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1 Samuel 6

BLIVRE · Chapter 6/31

1E esteve a arca do SENHOR na terra dos filisteus sete meses.

2Então os filisteus, chamando os sacerdotes e adivinhos, perguntaram: Que faremos da arca do SENHOR? Declarai-nos como a devemos tornar a enviar a seu lugar.

3E eles disseram: Se enviais a arca do Deus de Israel, não a envieis vazia; mas lhe pagareis a expiação: e então sereis sãos, e conhecereis por que não se afastou de vós sua mão.

4E eles disseram: E que será a expiação que lhe pagaremos? E eles responderam: Conforme o número dos príncipes dos filisteus, cinco chagas de ouro, e cinco ratos de ouro, porque a mesma praga que todos têm, têm também vossos príncipes.

5Fareis, pois, as formas de vossas chagas, e as formas de vossos ratos que destroem a terra, e dareis glória ao Deus de Israel: talvez aliviará sua mão de sobre vós, e de sobre vossos deuses, e de sobre vossa terra.

6Mas por que endureceis vosso coração, como os egípcios e Faraó endureceram seu coração? Depois que os houve assim tratado, não os deixaram que se fossem, e se foram?

7Fazei, pois, agora um carro novo, e tomai logo duas vacas que criem, às quais não haja sido posto jugo, e preparai as vacas ao carro, e fazei voltar de detrás delas seus bezerros a casa.

8Tomareis logo a arca do SENHOR, e a poreis sobre o carro; e ponde em uma caixa ao lado dela as joias de ouro que lhe pagais em expiação: e a deixareis que se vá.

9E olhai: se sobe pelo caminho de seu termo a Bete-Semes, ele nos fez este mal tão grande; e se não, teremos certeza de que não foi sua mão que nos feriu, mas nos foi coincidência.

10E aqueles homens o fizeram assim; pois tomando duas vacas que criavam, prepararam-nas ao carro, e encerraram em casa seus bezerros.

11Logo puseram a arca do SENHOR sobre o carro, e a caixa com os ratos de ouro e com as formas de suas chagas.

12E as vacas se encaminharam pelo caminho de Bete-Semes, e iam por um mesmo caminho andando e bramando, sem desviar-se nem à direita nem à esquerda: e os príncipes dos filisteus foram atrás elas até o termo de Bete-Semes.

13E os de Bete-Semes ceifavam o trigo no vale; e levantando seus olhos viram a arca, e alegraram-se quando a viram.

14E o carro veio ao campo de Josué Bete-Semita, e parou ali porque ali havia uma grande pedra; e eles cortaram a madeira do carro, e ofereceram as vacas em holocausto ao SENHOR.

15E os levitas baixaram a arca do SENHOR, e a caixa que estava junto a ela, na qual estavam as joias de ouro, e puseram-nas sobre aquela grande pedra; e os homens de Bete-Semes sacrificaram holocaustos e mataram vítimas ao SENHOR naquele dia.

16O qual vendo os cinco príncipes dos filisteus, voltaram a Ecrom o mesmo dia.

17Estas, pois, são as chagas de ouro que pagaram os filisteus ao SENHOR em expiação: por Asdode uma, por Gaza uma, por Asquelom uma, por Gate uma, por Ecrom uma;

18E ratos de ouro conforme ao número de todas as cidades dos filisteus pertencentes aos cinco príncipes, desde as cidades fortes até as aldeias sem muro; e até a grande pedra sobre a qual puseram a arca do SENHOR, pedra que está no campo de Josué, bete-semita, até hoje.

19Então feriu Deus aos de Bete-Semes, porque haviam olhado no arca do SENHOR; feriu no povo cinquenta mil e setenta homens. E o povo pôs luto, porque o SENHOR lhe havia ferido de tão grande praga.

20E disseram os de Bete-Semes: Quem poderá estar diante do SENHOR o Deus santo? e a quem subirá desde nós?

21E enviaram mensageiros aos de Quriate-Jearim, dizendo: Os filisteus devolveram a arca do SENHOR: descei, pois, e levai-a a vós.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

After seven months of plagues, the Philistines decide to return the ark to Israel with offerings of gold as a guilt offering, testing whether the cows pulling the cart would go on their own toward Israel—which is what happened.

Explanation

The test devised by the Philistine priests and diviners—using cows with newborn calves, going against their maternal instinct to stay near their young, to see if they would head toward Israel on their own—was an attempt to determine, within the knowledge of the time, whether the plagues were truly caused by the God of Israel or were mere coincidence. The fact that the cows went straight ahead, lowing (against their nature), all the way to Beth-shemesh convinced even the pagan Philistines themselves of the power of the Hebrew God. The death of the men of Beth-shemesh for looking inside the ark (v.19) reinforces that even the people of Israel, upon recovering the sacred object, needed to treat it with fear and reverence, not with profane curiosity.

