The Straight Road Home Is Not the End of the Danger

“The country” is literally “the field” of the Philistines, their open land, which fits the plague of mice in verse 5. Seven months covers a whole growing season. The Greek adds that their land swarmed with mice.

Priests served the temples; diviners, qosemim, read omens and were forbidden in Israel (Deuteronomy 18:10). The question is practical: “wherewith” means with what gift, since a god was not approached empty-handed.

“Trespass offering” is asham, the guilt offering, the Levitical sacrifice for a wrong that required restitution (Leviticus 5:15–16). The pagan advisers choose the most fitting category in Israel’s own law, a payment for damage done to what is holy.

The number is five, one for each of the lords, because “one plague was on you all”. The offering acknowledges that the whole Philistine league shared the guilt, not only the three cities that held the ark.

Making images of an affliction to be rid of it was a known practice in the ancient world; votive models of diseased body parts were offered at healing shrines. “Give glory” is kavod again, the glory that departed in 4:21 now being returned. “Lighten his hand” answers the heavy hand of chapter 5.

The diviners know the Exodus better than the soldiers did in 4:8. “Wrought wonderfully” is hith’allel, to deal harshly or make sport of, the verb God uses of what he did in Egypt in Exodus 10:2, “what things I have wrought in Egypt”.

A new cart had never been used for profane work, fitting for a holy object. Milch kine, milk cows, would naturally turn back to their calves, and cows unused to a yoke would not pull straight. Both details make the test as hard as possible.

“Jewels” in 1611 English meant any precious objects; here, worked gold. The “coffer” is argaz, a box or chest, a word found only in this chapter. The gold rides beside the ark, not in it.

Beth-shemesh, “house of the sun”, was a Levitical town of Judah (Joshua 21:16) on the border with Philistia, about ten miles east of Ekron up the Sorek valley. “Chance” is miqreh, the word Ruth 2:3 uses for Ruth’s “hap”. The diviners offer two explanations and let the cows decide.

The verse repeats the instructions of verse 7 almost word for word, now as deeds. The calves are “shut up”, kalu, penned in, the verb used for restraint, which increases the pull on the mothers.

The cargo is listed again: the ark, and the coffer with the mice and images. The ark is placed first, the Philistine gifts beside it, in the order of importance.

“Took the straight way” is one Hebrew verb, yashar, to go straight, the root of Jashar, “upright”. “Lowing” is ga’o, the bellowing of cattle. Turning neither right nor left is the phrase Deuteronomy 5:32 uses for keeping God’s commandments exactly.

The wheat harvest came in late spring, about seven weeks after barley. The valley is the Sorek, the same valley where Delilah lived (Judges 16:4), now carrying the ark back into Israel. They “lifted up their eyes” from their bent work of reaping.

The cart stops by itself, beside a great stone, a natural altar. The wood of the cart and the cows are used for the sacrifice; nothing that carried the ark goes back to ordinary use. Offering female animals as a burnt offering was irregular, since the law called for males (Leviticus 1:3).

Beth-shemesh was a Levitical town, so Levites were at hand, as Numbers 4:15 required for carrying holy things. The verse seems to rewind, placing the ark on the stone before the offering of verse 14 was made. Two kinds of sacrifice are named, whole burnt offerings and shared “sacrifices”.

The five lords watch from a distance and leave the same day. Ekron is their base because it was the last city to hold the ark and the nearest to Beth-shemesh.

The five cities are named together, as in the list of unconquered land in Joshua 13:3. Gaza, Ashkelon and Ashdod were on or near the coast; Gath and Ekron inland. Each city pays its own golden tumour, and each lord answers for his own.

The mice are counted differently, by all the towns and villages, not only the five. “The great stone of Abel” is probably a copying slip for “the great stone” (even), abel meaning “mourning”; the Greek reads “stone”. Some keep Abel and see in it the mourning of verse 19.

“Looked into” may mean gazed at with irreverence rather than opened it; Numbers 4:20 warned the Kohathites not to “see when the holy things are covered, lest they die”. The Greek begins differently: the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice. Josephus gives the dead as seventy, with no fifty thousand.

“Who is able to stand” is the language of a servant standing in attendance before a king. “This holy LORD God” uses the adjective qadosh, holy, set apart. Their second question, “to whom shall he go up”, speaks of the ark as the LORD himself.

Kirjath-jearim, “town of forests”, lay about ten miles northeast in the hills and belonged to the Gibeonite league (Joshua 9:17). “Come ye down… fetch it up” is a matter of elevation, the hill town above the valley. The message says only that the Philistines brought the ark back, and leaves out Beth-shemesh’s own disaster.