World English Bible
- The LORD’s ark was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
- The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the LORD’s ark? Show us how we should send it to its place.”
- They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, don’t send it empty; but by all means return a trespass offering to him. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.”
- Then they said, “What should the trespass offering be which we shall return to him?” They said, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, for the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
- Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his hand from you, from your gods, and from your land.
- Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t they let the people go, and they departed?
- “Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart and two milk cows on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them;
- and take the LORD’s ark and lay it on the cart. Put the jewels of gold, which you return him for a trespass offering, in a box by its side; and send it away, that it may go.
- Behold, if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us. It was a chance that happened to us.”
- The men did so, and took two milk cows and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
- They put the LORD’s ark on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors.
- The cows took the straight way by the way to Beth Shemesh. They went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn’t turn away to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.
- The people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
- The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone. Then they split the wood of the cart and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to the LORD.
- The Levites took down the LORD’s ark and the box that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to the LORD.
- When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.
- These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering to the LORD: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;
- and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages, even to the great stone on which they set down the LORD’s ark. That stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
- He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the LORD’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.
- The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?”
- They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the LORD’s ark. Come down and bring it up to yourselves.”
“Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, ‘Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God?’”
1 Samuel 6 :20 — New International Version
Sit with the whole chapter before you. Hear hooves on limestone, see farmers pausing mid-harvest, feel the hush that falls when the Ark of the Covenant crests the ridge. Notice that the first shouts of joy give way to trembling silence. From laughter to lament in thirty verses—because holiness is never tame.
• Time & Place: c. 1050 BC. The Philistines hold
the Ark seven months (6 :1). Excavations at Tell
Beth-Shemesh show Iron-Age storage jars and a probable cult
installation—fitting for grain harvest imagery (vv. 13-15). The Ark’s
route follows the Sorek Valley, a natural corridor from
the coastal plain up to Judah.
• Cultural Note: In the ancient Near East, when an
enemy’s god seemed angry, one returned the idol with reparations. Yet
Yahweh is no local deity; He topples Dagon, afflicts five cities, and
now dictates the terms of His own repatriation.
The Philistine priests advise a guilt offering
(Hebrew ’ā·šām, the same word used in Leviticus 5). Five gold
tumors and five gold mice—images of their plague—confess, “What You
struck us with, we lay at Your feet.”
Cross-References: Leviticus 5 :14-19; Isaiah 53 :10 (“He shall make
His soul an asham”).
Two milk cows, never yoked, are hitched to a new cart. Natural instinct would make them turn back to their calves. Instead they go “straight up the road” (v. 12). The Hebrew piles verbs—yā·šārnāh hădā·rĕk—to stress determination. God’s sovereignty overrules maternal pull, proving the plague was no coincidence.
Early Church preacher Chrysostom loved this scene: “Creation itself became preacher; beasts were wiser than men, offering obedience unforced.”
At first:
• Reapers rejoice (v. 13).
• Levites offer burnt offerings (v. 15).
But then 70 men (some manuscripts read 50,070) are struck because they “looked upon” (or “into”) the Ark. Whether the sin was curiosity or presumption, the lesson is clear: proximity to the sacred demands reverence. Compare Numbers 4 :20 and 2 Samuel 6 :6-9 (Uzzah).
Literary Device: The text pivots on the question “Who can stand?”—echoing Psalm 24 :3-4 and foreshadowing every worshiper’s cry before a holy God.
Beth-shemesh sends for neighbors at Kiriath-jearim (modern Deir el-ʿAzar). They do not discard the Ark; they seek a community prepared to care for it rightly. Fear becomes wisdom.
• Holiness: Exodus 19 :12-24; Isaiah 6 :1-5; Hebrews 12 :28-29.
• Guilt removed by substitute: Leviticus 16; Romans 3 :25.
• God guiding the unlikely: Balaam’s donkey (Numbers 22), ravens feeding
Elijah (1 Kings 17), here two cows.
• Augustine, City of God I.3: “God shows He is not possessed
but possesses; He is never captured though His ark was.”
• Calvin: “Those who handle holy things must remember that what is
familiar is not therefore common.”
• Wesley: “Conviction without conversion only hardens; the Philistines
feared but did not repent.”
“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” (4th-century Liturgy of St. James; tr. Gerard Moultrie, 1864). Its refrain—“Christ our God to earth descendeth”—answers Beth-shemesh’s question: in Christ, the Holy One comes near and makes us stand.
Holy Father,
You who ride upon the cherubim and yet guide humble cattle,
teach us the tremble that leads to trust.
Cleanse our presumptions, receive our guilt offerings in the blood of
Your Son,
and steer our lives straight toward Your glory.
May reverence blossom into joy,
and joy deepen into obedient love.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.