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Return of the Ark of the Covenant from the land of the Philistines. Temporary stop of the Ark at Bethshemesh. 1 Samuel 6:2. And the Philistines called priests and soothsayers [and exorcists] and said: What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? teach us how we can let him go to his place. 1 Samuel 6:3. They said: if you want to release the ark [of the covenant of the Lord] of the God of Israel, then do not let it go empty-handed, but offer Him a trespass offering; then you will be healed and you will know why His hand does not depart from you. 1 Samuel 6:4. And they said, What trespass offering shall we offer unto Him? They said: according to the number of the rulers of the Philistines, there are five golden growths and five golden mice; for the execution is one for all of you and for your rulers; 1 Samuel 6:5. Therefore, make graven images of your growths and graven images of your mice that desolate the land, and give glory to the God of Israel; Perhaps He will lighten His hand over you and over your gods and over your land; 1 Samuel 6:6. and why should you harden your heart, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? behold, when the Lord showed His power over them, they let them go, and they went; 1 Samuel 6:7. So, take, make one new chariot and take two first-bred cows that did not have a yoke, and harness the cows to the chariot, and take their calves home from them; 1 Samuel 6:8. And take the ark of the Lord, and place it on the chariot, and put the golden articles which you offer to Him as a trespass offering in a chest at the side of it; and let him go, and let him go; In the ancient pagan world, there was a custom to appease one or another deity by sacrificing to him metal images of punishment that befell a person or his property. It is known, for example, that the Athenians sacrificed to God the image of those members of the human body that were affected by disease. Among some areas (in the north of European Russia, in India, etc.), this custom has been preserved to the present day. The custom of bringing metal images (or signs in general) of the punishment that oppressed a person to the deity was also practiced as a thanksgiving sacrifice on the occasion of liberation from this punishment. Prisoners who received freedom hung their chains in churches; survivors of a shipwreck - a metal plaque with the image of a sinking ship. Lucius Collodius, cured of deafness, sacrificed silver ears to the goddess Minerva. Like the above, this custom has not lost its significance among some pagan areas to the present day. With the advent of Christianity, the custom of bringing to God some kind of material sign of the grief that befell or befell a person did not completely go out of use: Christian history testifies that it had a place in Christianity, although it was already significantly different from its ancient prototype in paganism. From contact with Christianity, the custom was internally purified, becoming, instead of a manifestation of pagan superstition, a revelation of the deep faith and heartfelt devotion of a Christian to the One true, omnipotent and omnibeneficent God. Among the most striking examples of the existence of the interpreted custom in Christian antiquity, one can point to the case when St. John of Damascus made from silver an image of the hand that had been severed by the iconoclasts and was now miraculously reunited with the rest of his body, and attached this image to the icon of the Mother of God before whom he prayed, which is why this icon received its name “Three-Handed Ones.” 1 Samuel 6:10. And they did this: and they took two first-bred cows and harnessed them to a chariot, and kept their calves at home; “And their calves were kept at home”: according to the natural order of things, first-time cows should not have gone to Bethshemesh, but home, to their calves. 1 Samuel 6:15. The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the chest that was with it, in which there were golden things, and set them on a large stone; and the inhabitants of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings that day and slaughtered sacrifices to the Lord. Bethshemesh is a city located west of Bethlehem. 1 Samuel 6:17. These golden growths, which the Philistines brought as a trespass offering to the Lord, were: one for Azoth, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; See note. to 1 Samuel 5. The five Philistine cities were named not because only these cities were struck by punishment from above, but because the named five cities were the capitals of the five chief princes of the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:4,16,18), who grouped other cities and areas of the Philistine land around themselves. 1 Samuel 6:18. and the golden mice were according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines - five rulers, from the fortified cities to the open villages, to the great stone on which they placed the ark of the Lord and which is to this day in the field of Jesus the Bethshemite. “Open villages” are villages without fortifications. “Until the great stone” near Bethshemesh “on which they placed the Ark of the Lord” “Until this day” is an expression indicating the time of the sacred writer who gave the final edition of the 1st and 2nd books of Kings (see preliminary information about the books of Kings). 1 Samuel 6:19. [The sons of Jehoiachin among the men of Bethshemesh did not rejoice because they had seen the ark of the Lord.] And He struck down the inhabitants of Bethshemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, and killed fifty thousand and seventy of the people; and the people wept, for the Lord had struck the people with a great defeat. The Ark of the Covenant was a shrine, inviolable for the unsanctified (Num. 4:1), and even more so for the idle curiosity of the crowd. 1 Samuel 6:20. And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God? and to whom will He go from us? “Which of sinful people can stand before the convicting holiness of the Lord” and the rewarding justice of His right hand? 1 Samuel 6:21. And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord; come, take him to yourself. Kiriath-jearim is a city located northeast of Bethshemesh and northwest of Jerusalem, on the way to Shiloh, the then site of the tabernacle. You might be interested in: