1. Samuel 6:4 Kommentar

In this chapter we have the return of the ark to the land of Israel, whither we are now gladly to attend it, and observe, I. How the Philistines dismissed it, by the advice of their priests (Sa1 6:1-11), with rich presents to the God of Israel, to make an atonement for their sin (Sa1 6:3-5), and yet with a project to bring it back, unless Providence directed the kine, contrary to their inclination, to go to the land of Israel (Sa1 6:8, Sa1 6:9). II. How the Israelites entertained it. 1. With great joy and sacrifices of praise (Sa1 6:12-18). 2. With an over-bold curiosity to look into it, for which many of them were struck dead, the terror of which moved them to send it forward to another city (Sa1 6:19-21).

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 6 In this chapter we are told the Philistines advised with their priests what to do with the ark, and wherewith to send it home, Sa1 6:1 whose advice was to send with it a trespass offering, golden images of emerods and mice, and to put it on a new cart, and the images in a coffer on the side of the ark, and draw it with two cows, Sa1 6:3, and gave them a token whereby they might know whether they had been smitten by the God of Israel or not, Sa1 6:9 which advice they took, and acted in all things according to it; and the lords of the Philistines accompanied the ark to the border of Bethshemesh, Sa1 6:10, where they of Bethshemesh received it with joy, and offered the kine for a burnt offering to the Lord, and the Levites took care of the ark and presents in it, and the lords of the Philistines returned home, Sa1 6:13, but they of Bethshemesh looking into the ark were smitten of God, upon which they sent to the men of Kirjathjearim to fetch it from them, Sa1 6:19.

Then said they, what shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him?.... They paid a great deference to their priests and diviners, and were willing to be directed in all things by them; being ignorant of what was most proper in this case, and might be acceptable to the God of Israel: they answered, five golden emerods, and five golden mice; images of these made of gold, as appears from the next verse; the reason of the former is easy, from the above account of the disease they were afflicted with; but of the latter no hint is given before: indeed in the Vulgate Latin and Septuagint versions of Sa1 5:6 is inserted a clause, that"mice sprung up in the midst of their country;''which is not in the Hebrew text, nor in the Chaldee paraphrase; yet appears to be a fact from the following verse, that at the same time their bodies were smitten with emerods, their fields were overrun with mice, which destroyed the increase of them; wherefore five golden mice were also ordered as a part of the trespass offering, and five of each were pitched upon: according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; who were five, and so the principalities under them; see Jos 13:3. for one plague was on you all, and on your lords; the lords and common people were equally smitten with the emerods, and the several principalities were alike distressed and destroyed with the mice; and therefore the trespass offering, which was a vicarious one for them, was to be according to the number of their princes and their principalities; five emerods for the five princes and their people smitten with emerods, and five mice on account of the five cities and fields adjacent being marred by mice.

We read in the first book of Kings [Samuel] that because of the damage done to the consecrated ark the foreigners were smitten on their hinder parts, so that they even suffered the dreadful fate of being gnawed alive by mice. This remains a perennial reproach on them, because no other was punished in this way. Similarly he afflicts sinners in the afterlife … they are so devoured by mice when the devil’s hostile troop surrounds them.

