Summary: The Philistines, unable to halt the plague, resolved to make a golden offering to God and return the Ark to the Israelites. They placed the Ark on a cart pulled by two cows, allowing the cows to freely lead the Ark away from the Philistines (v.8). The cows returned the Ark directly to Israel (v.12). As a consequence of their irreverence, God struck down 70 men from Israel who looked into the Ark (v.19).
(6:1-2) When the ark of the LORD had been in Philistine territory seven months, 2 the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”
“Seven months.” This political crisis lasted for over half of a year! While the Philistines wanted to use the Ark as a military weapon, they finally realized that the Ark wasn’t a magic talisman. The sunk cost was high, but the price of the painful, swelling tumors on the bodies of the people was far higher.
These “priests and diviners” were pagan prophets. So, their words should be read with discernment.
(6:3-5) They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.”
4 The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?”
They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. 5 Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land.
Why did they create an offering in the form of the plague itself? This was wrong. They were breaking God’s law regarding making images (Ex. 20:4; Deut. 5:8), specifically an unclean animal like a rat! (Lev. 11:29) Moreover, by moving the Ark, they must’ve thought that Yahweh was a territorial god who could be removed. Youngblood writes, “Perhaps the Philistines intended the models to function in the realm of sympathetic magic also, so that by sending them out of their land the genuine articles would depart as well.”[] Bergen writes, “This advice apparently represents a syncretistic blend of pagan imitative magic and perverted Torah ritual.”[]
Regardless, the Philistines recognized that “Israel’s god” was behind this judgment, and the Ark was not a magic weapon in their hands. So, while they weren’t theologically perfect, they were getting the message.
(6:6) “Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?”
While Pharaoh hardened his heart and God further hardened it (see Exodus 4:21), the Philistines made a choice to repent before their judgment became worse.
(6:7) “Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.”
“Milch cows” are “cows that have just given birth” (NLT). Youngblood writes, “They hoped that the cows would take the ark there, reasoning that if cows new to the yoke would desert their newborn calves—even temporarily—to pull a cart all the way to Beth Shemesh, that would be a supernatural sign that the divine owner of the ark had sent the plague against them.”[] Baldwin adds, “Since the cows were unused to pulling a cart, and had calves dependent on them, all their instincts would be to turn back.”[]
(6:8-9) “Take the ark of the LORD and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, but keep watching it. 9 If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the LORD has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.”
“The LORD” or “by chance.” The Philistines still weren’t sure if this outbreak was the result of divine intervention or of mere chance. This was their way of differentiating between the two.
(6:10-12) So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. 11 They placed the ark of the LORD on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. 12 Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.
“Lowing” means “mooing” (NET). This implies that they were “mooing” for their newborn calves. They wanted to go back, but they were guided and compelled by God to go where he wanted them to go.
(6:13) Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight.
The people might’ve been thinking about how they could devise a strategic plan to rescue the Ark. After all, it had been gone for seven months (v.1). Maybe they had given up hope altogether. Imagine their surprise and excitement to see the Ark coming home on its own, and with a chest full of gold alongside it!
(6:14-15) The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. 15 The Levites took down the ark of the LORD, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.
They sacrificed the cows with the wood they brought with them. The text never states what they did with the gold images.
(6:16) The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.
The Philistine leaders must’ve personally followed the Ark to see if it would make it to Israel. In their minds, this confirmed the test of their priests and diviners (vv.8-9).
(6:17-18) These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the LORD—one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. 18 And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers—the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the LORD is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
They placed the ark on a large stone in Joshua’s field.
(6:19) But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they looked into the ark of the LORD. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the LORD had dealt them.
Only the Levitical priests could see the outside of the Ark (Num. 4:5-6). But no one was permitted to look within the Ark. It’s no wonder as to why God brought judgment on the people for trying to peer into the Ark (Consider watching the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark for a fictional depiction of this).
70 men were killed. The 50,070 number is definitely a transmission error. Archer writes, “The alphabetic system of numerical notation needed only a few dots above or below to multiply by one thousand; thus the letter nun with two dots above it would signify 50,000.”[] Josephus states that only 70 were killed (Antiquities 6.1.4). Therefore, we can see that it would be easy to introduce a scribal error here.
(6:20-21) And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?” 21 Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to your town.”
The people of Beth Shemesh were understandably frightened by this, and they asked the people of Kiriath Jearim to take the Ark. This detail shows that the Ark has a rightful place, and that isn’t in one of the small towns in Israel. This could foreshadow the fact that the Ark belongs in the Tabernacle in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5).
We shouldn’t try to manipulate God, but learn how to go his direction.
God doesn’t play favorites. Both the Philistines and the Israelites were judged for trying to manipulate God.
God is capable of bringing about his desired outcomes. He achieved this by executing judgment on the Philistines, compelling them to willingly surrender the ark, and supernaturally guiding the cows back to Beth Shemesh.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 604.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 100.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 604.
Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 82.
Gleason Archer Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 3rd. ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 387.
James is an elder at Dwell Community Church, where he teaches classes in theology, apologetics, and weekly Bible studies.
