice as well as five emerods, and the former answered to the five lord- — (or satrapies) of the Philistines; but because the villages suffered as well as the cities, the meaning of the text is be- gins to be, that they all contributed to the expense of this atonement; which, perhaps, may be rendered clearer by giving to the Heb. prefix (sez) its usual meaning of FROM, as thus: * From the number of all the cities… &c. From the fenced cities unto the country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel;”

which was the boundary of their country.—The great stone of Abel.—Instead of Abel (weeping) some MSS. read (Aden) “Stone,” which renders that supplement (necessary, as our translators have noted in the margin). Ver. 19. He smote of the people, &c.—The ancient versions of this text vary most remarkably; the LXX. is the only one which agrees with ours, “Jonah and of the congregation 50,000 men,” which the Vulgate nearly follows. The Syriac and Arabic read, ‘‘The Lord smote among the people, (and there died of them) five thousand and seventy.”—Dr. Clarke. See exposition. } C. Taylor (in his Calmet) doubts even if any died; and certainly smiting does not always imply death. The original term is, in this very book, applied There are said to be five to the sons of Eli striking a flesh-hook into a pot, ch.

ii. 14., and in (Exodus 7:25), to smiting the river Nile. It is applied also frequently to smiting with blindness, (Genesis 19:11).—with pestilence, &c. (Numbers 14:12). -with emerods, (1 Samuel 5:6). Taylor also argues from the lamentations of the people, for 50,000 must include the population of the city, and for some distance round, who then was there to lament? To the Editor, the probability seems to be, that there was a great pestilence among the people, of whom seventy of the most daring transgressors died.—With a great slaughter.—Heb. “Smiting,” or “plague:” the original term is applied to the plagues of Egypt.