1 Samuel 6:4

ADVISERS GIVE DETAILS ON THE RETURN OF THE ARK

"And they said, "What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him"? They answered, "Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your lords. So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had made sport of them, did not they let the people go, and they departed? Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows upon which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart, and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off, and let it go its way. And watch; if it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done all this great harm; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance."

"Five golden mice" (1 Samuel 6:4). "The abrupt mention of mice here constitutes a difficulty."[3] To us there appears no difficulty whatever. Allegations that there must have been two plagues, one of the tumors, and the other of the mice (or rats) that have been confused and mixed up by some editor or redactor are in fact ridiculous. There was one plague only, the bubonic disaster spread among the Philistines by the rats and the Cheops flea. The foolish notion that the ancients "probably did not associate the rats with the plague" should be rejected. Modern man has grossly underestimated the intelligence of ancient peoples. They even measured the circumference of the earth with a clothes pole (See the encyclopaedias under Eratosthenes)! The fact of these mice (or rats) not being mentioned earlier is due solely to the abbreviated nature of the narrative.

Whether or not the Philistines associated the rats with the tumors or not, the rats (mice) were a devastating plague in themselves, as indicated by the remark of the priests and diviners (1 Samuel 6:5) that they "ravage the land." "Aristotle relates that in harvest entire crops were sometimes destroyed by the ravages of field-mice in a single night."[4]

According to the number of the lords of the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:4).

"The guilt offering here was not on the Levitical pattern; the Philistines were practicing some form of magic. The number five here and the mention of all five cities in 1 Samuel 6:17 indicate that the plague had affected all Philistia."[5]

It will be noted that we have considered the mice mentioned in this chapter as being, in all probability, rats. R. Payne Smith wrote that, "As the ancients used the name of animals in a very general way, any rodent may be meant,"[6] by the word rendered `mice' here. Our thought that the animal was really the rat is derived from that creature's known association with the bubonic plague, which, according to all the evidence, was the particular plague that struck Philistia.

"Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh?" (1 Samuel 6:6). This indicates that the knowledge of God's deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt was well known all over the world. Who could have missed it? Egypt was the most powerful nation on earth at that time. As Smith stated it, "The question for the Philistines was simply this: would they restore the ark on the warning of one plague or would they hold out for ten plagues,"[7] and then send it back!

"After he had made sport of them" (1 Samuel 6:6). The diviners clearly recommended sending the ark back after the first plague instead of waiting for ten plagues. The subject of this clause is God, the meaning being that God, in truth, had made sport (or mockery) of the Egyptians throughout ten plagues; and, of course, the Egyptians finally let the people go. Like many other figures in the Bible, this is an anthropomorphism, portraying God as a strong man laughing and making fun of some weak and bungling enemy.

There are some impressions in this chapter of what is universally held to be pleasing to God, both by pagan and by true worshippers: (1) that true religious devotion requires the giving of gifts. (2) that things new and previously unused are more properly used for sacred purposes than old or damaged things. Even from the N.T., it will be remembered that Jesus rode upon an ass whereupon no man had ever sat, and he was buried in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

"Prepare a new cart" (1 Samuel 6:7). "From the evidence of archaeology, this was undoubtedly a two-wheeled cart similar to those seen in Europe today."[8]

"And watch ... if it goes up ... but if not" (1 Samuel 6:9). The device of the Philistines in sending back the ark was clearly experimental; and they had no certain knowledge as to the way it would turn out. Therefore, we should understand the statement in 1 Samuel 6:3 that they. "would be healed" as a conditional, promise. "This indicates that they were still uncertain as to whether or not God was responsible for their plagues."[9] The test proposed here was genuine. Normally, cows would not have left their calves. Furthermore, cows that had never been yoked would not have taken a cart anywhere, much less on a 17-mile trip down a highway.

"Beth-shemesh" (1 Samuel 6:9). "This was an ancient Canaanite city; the name means house of the sun (god) and reflects the fact that the pre-Israelite Canaanites had erected shrines to many deities in the land of Canaan. Many of these names, like this one, continued into Israelite times. There were four places which carried this name; but the one here was located on the north border of Judah, near the Philistines, and was the closest town in Israel to which the Philistines returned the ark of the God of Israel."[10]