5. What does it mean that five likenesses of tumors, and as many likenesses of mice, according to the number of the provinces, are commanded to be made, and thus the debt to the ark is paid? These things indeed, if weighed in the Jewish manner according to the lowliness of the letter, are not only to be despised, but not even worthy of hearing. He indeed receives these things worthily who understands that the more lowly they sound by the letter, the more useful they are through their spiritual meaning. For the Holy Spirit, by whose inspiration this entire sacred history is written, would never have brought forth such lowly things if He did not signify certain great and very precious mysteries in the hidden depth of this lowliness. Whence the excellent teacher declares, saying: "All these things happened to them in figure; but they were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Cor. 10:11). Therefore, the more base what they say appears in the exposed flesh, as it were, of the letter, the more deeply must they be sought through the spirit. What then are the likenesses of tumors, what are the images of mice? And since we referred these things above both to tempting demons and to the members of sinners exposed to stenches, in what sense are the likenesses of tumors and mice gilded? But indeed the debt to the ark for sin is well paid if the likenesses of tumors and mice are fashioned from gold. For in the likeness of a tumor, the member that emits stench is seen; and yet, because it is a likeness, not the reality, it is no longer stained by any stench. And because it is made of gold, this indeed suggests that by the splendor of beauty the appearance of deformity is transformed. Therefore the converted sinner makes a likeness of a tumor when he brings to memory with what stenches of sin he had surrendered his members. Therefore to fashion a likeness of a tumor is to recall with a penitent heart the shame of one's members that recently sinned. And so he fashions not a tumor, but the likeness of a tumor, who both washes his members from the stenches of sin and does not fail to recall to which sins he had subjected those same members. And indeed the likeness of a tumor is seen to be made of gold, because the shamefulness of sins is worn away unto the prize of eternal salvation. Or perhaps by remembering, the likenesses of tumors are made; by weeping, they are gilded: because by recalling what we have done, we fashion them, and while we mourn our offenses more attentively, we gild our members in the splendor of righteousness. Therefore the likeness, not the reality, of tumors is seen, because then the sinner looks upon the disgrace of his deformity when he not only no longer practices wicked works by committing them, but also vehemently grieves that he committed them in the past. But five tumors are commanded to be made, because the universal satisfaction of all the Gentiles is commanded. Whence it is also carefully noted: "According to the number of the provinces of the Philistines." For why are there five provinces of the Philistines, unless because the carnal life of the Gentiles is signified? For because they devoted the five senses of the body not to the praise of the Creator but to carnal life, the provinces of the Philistines are expressed by the number five. They are commanded to make five golden tumors so that they may be pricked with compunction in all their senses; and because all have sinned, therefore let them restore to the brightness of the heavenly life all the members which they defiled with every kind of shameful filth through the pleasures of the flesh. For in gold the splendor of heavenly conduct is shown, because through John it is said of the heavenly city: "The city itself was pure gold, like clear glass" (Rev. 21:18). The members are therefore gilded when the body, deformed by the earthly and filthy foulness of lusts, is transformed into the splendor of eternal life: when, namely, that which was defiled by the stench of sins in the appetite for worldly pleasure shines forth through the beauty of holy conduct. For blessed Paul was admonishing his hearers toward this gilding, saying: "As you presented your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification" (Rom. 6:19). And as if compelling them to look upon the likenesses of tumors, he added, saying: "What fruit then did you have in those things, of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death." Therefore the likenesses of tumors are made for our shame: because indeed we bring the stains of our foulness to memory so that we may be confounded by those same stains. But they are gilded for our security: because indeed while we cover over our deformity with the brightness of the heavenly life, we await the scrutiny of the divine judgment with a certain security. 6. The mice also, which demolished the land, are commanded to be made of gold: because the unclean spirits, who suggest the enticements of corruption to our flesh, are remembered for our justification. For what is it to make likenesses of mice, except to remember those victories which malign spirits have had over us? But the likenesses of mice are also gilded, when we sigh over their broken powers. For while we lament that we were conquered by their deceits, we indeed hold golden likenesses of mice, since we hold the past counsels of demons not in the allurement of their work, but in the contempt of reprobation. Therefore the likenesses of mice are made of gold, because the past deceits of demons advance us toward the splendor of a good life. For we are now so much more humble, inasmuch as our members shine through the splendor of heavenly conduct; and we ourselves, who now by the help of almighty God do mighty things, see that we were prostrated by the deceits of unclean spirits. This counsel, because they offer it to many, they also show the reason for it, because they say: "For the plague was one for you and for your rulers." As if they were saying openly: Because you were all subject to sin, it is necessary that you equally prepare your hearts for the pursuit of a better life. Whence Paul also says: "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace" (Rom. 3:23). 7. And to commend more attentively the resolution of improving one's life, they repeat by insisting, saying: "You shall make likenesses of your tumors and of the mice that have destroyed the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel, if perhaps He may lighten His hand from you, from your gods, and from your land." Once these likenesses that were mentioned have been made, to give glory to God is, out of zeal for good work and out of an estimation of humility, not to glory vainly in oneself, but to devote to the praises of almighty God everything that is done. And because they say: "If perhaps He may lighten His hand from you" (1 Sam. 6:5)—what else is understood in this word of doubt, except that the reconciliation of sinners is shown to be difficult? Hence also through Jonah it is said: "Who knows if He may turn and forgive?" (Jonah 3:9). Because, therefore, it is said "if perhaps He may lighten His hand", we ought to be moved to tears of repentance with great earnestness: for if those who perform severe penance scarcely find confidence of salvation, when can the negligent be saved? This difficulty of reconciliation, if it is held in the estimation of the penitent, is by no means found with almighty God: for even when the Ninevites cast themselves down with heavy penance as if for a difficult reconciliation, they easily merited the mercy of almighty God. And when the people prostrated themselves before God with bitter lamentation at the voice of the prophet Joel, they brought it about that He who seemed difficult to appease softened His anger. For immediately it is written therein: "The Lord was zealous for His land and spared His people" (Joel 2:18). The hand, therefore, is lifted when the mind, powerfully pierced with compunction in repentance, is raised up by divine inspiration to the gift of obtained mercy. And because, as I said, in the beginning of the nascent Church, just as there was a general conversion of sinners, so also there was a general reconciliation of the converted: the hand of God, which is declared to be lifted, is said to be lifted both from the hearers, and from their gods, and from the land. For by "gods," sublime and wise men are designated. For the Lord also says to Moses: "I have made you a god to Pharaoh" (Exod. 7:1). And in the commandment of the Law it is also prescribed: "You shall not speak ill of gods" (Exod. 22:28). By "land," indeed, the life of the simple is expressed: for when they receive the preaching of their superiors, like rain from heaven falling upon them, from the watering of the word they bring forth the fruit of good work. From the gods, therefore, and from the land, the hand of the Lord is lifted, when both the wise and the simple are brought back to the certainty of divine pardon, either by hidden and spiritual consolation, or by the judgment of preachers. Hence also he who a little earlier had urged that the members be gilded, saying: "Present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification" (Rom. 6:19), as if pronouncing the judgment of the Lord's lifted hand, says: "But now having been freed from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life" (Rom. 6:22). Hence again, marveling at the complete splendor of gold in those converted from the deformity of a most wicked life, he says: "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (Eph. 5:8). Hence the same, praising his own, says: "In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:15). Therefore, when the likenesses of the tumors and mice have been made from gold and glory has been given to God, the hand of the Lord is lifted: because after the mourning of repentance, after the improvement of life and the humility of estimation, sinners are brought back to the full mercy of almighty God. And because all these things are still prescribed by counsel—yet some devoutly carry out the counsel of preachers, while others despise it—those who extol the good with praises for the splendor of a good life are inflamed against the proud through the force of rebuke.

According to the number of the provinces of the Philistines, etc. According to the number of the five senses of the body, which you contaminated by looking back, whose fruits you all lost by poorly handling faith, now in all that you do by seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or touching, offer to Christ the most illustrious virtues due to him, such as patience, compunction, humility, and others.

After the ark had been seven months in the land of the Philistines, they consult their priests and diviners about sending it to Shiloh, Sa1 6:1, Sa1 6:2. They advise that it be sent back with a trespass-offering of five golden emerods, and five golden mice, Sa1 6:3-6. They advise also that it be sent back on a new cart, drawn by two milch kine from whom their calves shall be tied up; and then conclude that if these cows shalt take the way of Beth-shemesh, as going to the Israelitish border, then the Lord had afflicted them, if not, then their evils were accidental, Sa1 6:7-9. They do as directed; and the kine take the way of Beth-shemesh, Sa1 6:10-13. They stop in the field of Joshua; and the men of Beth-shemesh take them, and offer them to the Lord for a burnt-offering, and cleave the wood of the cart to burn them, and make sundry other offerings, Sa1 6:14, Sa1 6:15. The offerings of the five lords of the Philistines, Sa1 6:16-18. For too curiously looking into the ark, the men of Beth-shemesh are smitten of the Lord, Sa1 6:19, Sa1 6:20. They send to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, that they may take away the ark, Sa1 6:21.

Five golden emerods, and five golden mice - One for each satrapy. The emerods had afflicted their bodies; the mice had marred their land. Both, they considered, as sent by God; and, making an image of each, and sending them as a trespass-offering, they acknowledged this. See at the end.

THE PHILISTINES COUNSEL HOW TO SEND BACK THE ARK. (Sa1 6:1-9) the ark . . . was in the country of the Philistines seven months--Notwithstanding the calamities which its presence had brought on the country and the people, the Philistine lords were unwilling to relinquish such a prize, and tried every means to retain it with peace and safety, but in vain.

Five golden emerods--Votive or thank offerings were commonly made by the heathen in prayer for, or gratitude after, deliverance from lingering or dangerous disorders, in the form of metallic (generally silver) models or images of the diseased parts of the body. This is common still in Roman Catholic countries, as well as in the temples of the Hindus and other modern heathen. five golden mice--This animal is supposed by some to be the jerboa or jumping mouse of Syria and Egypt [BOCHART]; by others, to be the short-tailed field mouse, which often swarms in prodigious numbers and commits great ravages in the cultivated fields of Palestine.

