HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 117
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a Gk: Heb lacks In those days the Philistines mustered for war against Israel
b Gk: Heb against the Philistines
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Or A god has
e Heb he
4.1b–11 In a major battle on the Philistine frontier the ark of the Lord is brought from Shiloh to rally the faltering Israelite troops, but the Philistines prove too strong, Israel is routed, and the ark is captured. When the account is read in conjunction with the materials that precede it, it becomes clear that the Lord’s purpose in permitting the capture of the ark is to remove it from Shiloh, whose priesthood he has just condemned.
4.1b The Philistines had arrived on the coast of Canaan at about the same time the Israelites settled in the hills, and the Israelite monarchy arose amid a struggle between the two peoples for supremacy in the country. Ebenezer. Location uncertain. Aphek, just east of modern Tel Aviv, guarding a strategically important route from the coastal plain into the hill country.
4.3 The elders of Israel, tribal elders with responsibility for important decisions, attribute the rout to the absence of the ark, which marked the presence of the Divine Warrior in the midst of the army.
4.4 The LORD of hosts…enthroned on the cherubim, an epithet signifying the presence of the Lord above the cherubim, carvings of winged sphinxlike creatures. The ark is here envisioned as a portable cherub-throne, an important element in the royal iconography of Canaan.
4.5 The Israelite battle cry, here called a mighty shout, was a continuous threatening roar that made the earth seem to shake.
4.8 The Philistines seem to think that Israel has more than one god. They fear these mighty gods because they struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague (see Ex 7–12), and in fact plague will be the weapon with which the Lord strikes them in ch. 5. The plagues of Exodus were not in the wilderness, and the original reading here is likely to have been “and pestilence.”
4.11 The death of Hophni and Phinehas fulfills the prediction of 2.34.
4.12–22 When word of the capture of the ark is brought to Eli, the old priest collapses and breaks his neck.
4.12 The messenger is a native of Benjamin, the small tribal territory immediately north of Jerusalem.
4.18 Judged Israel forty years. Eli is incorporated into the succession of “judges” who ruled Israel between Joshua and Saul (see Judg 10.2, 3; 12.7, 9, 11, 14; 16.31; 1 Sam 7.6).
4.19 Shocked by the death of Phinehas, his wife bowed and gave birth, assuming the usual crouched position of Israelite women in childbirth.
4.21 The interpretation of the name Ichabod given here is close to its literal meaning, “Alas for the glory!” or “Where is the glory?” Such names were probably taken from liturgical laments over the departure of the discernible cultic presence—the “glory”—of a deity.
1 SAMUEL 5
The Philistines and the Ark
1When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod; 2then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and placed it beside Dagon. 3When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4But when they rose early on the next morning, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off upon the threshold; only the trunk ofa Dagon was left to him. 5This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
6The hand of the LORD was heavy upon the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and struck them with tumors, both in Ashdod and in its territory. 7And when the inhabitants of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us; for his hand is heavy on us and on our god Dagon.” 8So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” The inhabitants of Gath replied, “Let the ark of God be moved on to us.”b So they moved the ark of the God of Israel to Gath.c 9But after they had brought it to Gath,d the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic; he struck the inhabitants of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. 10So they sent the ark of the God of Israele to Ekron. But when the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “Whyf have they brought around to usg the ark of the God of Israel to kill ush and ouri people?” 11They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panicj throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there; 12those who did not die were stricken with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
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a Heb lacks the trunk of
b Gk Compare Q Ms: MT They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.”
c Gk: Heb lacks to Gath
d Q Ms: MT lacks to Gath
e Q Ms Gk: MT lacks of Israel
f Q Ms Gk: MT lacks Why
g Heb me
h Heb me
i Heb my
j Q Ms reads a panic from the LORD
5.1–12 As the ark is moved around Philistia, pestilence breaks out in one city after another. The story shows that the Lord permitted the capture of the ark to provide an occasion for slaying enemies.
5.1 Ashdod, one of the five principal Philistine cities (see note on 5.8), located on the coastal highway a few miles from the sea and almost due west of Jerusalem.
5.2 House of Dagon, Ashdod’s temple of the god Dagon, a Syrian deity of great antiquity who was adopted as the god of the Philistines after their arrival.
5.5 The writer uses the events of the story to explain a contemporary taboo against treading on the threshold of Dagon’s temple in Ashdod.
5.6 The hand of the LORD, plague, a weapon commonly used by the God of Israel against enemies. The specific disease that ravages the Philistines is probably bubonic plague, an epidemic common in coastal cities; it was characterized by tumors, nodal swellings or “buboes,” and transmitted by fleas borne on rats or mice (see 6.4).
5.8 The lords of the Philistines were five in number, one from each of the principal cities, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, Ashkelon, and Gaza. Gath, possibly Tell es-Safi southeast of Tel Miqneh/Ekron (see note on 5.10), but the site is disputed.
5.10 Ekron, modern Tel Miqneh, about twenty miles inland at the northern frontier of Philistine territory.
5.11 Its own place, the particular pedestal or alcove where the sacred object used to reside in its native shrine.
1 SAMUEL 6
The Ark Returned to Israel
1The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. 2Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us what we should send with it to its place.” 3They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed and will be ransomed;a will not his hand then turn from you?” 4And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your lords. 5So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps he will lighten his hand on you and your gods and your land. 6Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had made fools of them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? 7Now then, get ready a new cart and two milch cows that have never borne a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from the
m. 8Take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart, and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off, and let it go its way. 9And watch; if it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”
10The men did so; they took two milch cows and yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 11They put the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the box with the gold mice and the images of their tumors. 12The cows went straight in the direction of Bethshemesh along one highway, lowing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-she-mesh.
13Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. When they looked up and saw the ark, they went with rejoicing to meet it.b 14The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-she-mesh, and stopped there. A large stone was there; so they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. 15The Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was beside it, in which were the gold objects, and set them upon the large stone. Then the people of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and presented sacrifices on that day to the LORD. 16When the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.
17These are the gold tumors, which the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; 18also the gold mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone, beside which they set down the ark of the LORD, is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
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a Q Ms Gk: MT and it will be known to you
b Gk: Heb rejoiced to see it
6.1–7.1 The Philistines send the ark back to Israelite territory, and it comes to rest in Kiriath-jearim.
6.3 Guilt offering, compensation paid to the God of Israel to atone for defiling the ark and to prevent further suffering.
6.4 Five gold tumors and five gold mice, a strange but appropriate offering. Five corresponds to the number of the Philistine lords or cities (see vv. 17–18), and the Hebrew word for tumor also means “acropolis.” Gold suggests that the offerings can also be thought of as spoils of war. Tumors and mice are characteristic of the plague (see note on 5.6).
6.6 Egyptians…hearts, an allusion to Pharaoh’s repeated resistance to releasing the Israelites during the plagues preceding the exodus (e.g., Ex 10.1–2).
6.7 New cart, cows that have never borne a yoke. A previously used cart and previously yoked cows would not be ritually pure (see Num 19.2; Deut 21.3), and both are to be used for sacrifice (see v. 15).
6.9 Beth-shemesh, in the northeastern Shephelah about twenty miles west of Jerusalem, was at the southwestern end of the Valley of Sorek, the most direct route back from Philistia to Israelite territory.
6.12 The unswerving route of the untrained cows shows the Philistines that the progress of the ark is being divinely guided (see v. 9).
6.14 Joshua of Bethshemesh, not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, but the field where the sacrifice was made was identified as his in the time of the writer (see v. 18). Both the wood of the cart and the cows are sacrificed as a burnt offering, the highest form of sacrifice, in which the entire victim was consumed on the altar.
6.15 Levites, possibly added by a scribe to avoid the implication in v. 14 that the sacrifice was made without the participation of the official priestly tribe.
6.19 Very uncertain textually. The Septuagint gives us the descendants of Jeconiah, but we do not know who they were or why their failure to celebrate would have provoked the Lord to punish Beth-shemesh. The Masoretic Text says that the people angered the Lord by looking into the ark (see Num 4.15, 20).
6.20 Stand before often connotes “attend upon (as a priest)” (see Deut 10.8; Judg 20.27–28), and it may be that the people of Beth-shemesh sent the ark to Kiriath-jearim in the hope that a priest might be found there who could safely and properly manage the service of this powerful and dangerous sacred object. In any case, this is apparently what happened (see 7.1–2).
6.21 Kiriath-jearim, about fifteen miles east-north-east of Beth-shemesh and eight miles northwest of Jerusalem. It was situated on the border of Benjamin and Judah, and the hill (see 7.1) may have been the Benjaminite district.
7.1 Abinadab and Eleazar, known only from this passage and 2 Sam 6, but both names are prominent in the levitical genealogies.
1 SAMUEL 7
The Ark at Kiriath-jearim
19The descendants of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the people of Beth-shemesh when they greeteda the ark of the LORD; and he killed seventy men of them.b The people mourned because the LORD had made a great slaughter among the people. 20Then the people of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom shall he go so that we may be rid of him?” 21So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Comedown and take it up to you.” 1And the people of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the LORD, and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. They consecrated his son, Eleazar, to have charge of the ark of the LORD.
2From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamentedc after the LORD.
Samuel as Judge
3Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Astartes from among you. Direct your heart to the LORD, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4So Israel put away the Baals and the Astartes, and they served the LORD only.
5Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” 6So they gathered at Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the LORD. They fasted that day, and said, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.
7When the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it they were afraid of the Philistines. 8The people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, and pray that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9So Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD; Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. 10As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel; but the LORD thundered with a mighty voice that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion; and they were routed before Israel. 11And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as beyond Beth-car.
12Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah,d and named it Ebenezer;e for he said, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” 13So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel; the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.
15Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. 16He went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all these places. 17Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home was there; he administered justice there to Israel, and built there an altar to the LORD.
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a Gk: Heb And he killed some of the people of Beth-shemesh, because they looked into
b Heb killed seventy men, fif
ty thousand men
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Gk Syr: Heb Shen
e That is Stone of Help
7.2–17 Samuel, who has already been presented as both priest and prophet, now becomes a military commander and a judge. The events show that divinely chosen, charismatic leadership is fully sufficient for Israel and, by implication, that kingship is unnecessary. This is one of those passages associated with the city of Mizpah (see v. 5) that were added to the larger Samuel narrative during the Babylonian exile by a writer who viewed Israel’s experience with monarchy as an unmitigated disaster (see Introduction).
7.4 Baals, Astartes, foreign deities, male and female.
7.5 Mizpah, a hilltop town probably located about five miles north of Jerusalem; during the Babylonian exile, when Jerusalem lay in ruins, it served as the provincial capital of Judah (see 2 Kings 25.23).
7.6 We know of no ritual in the biblical period in which people drew water, poured it out before the LORD, and fasted, but in some respects the ritual anticipates the later observance of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Samuel judged the people of Israel (see also v. 15) incorporates his career into the chronological framework of Judges (see note on 4.18).
7.10 Thundered with a mighty voice. The intervention of the Divine Warrior is often expressed in the language of the thunderstorm, especially in early poetry (1 Sam 2.10; 2 Sam 22.14; Pss 18.13; 29; 68.7–8).