1 Samuel 6:9

His own coast, or "border." The ark throughout this verse is spoken of as if it were itself a deity. Beth-shemesh — i.e. "the house of the sun," also called Irshemesh, "city of the sun" ( Joshua 19:41 )—had evidently been in the time of the Canaanites the seat of this popular idolatry. It was now a city of the priests, situated in the tribe of Judah, on its northeastern border, next the tribe of Dan, and was the nearest Israelite town to Ekron. If, then, the kine, albeit unused to the yoke, left their calves behind, and drew the cart by the most direct route unto the land of Judah, they would give the required proof that the Philistines were smitten by the hand of Jehovah, and that it was no chance that had happened unto them.