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1 Samuel 6:12
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10 Then the men did so; they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
11 And they set the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors.
12 Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beth Shemesh, and went along the ahighway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.  
13 Now the people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their awheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.  
14 Then the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there; a large stone was there. So they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord.
15 The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the chest that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone. Then the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices the same day to the Lord.
16 So when athe five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.  
17 aThese are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned as a trespass offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for bGath, one for Ekron;  
18 and the golden rats, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and country villages, even as far as the large stone of Abel on which they set the ark of the Lord, which stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
19 Then aHe struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord.1 He bstruck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter.  

The Ark at Kirjath Jearim

20 And the men of Beth Shemesh said, a“Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall it go up from us?”  
21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of aKirjath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down and take it up with you.” 
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< 1 Samuel 6:11   1 Samuel 6:13 >>


1 Samuel 6:12

Lowing as they went - Milking cows had been chosen on purpose to make the sign more significant. Nature would obviously dispose the cows to go toward their calves; their going in an opposite direction was therefore plainly a divine impulse overruling their natural inclination. And this is brought out more distinctly by the mention of their lowing, which was caused by their remembering their calves.

And the lords ... - This circumstance of the five satraps of the Philistines accompanying the ark in person both made it impossible for the Israelites to practice any deceit (compare Matthew 27:63-66), and is also a striking testimony to the agitation caused among the Philistines by the plagues inflicted on them since the ark had been in their country.




Other Barnes' Notes entries containing 1 Samuel 6:12:

Joshua 15:10
Amos 1:8

 

<< 1 Samuel 6:11   1 Samuel 6:13 >>

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