Through My Bible Yr 01 – July 02

WELS - Through My Bible on Streams

Through My Bible Yr 01 – July 02

1 Samuel 5:1 – 7:2

LISTEN HERE

Through My Bible – July 02

1 Samuel 5:1 – 7:2 (EHV)
https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/tmb-ehv/01-0702db.mp3
See series: Through My Bible

The Travels of the Ark

1 Samuel 5

¹ After the Philistines had captured God’s ark, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ² The Philistines took God’s ark and brought it into the house of Dagon ^[1] and set it beside Dagon. ³ When the people of Ashdod got up early the next day, there was Dagon—fallen facedown to the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord! So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. ⁴ When they got up early the following morning, it had happened again! There was Dagon, fallen facedown in front of the Ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both of his hands were broken off and were lying on the threshold. Only Dagon’s torso ^[2] was intact. ⁵ That is why the priests of Dagon and any people who enter Dagon’s temple in Ashdod do not step on the threshold of Dagon to this day.

⁶ Then the Lord’s hand was heavy against the people of Ashdod. He devastated them and struck them with tumors. ^[3] He struck Ashdod and its surrounding territory. ⁷ When the men of Ashdod saw what was taking place, they said, “The Ark of the God of Israel must not stay with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on our god Dagon.” ⁸ They called together a meeting of all the serens ^[4] of the Philistines and asked, “What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?”

They answered, “Let the Ark of the God of Israel be carried over to Gath.” So they carried the Ark of the God of Israel there. ⁹ But after they had carried it there, the Lord’s hand was against that city, and there was great panic. He struck the men of the city, both young and old, ^[5] so that tumors broke out on them. ¹⁰ So they sent God’s ark to Ekron.

When God’s ark came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us and our people.” ¹¹ They called a meeting of all the serens of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the Ark of the God of Israel away. Let it go back to its own place, so that it does not kill us and our people.” Indeed, the threat of death caused panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. ¹² The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the outcry from the city went up to heaven.

1 Samuel 6

¹ The Lord’s ark remained in the country of the Philistines seven months. ² The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners ^[6] and asked, “What should we do with the Lord’s ark? Advise us how we should send it back to its place.”

³ They said, “If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but, by all means, send it to him with a restitution offering. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been removed from you.” ^[7]

⁴ Then they said, “What restitution offering should we send to him?”

They said, “There are five serens of the Philistines, so five gold tumors and five gold mice should be sent, because the same plague was on all of you and on your serens. ⁵ Therefore you should make replicas of your tumors and figurines of the mice that are ruining your land, and you will give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand on you, on your gods, and on your land. ⁶ Why harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After the Lord had dealt ruthlessly with them, didn’t the Egyptians let the people go, and they departed?

⁷ “So make a new cart and take two cows that are nursing their calves, cows that have never had a yoke on them. Hitch the cows to the cart, and take their calves away from them and send them home. ⁸ Then take the Ark of the Lord and place it on the cart. Place the gold objects, which you are sending to him as a restitution offering, into a box beside the ark. Then send it on its way, and let it go on its own. ⁹ Watch it. If it goes up on the road toward the border of Israel, to Beth Shemesh, then it is their god who has inflicted this disaster on us. But if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us. It was a coincidence that this happened to us.”

¹⁰ So that is what the men did. They took two cows that were nursing calves, hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. ¹¹ Then they put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, along with the box containing the gold mice and the replicas of their tumors. ¹² The cows headed straight up the road toward Beth Shemesh. They went straight along the highway without stopping, lowing as they went. They did not turn aside to the right or to the left. The serens of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth Shemesh.

¹³ The people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. They looked up and saw the Ark, and they rejoiced to see it. ¹⁴ The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh and stopped there, near the large stone that was there. Then the people split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹⁵ The Levites took the Lord’s ark and the box with it, which contained the gold objects, and they put them on the large stone. On that same day, the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Lord.

¹⁶ When the five serens of the Philistines had seen this, they returned to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷ This is the number of gold tumors that the Philistines sent back as a restitution offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron. ¹⁸ The gold mice also corresponded to the number of all the cities of the Philistines that belonged to the five serens, the fortified cities along with the rural villages. The objects were placed on the large stone ^[8] on which they had placed the Ark of the Lord. That stone remains in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh to this day. ¹⁹ The Lord struck some of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men. ^[9] Then the people mourned, because the Lord had struck the people with such a heavy blow. ²⁰ The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy God, the Lord? To whom can we send it ^[10] to get it away from here?”

²¹ So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim. They said, “The Philistines have sent back the Ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up for yourselves.”

1 Samuel 7

¹ So the men of Kiriath Jearim came, took the Ark of the Lord, and brought it into Abinadab’s house on the hill. Then they consecrated his son Eleazar to watch over the Ark of the Lord. ² So from that day the ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim for a long time—twenty years. And the entire house of Israel deeply longed for the return of the Lord.

Footnotes

1. 1 Samuel 5:2 Dagon was a grain god of the Philistines.
2. 1 Samuel 5:4 The word torso is not in the Hebrew text, but it is supported by the ancient versions.
3. 1 Samuel 5:6 Or swellings or hemorrhoids. The marginal notes to the Hebrew text suggest a euphemistic substitute. This supports the understanding that the affliction was something like anal tumors or hemorrhoids.
4. 1 Samuel 5:8 Seren is a special word used only of the rulers of the five Philistine city states. It seems to be a Philistine term. It may be related to the Greek word tyrant, an autocratic ruler of a city state. Seren is a title like pharaoh or czar, which is applied to one specific class of rulers. Since this is a unique title, the EHV uses the transliteration seren rather than the traditional rendering lord.
5. 1 Samuel 5:9 Or small and great or unimportant and important
6. 1 Samuel 6:2 Or practitioners of occult arts
7. 1 Samuel 6:3 A Hebrew Dead Sea Scroll and some Greek manuscripts have a longer reading: you will be healed, and an atonement shall be made for you. Shouldn’t his hand be removed from you?
8. 1 Samuel 6:18 The reading a large stone is supported by ancient versions and a few Hebrew manuscripts. The majority of Hebrew texts read in the large meadow or in Great Abel (a name which might mean great mourning).
9. 1 Samuel 6:19 A few Hebrew manuscripts and the historian Josephus read seventy men. The majority of Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions read seventy men, fifty thousand men. This construction is not the normal way of recording the number 50,070. This number also seems too large for a small town like Beth Shemesh, but this large number has very strong support in the manuscript evidence. Most recent translations follow the minority reading, seventy men. Others try to solve the problem by reading fifty men of a thousand or seventy men out of fifty thousand men or fifty chief men.
10. 1 Samuel 6:20 Or him

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

Share this entry

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share by Mail
• Link to Flickr
• Link to Instagram
• Link to Vimeo