The Philistines have captured the ark of YHWH, God of Israel. It has not gone well for them.
I Samuel 6: 1-4a, Philistines make plans to return the ark
When the ark of the LORD had been in Philistine territory seven months, 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."
They answered, "If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it away empty, but 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."
The Philistines asked, "What guilt offering should we send to him?"
The Philistines want to get rid of the ark, returning it to Israel. The Philistine priests urge them to return the ark with some gifts, as a sign of submission.
I Samuel 6: 4b-6, Golden images of the plagues
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. Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and pay honor to Israel's god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When he treated them harshly, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?
Here we first learn (in the Masoretic text) of the plague of rats. Rats, death and tumors (buboes) all describe bubonic plague.
The priests suggest that the gifts included gold items molded in the images of the plagues, a statement of the ills they hope will be abolished.
I Samuel 6: 7-9, Philistines make plans to return the ark
"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. 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. 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 and that it happened to us by chance."
The ark is to be returned by wandering oxen. The cows, like the cart, are to be brand new to their work, never used before. (This is an indication of honor and respect.) The cows have calves (more on that in the next passage) and are to be hooked to the cart carrying the ark and then set free. The Philistines will then watch what happens.
In modern terms, this is an experiment. If the cows, who have never left home, take the ark to Israel, it will mean that the God of the Israelites is in charge.
I Samuel 6: 10-12, The ark leaves Philistia
So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. 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. 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.
The cows, with their calves penned up in Philistia, will desire to feed their newborns. But in this case, they aim straight for Beth Shemesh in Israel, lowing as they go. The steady mooing of the cows may indicate their desire to return to their calves; one has an image of the cows being driven, unhappily, by an unseen force.
I Samuel 6: 13-16, The ark rests at Beth Shemesh
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 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.
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.
The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.
When the ark arrives in Beth Shemesh in Israel, the cows and cart that got is there are sacrificed to YHWH. The golden emblems are collected. The five city overlords observe the process and go home.
I Samuel 6: 17-18, Golden items described
These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the LORD--one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. 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 they set the ark of the LORD, is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
The narrator repeats the statements about five gold "tumors", one for each prominent city. The number of gold images of rats is apparently more five, one for each of the smaller towns in Philistine.
The people of Beth Shemesh celebrate. The narrator points out that (in his day) one could go visit the big rock that served as the pedestal for the ark.
I Samuel 6: 19-21, Death in Beth Shemesh
But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the LORD had dealt them,and the men 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?"
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 place."
Many of the people of Beth Shemesh are struck down for "looking into" the ark. The ark, whether in Philistia or Israel, is a very dangerous item.
Ancient Hebrew manuscripts have significant conflicts about the number, in verse 19, of people who died in Beth Shemesh. Some Hebrew manuscripts give the number slain as 70 but most Hebrew manuscripts and the Septuagint give 50,070 slain instead of 70.Was it 70? Or 50,070? The Jewish historian Josephus, in the first century AD, apparently had access to a manuscript that had the number as 70, so that number is quite old. The small town of Beth Shemesh might have had a population in the hundred; there could not have been 50,070 people in the town of Beth Shemesh! This is one more example of conflict and confusion about these Old Testament numbers. (I've summarized the various opinions in a post on The Problem of Large Numbers in the Old Testament.)
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