The word for “priest” here is the same as that used for the priests of the true God; that for diviners is everywhere used of idolatrous or superstitious divining. Three modes of divination are described Ezekiel 21:21, by arrows, by teraphim, and by the entrails of beasts. (Compare Exodus 7:11; Danie... [ Continue Reading ]
SEND IT NOT EMPTY - See the marginal references. The pagan idea of appeasing the gods with gifts, and the scriptural idea of expressing penitence, allegiance, or love to God, by gifts and offerings to His glory and to the comfort of our fellow worshippers, coincide in the practical result.... [ Continue Reading ]
It was a prevalent custom in pagan antiquity to make offerings to the gods expressive of the particular mercy received. Thus, those saved from shipwreck offered pictures of the shipwreck, etc., and the custom still exists among Christians in certain countries. The plague of the mice is analogous to... [ Continue Reading ]
A NEW CART ... KINE ON WHICH THERE HATH COME NO YOKE - This was so ordered in reverence to the ark, and was a right and true feeling. See Mark 11:2; Matthew 27:60. For the supposed special virtue of new things, see Judges 16:7, Judges 16:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
Bethshemesh was the first Israelite town they would come to, being on the border of Judah. (See the marginal reference.)... [ Continue Reading ]
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 ou... [ Continue Reading ]
The whole population was in the field. The harvest work was suspended in an instant, and all the workmen ran to where the ark was.... [ Continue Reading ]
A GREAT STONE - (Compare Genesis 28:18; Judges 13:19). This great stone was probably used as an altar on this occasion, and the kine stopping at it of their own accord was understood by the Bethshemites as an intimation that they were to offer sacrifices on it to the Lord God of Israel, who had so w... [ Continue Reading ]
The word “Levites” here probably means priests Exodus 4:14, sons of Levi, since Bethshemesh was one of the cities of the priests Joshua 21:13. The burnt offering of the kine was not in any sense the offering of the men of Bethshemesh, but rather of the Philistine lords to whom the cart and the kine... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GREAT STONE OF ABEL ... - Probably so called from the “lamentation” described in 1 Samuel 6:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
FIFTY THOUSAND AND THREE SCORE AND TEN - Read “three” score and “ten”, omitting “fifty thousand”, which appears to have crept into the text from the margin. It is not improbable that in their festive rejoicing priests, Levites, and people may have fallen into intemperance, and hence, into presumptuo... [ Continue Reading ]
KIRJATH-JEARIM - See Joshua 9:17 note. It has been thought that there was a high place at Kirjath-jearim (the hill, 1 Samuel 7:1), the remnant of its old pagan sanctity when it was called Kirjath-Baal, “the city of Baal” (see Joshua 18:14; 2 Samuel 6:2); and that for this reason it was selected as a... [ Continue Reading ]