6:1 And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the
Philistines a seven months.
(a) They thought by continuance of time the plague would
have ceased, and so would have kept the ark still.
6:3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel,
send it not empty; but in any wise return him b a trespass
offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to
you why his hand is not removed from you.
(b) The idolaters confess there is a true God, who punishes
sin justly.
6:5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images
of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto
the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand
from off you, and from off your c gods, and from off your
land.
(c) This is God's judgment on the idolaters, that knowing
the true God, they do not worship him correctly.
6:8 And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and
put the d jewels of gold, which ye return him [for] a
trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send
it away, that it may go.
(d) Meaning, the golden emerods and the golden mice.
6:9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to
Bethshemesh, [then] e he hath done us this great evil: but
if not, then we shall know that [it is] not his hand [that]
smote us: it [was] a f chance [that] happened to us.
(e) The God of Israel.
(f) The wicked attribute almost all things to fortune and
chance, whereas indeed there is nothing done without
God's providence and decree.
6:12 And the kine took the straight way to the way of
Bethshemesh, [and] went along the highway, lowing as they
went, and turned not aside [to] the right hand or [to] the
left; and the lords of the Philistines went after g them
unto the border of Bethshemesh.
(g) For the trial of the matter.
6:14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite,
and stood there, where [there was] a great stone: and h
they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a
burnt offering unto the LORD.
(h) That is, the men of Bethshemesh, who were Israelites.
6:17 And these [are] the golden emerods which the Philistines
returned [for] a trespass offering unto the LORD; for i
Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one,
for Ekron one;
(i) These were the five principal cities of the
Philistines, which were not all conquered to the time
of David.
6:19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they k had
looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the
people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the
people lamented, because the LORD had smitten [many] of the
people with a great slaughter.
(k) For it was not lawful for anyone either to touch or to
see it, only to Aaron and his sons (Nu 4:15,20).
