1 Samuel 6:9

_AND SEE, IF IT GOETH UP BY THE WAY OF HIS OWN COAST TO BETH-SHE'MESH, THEN 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 CHANCE THAT HAPPENED TO US._ Bethshemesh - i:e., 'house of the sun,' now Ain Shems (Robinson), a city of the priests (Joshua 21:16) in Judah, in the southeast border of Dan, lying in a beautiful and extensive valley. Josephus says they were set agoing near a place where the road divided into two-the one leading back to Ekron, where were their calves; and the other to the sacerdotal city, Beth-shemesh, a distance from Ekron (Akir) of somewhat more than twelve miles, and situated on the Israelite border. Their frequent lowings attested their ardent longing for their young, and at the same time the supernatural influence that controlled their movements in a contrary direction....

1-9 Seven months the Philistines were punished with the presence of the ark; so long it was a plague to them, because they would not send it home sooner. Sinners lengthen out their own miseries by refusing to part with their sins. The Israelites made no effort to recover the ark. Alas! where shall we find concern for religion prevail above all other matters? In times of public calamity we fear for ourselves, for our families, and for our country; but who cares for the ark of God? We are favoured with the gospel, but it is treated with neglect or contempt. We need not wonder if it should be taken from us; to many persons this, though the heavies of calamities, would occasion no grief. There are multitudes whom any profession would please as well as that of Christianity. But there are those who value the house, the word, and the ministry of God above their richest possessions, who dread t...

Verse 1 Samuel 6:9. _A CHANCE THAT HAPPENED TO US_] The word מקרה _mikreh_, from קרה _karah_, to _meet_ or _coalesce_, signifies an event that naturally arises from such concurring causes as, in the order and nature of things, must produce it. Thus a bad state of the atmosphere, putrid exhalations, bad diet, occasioned by any general scarcity, might have produced the disease in question; and to something of this kind they would attribute it, if the other evidences did not concur. This gives us the proper notion of _chance_; and shows us that it is a matter as dependent upon the _Divine providence_, as any thing can be: in short, that these _occurrences_ are parts of the _Divine government_. The word _chance_, though often improperly used to signify such an occurrence as is not under the Divine government, is of

Bethshemesh was the first Israelite town they would come to, being on the border of Judah. (See the marginal reference.)...

EXPOSITION RESTORATION OF THE ARK TO THE ISRAELITES (1 Samuel 6:1). 1 SAMUEL 6:1, 1 SAMUEL 6:2 THE ARK OF JEHOVAH WAS IN THE COUNTRY—literally, the field, _i.e._ the territory—OF THE PHILISTINES SEVEN MONTHS, during which long time the people wherever the ark was deposited were afflicted in their persons with a most painful malady. The princes determined, therefore, to restore it to Israel, and convened THE PRIESTS AND THE DIVINERS, that they might advise them as to the manner i

AND SEE IF IT GOETH UP BY THE WAY OF ITS OWN COAST TO BETHSHEMESH,.... The nearest city to the land of the Philistines, which lay on their borders, and the borders of the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:10. Now the lords of the Philistines are directed by their priests to observe, whether these kine, that drew the cart on which the ark was, took the direct road to the borders of the land of Israel, and to Bethshemesh, the nearest city that lay on that coast: if so, they might conclude then, HE HATH DONE US THIS GREAT EVIL; that is, the God of Israel, whose ark this was; he had inflicted the disease of the emerods on them, and sent such numbers of mice into their fields, that had destroyed the increase of them: BUT IF NOT, THEN WE SHALL KNOW THAT IT IS NOT HIS HAND THAT HATH SMOTE US; but that there is some other cause of it: it wa

CHAPTER S 6:1-7:2 _ 1. The counsel of the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:1)_ 2. The ark at Beth-shemesh (1 Samuel 6:10) 3. The ark at Kirjath-jearim (1 Samuel 6:21; 1 Samuel 7:1) The ark had remained among the Philistines seven months. For them they were months of suffering and deadly destruction. Now they plot to get rid of the ark and of Him whose hand rested so heavily in judgment upon them. The advice of the heathen priests and diviners is that the ark should be sent away with votive offerings of gold, representing that which had plagued them. This was a heathen custom, which has also been adopted and is pract

1 SAMUEL 6:1 TO 1 SAMUEL 7:1. ARK BROUGHT BACK TO BETH-SHEMESH; PLAGUE BREAKS OUT THERE; ARK HOUSED AT KIRIATH-JEARIM. 1 Samuel 6:1 may not belong to the main story; 2 would be a better continuation of 1 Samuel 5:12. At the end of the verse LXX adds And their land swarmed with mice. This would prepare for the mice in 1 Samuel 6:4 f., 1 Samuel 6:11; 1 Samuel 6:18. Possibly these references t

IT: i.e. the "ark", which is masculine; not the "cart", which is feminine COAST. border, or boundary. BETH-SHEMESH. House of the sun, now _Ain Skeins, on_ the borders of Judah and Dan. Compare Joshua 15:10. THIS. Some codices, with three early printed editions, read "all this". evil. Hebrew ra'a. App-44....

_his own coast_ HIS OWN BORDER, as in 1 Samuel 6:12. See ch. 1 Samuel 5:6, note. "_His_" refers to the Ark. The neuter possessive pronoun "_its_" is not found in the original edition of the E. V. See _The Bible Word-Book_, p. 272. _to Beth-shemesh_ = "_House of the Sun_," probably the same as _Irshemesh_= "_City of the Sun_" (Joshua 19:41). It was a priestly city (Joshua 21:16) on the border of the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:10), about 12 miles S.E. of Ekron. Its position is identified by the modern village of Ai