Fun facts

  • The gold offerings shaped like tumors and mice (v.4-5) followed an ancient practice sometimes called 'votive homeopathic magic,' in which replicas of the problem were offered to the offended god as a way of asking for healing—a practice documented in various ancient Mediterranean cultures.
  • The number of dead at Beth-shemesh (v.19) varies among ancient manuscripts, with some Hebrew texts preserving the exact number as 'seventy men, fifty thousand men,' a textual problem that scholars attribute to a copying error over the centuries of transmission.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 1 Samuel 6:1Seven months of repeated plagues, city after city, is how long it takes the Philistines to finally decide to return the ark — it was not a quick decision.
  2. 1 Samuel 6:2Priests and diviners were the religious experts consulted in this kind of crisis — the same kind of adviser also appears in the Egyptian court in stories like Joseph’s.
  3. 1 Samuel 6:3Sending an offering along with the ark, instead of returning it empty, reflects a common ancient logic: appeasing the offended god with a gift, the way one makes peace with someone wronged.
  4. 1 Samuel 6:4Five golden replicas for each of the five Philistine lords, representing the five main cities, shows that the guilt was seen as collective, belonging to the whole Philistine nation, not just the city that suffered first.
  5. 1 Samuel 6:5Making gold images of their own sores and of the mice ravaging the land was a common ancient practice called imitative magic: representing the harm in order to symbolically hand it back to the god responsible and obtain healing.
  6. 1 Samuel 6:6The Philistine diviners themselves cite the story of the Exodus as a warning: hardening one’s heart against this God, as Pharaoh did, only prolongs the suffering without changing the final outcome.
  7. 1 Samuel 6:7Using cows that had never been placed under a yoke and forcibly separating them from their calves was the perfect test: animal instinct would drive those cows to return and nurse, not head off alone down a strange road. If they went straight to Israel pulling the cart, only God could be guiding them.
  8. 1 Samuel 6:8The detailed plan here sets up the test in the next verse: placing the ark and the offering on a cart pulled by cows with no human driver, to see whether they go on their own all the way to Israel.
  9. 1 Samuel 6:9The test with the cows was designed to eliminate any doubt: only divine intervention could explain cows just separated from their calves choosing, on their own, the right road into Israelite territory.
  10. 1 Samuel 6:10The Philistines carry out exactly the test agreed on — separating the cows from their own calves was the hardest part, since animal instinct would pull them back home.
  11. 1 Samuel 6:11The gold replicas of the mice and the sores went along with the ark as the symbolic payment of guilt agreed on at the start of the chapter.
  12. 1 Samuel 6:12The cows keep “lowing” — a sign of distress at being separated from their own calves — but even so they go straight to Beth-shemesh without turning aside: exactly the outcome that would prove, beyond doubt, the hand of God behind it.
  13. 1 Samuel 6:13The harvest scene, an everyday and peaceful task, is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the ark — the contrast between the routine of the field and the supernatural event heightens the surprise.
  14. 1 Samuel 6:14Using the cart’s own wood as firewood for the sacrifice, and the cows that pulled it as the offering, was a practical and symbolic way of consuming everything that had touched the ark on its journey back.
  15. 1 Samuel 6:15It is the Levites, not just any local resident, who handle the ark here — a care that contrasts with the disaster at the end of the chapter, when ordinary people look inside it without that same reverence.
  16. 1 Samuel 6:16The Philistine lords personally witness the outcome of the test before heading home — proof that there had been no trickery or coincidence mattered enough to them to see it with their own eyes.
  17. 1 Samuel 6:17The list names the five main cities of the Philistine confederation — the same group that appears repeatedly in the Old Testament as the core of Philistine territory.
  18. 1 Samuel 6:18Mentioning that the stone “remaineth unto this day” is another example of the narrator anchoring the story to a physical landmark that readers of his own time could still visit.
  19. 1 Samuel 6:19Fifty thousand and seventy men killed for looking inside the ark is a huge number for a small town like Beth-shemesh — many translators and scholars think it is an ancient copying error and that the original number was only seventy. Either way, the episode shows the ark as something dangerous to treat with too much familiarity.
  20. 1 Samuel 6:20After the shock of mass death, the question from the people of Beth-shemesh is sincere: they recognize that the ark is too holy to keep nearby without risk, and they are already looking for where to send it.
  21. 1 Samuel 6:21Kirjath-jearim will guard the ark for the next twenty years, counted at the start of chapter 7, until David finally brings it to Jerusalem much later in 2 Samuel.

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