New American Standard Bible 1995

1 Samuel 6:9-19

9Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to 1Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then 2we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”

10Then the men did so, and took two milch cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 11They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the likenesses of their tumors. 12And the cows took the straight way in the 3direction of 4Beth-shemesh; they went along 5the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

13Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark and were glad to see it. 14The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and 6offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 7The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord. 16When the 8five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.

17 9These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; 18and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, 10both of fortified cities and of country villages. 11The large 12stone on which they set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

19 13He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter.

Read all of 1 Samuel 6

Notes

1. 1 Samuel 6:9 Josh 15:10; 21:16 ↩
2. 1 Samuel 6:9 1 Sam 6:3 ↩
3. 1 Samuel 6:12 Lit way ↩
4. 1 Samuel 6:12 1 Sam 6:9 ↩
5. 1 Samuel 6:12 Num 20:19 ↩
6. 1 Samuel 6:14 2 Sam 24:22; 1 Kin 19:21 ↩
7. 1 Samuel 6:15 Josh 3:3 ↩
8. 1 Samuel 6:16 Josh 13:3; Judg 3:3 ↩
9. 1 Samuel 6:17 1 Sam 6:4 ↩
10. 1 Samuel 6:18 Deut 3:5 ↩
11. 1 Samuel 6:18 1 Sam 6:14, 15 ↩
12. 1 Samuel 6:18 So some mss and versions; Heb Abel ↩
13. 1 Samuel 6:19 Ex 19:21; Num 4:5, 15, 20; 2 Sam 6:7 ↩

Notes

Commentaries on 1 Samuel 6