1 Samuel · chapter 6 of 31
Updated on
1 Samuel 6 tells how, after seven months with the ark, the Philistines consult their priests and diviners and send it back to Israel with a guilt offering of golden tumors and mice. They set it on a cart pulled by two cows that have never been yoked, and the cows go straight to Beth-shemesh. The people there rejoice, but some look inside the ark and die, and they ask that it be taken to Kiriath-jearim.
Chapter 5 left the Philistines terrified by the presence of the ark in their cities. Now they must decide how to get rid of it without provoking more punishment. Chapter 6 shows the Lord guiding the return of the ark even through pagans, and reminds Israel that the God who judges the Philistines is also holy toward his own people.
The ark of the Lord stays seven months in Philistine territory. The Philistines call their priests and diviners and ask how to send it back. They advise against returning it empty and recommend a guilt offering: five golden tumors and five golden mice, matching the number of Philistine rulers, and warn against hardening their hearts as Egypt and Pharaoh did.
To test whether everything came from the Lord, they build a new cart and hitch to it two nursing cows that have never been yoked, shutting their calves away. They place the ark and the box with the golden objects on the cart. If the cows go up the road toward Beth-shemesh, it will show that the Lord caused the plague. The cows go straight, lowing as they go, turning neither right nor left, and the Philistine rulers follow them as far as the border.
The people of Beth-shemesh are reaping wheat in the valley and rejoice when they see the ark. The cart stops in the field of Joshua beside a large stone; the Levites take down the ark and the box, and the men split the wood of the cart and offer the cows to the Lord as a burnt offering. But some men of Beth-shemesh look into the ark, and the Lord strikes down many of them. The people mourn and ask who can stand before the Lord, this holy God, and send messengers to Kiriath-jearim to come and take the ark.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Philistine priests recall that Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their hearts and it did not go well for them, and urge not to repeat that mistake. Even they use the Exodus as a reference for what is happening.
The cows go straight toward Beth-shemesh, lowing, turning neither right nor left. Against their instinct to return to their calves, they walk toward Israel: the test shows that the Lord is guiding the ark.
Some men of Beth-shemesh look into the ark and the Lord strikes them down. The people who have just recovered the ark learn that God's holiness is not handled lightly, even among his own.
The people ask who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God, and to whom the ark will go from here. The question is honest and leaves an open need: approaching a holy God calls for reverence and a mediator.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Seven months. — 1 Samuel 6:1
Answer: Five golden tumors and five golden mice, matching the number of their rulers. — 1 Samuel 6:4
Answer: Two nursing cows that had never been yoked. — 1 Samuel 6:7
Answer: Straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, without turning aside. — 1 Samuel 6:12
Answer: They split the wood of the cart and offered the cows to the Lord as a burnt offering. — 1 Samuel 6:14
Answer: Because they looked into the ark of the Lord. — 1 Samuel 6:19
The chapter shows two extremes that belong together: the God who governs even the decisions of people who do not know him, and the holy God who cannot be approached lightly. We often speak of grace as if it made reverence unnecessary. This passage invites us to ask how we come to the Word, to prayer and to the Lord's table.
For a small group, a good question is where we treat what is sacred as routine. For the Christian, the final answer is Christ, who gives us access to God with confidence, but that confidence is never casual: it grows out of gratitude and reverence.
1 Samuel 6 ends with the ark back in Israel, but still far from Shiloh and with a people shaken by the holiness of God. In chapter 7 the ark rests at Kiriath-jearim and Samuel calls Israel to return to the Lord with all their heart.
According to the text, the priests advised a guilt offering made of images of what had afflicted them: the tumors and the mice that ravaged the land. Five of each represented the five Philistine rulers, and it was a way of acknowledging guilt before the God of Israel.
The text says they looked into the ark of the Lord. The law reserved the handling of the ark to priests and Levites, and looking into it or touching it carelessly violated God's holiness. The number of dead differs in ancient manuscripts, and the Hebrew text gives a very large figure.