The Ark of God Sent Back. - Sa1 6:1-3. The ark of Jehovah was in the land (lit. the fields, as in Rut 1:2) of the Philistines for seven months, and had brought destruction to all the towns to which it had been taken. At length the Philistines resolved to send it back to the Israelites, and therefore called their priests and diviners (see at Num 23:23) to ask them, "What shall we do with regard to the ark of God; tell us, with what shall we send it to its place?" "Its place" is the land of Israel, and בּמּה does not mean "in what manner" (quomodo: Vulgate, Thenius), but with what, wherewith (as in Mic 6:6). There is no force in the objection brought by Thenius, that if the question had implied with what presents, the priests would not have answered, "Do not send it without a present;" for the priests did not confine themselves to this answer, in which they gave a general assent, but proceeded at once to define the present more minutely. They replied, "If they send away the ark of the God of Israel (משׁלּחים is to be taken as the third person in an indefinite address, as in Sa1 2:24, and not to be construed with אתּם supplied), do not send it away empty (i.e., without an expiatory offering), but return Him (i.e., the God of Israel) a trespass-offering." אשׁם, lit. guilt, then the gift presented as compensation for a fault, the trespass-offering (see at Lev. 5:14-6:7). The gifts appointed by the Philistines as an asham were to serve as a compensation and satisfaction to be rendered to the God of Israel for the robbery committed upon Him by the removal of the ark of the covenant, and were therefore called asham, although in their nature they were only expiatory offerings. For the same reason the verb השׁיב, to return or repay, is used to denote the presentation of these gifts, being the technical expression for the payment of compensation for a fault in Num 5:7, and in Lev 6:4 for compensation for anything belonging to another, that had been unjustly appropriated. "Are ye healed then, it will show you why His hand is not removed from you," sc., so long as ye keep back the ark. The words תּרפאוּ אז are to be understood as conditional, even without אם, which the rules of the language allow (see Ewald, 357, b.); this is required by the context. For, according to Sa1 6:9, the Philistine priests still thought it a possible thing that any misfortune which had befallen the Philistines might be only an accidental circumstance. With this view, they could not look upon a cure as certain to result from the sending back of the ark, but only as possible; consequently they could only speak conditionally, and with this the words "we shall know" agree.

The trespass-offering was to correspond to the number of the princes of the Philistines. מספּר is an accusative employed to determine either measure or number (see Ewald, 204, a.), lit., "the number of their princes:" the compensations were to be the same in number as the princes. "Five golden boils, and five golden mice," i.e., according to Sa1 6:5, images resembling their boils, and the field-mice which overran the land; the same gifts, therefore, for them all, "for one plague is to all and to your princes," i.e., the same plague has fallen upon all the people and their princes. The change of person in the two words, לכלּם, "all of them," i.e., the whole nation of the Philistines, and לסרניכם, "your princes," appears very strange to us with our modes of thought and speech, but it is by no means unusual in Hebrew. The selection of this peculiar kind of expiatory present was quite in accordance with a custom, which was not only widely spread among the heathen but was even adopted in the Christian church, viz., that after recovery from an illness, or rescue from any danger or calamity, a representation of the member healed or the danger passed through was placed as an offering in the temple of the deity, to whom the person had prayed for deliverance; (Note: Thus, 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 (see Schol. ad Aristoph. Acharn. 243, and other proofs in Winer's Real-wrterbuch, ii. p. 255). Theodoret says, concerning the Christians of the fourth century (Therapeutik. Disp. viii.): Ὅτι δὲ τυγχάνουσιν ὧνπερ αἰτοῦσιν οἱ πιστῶς ἐπαγγέλλοντες ἀναφανδὸν μαρτυρεὶ τὰ τούτων ἀναθήματα, τὴν ἰατρείαν δηλοῦντα, οἱ μὲν γὰρ ὀφθαλμῶν, οἱ δὲ ποδῶν ἄλλοι δὲ χειρῶν προσφέρουσιν ἐκτυπώματα καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐκ χρυσοῦ, οἱ δὲ ἐξ ὕλης ἀργύρου πεποιημένα. Δέχεται γὰρ ὁ τούτων Δεσπότης καὶ τὰ σμικρά τε καὶ εὔωνα, τῇ τοῦ προσφέροντος δυνάμει τὸ δῶρον μετρῶν. Δηλοῖ δὲ ταῦτα προκείμενα τῶν παθημάτων τὴν λύσιν, ἧς ἀνετέθη μνημεῖα παρὰ τῶν ἀρτίων γεγενημένων. And at Rome they still hang up a picture of the danger, from which deliverance had been obtained after a vow, in the church of the saint invoked in the danger.) and it also perfectly agrees with a custom which has prevailed in India, according to Tavernier (Ros. A. u. N. Morgenland iii. p. 77), from time immemorial down to the present day, viz., that when a pilgrim takes 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 acknowledgement 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 fine 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. This is contained in the words, "Give glory unto the God of Israel! peradventure He will lighten His (punishing) hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land." The expression is a pregnant one for "make His heavy hand light and withdraw it," i.e., take away the punishment. In the allusion to the representations of the field-mice, the words "that devastate the land" are added, because in the description given of the plagues in Sa1 5:1-12 the devastation of the land by mice is not expressly mentioned. The introduction of this clause after עכבּריכם, when contrasted with the omission of any such explanation after עפליכם, is a proof that the plague of mice had not been described before, and therefore that the references made to these in the Septuagint at Sa1 5:3, Sa1 5:6, and Sa1 6:1, are nothing more than explanatory glosses. 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 (Aristot. Animal. vi. 37; Plin. h. n. x. c. 65; Strabo, iii. p. 165; Aelian, etc., in Bochart, Hieroz. ii. p. 429, ed. Ros.).