The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Ark Returned to Israel
1 Samuel 6:1–21 — The Ark Returned to Israel. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1When the ark of the LORD had been in the land of the Philistines seven months,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ă·rō·wn- Yah·weh way·hî biś·ḏêh p̄ə·liš·tîm šiḇ·‘āh ḥo·ḏā·šîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-came-to-pass, the-ark-of-YHWH in-the-field of-Philistines — seven months.
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They thought by continuance of time the plague would have ceased, and so would have kept the ark still.
Sinners lengthen out their own miseries by refusing to part with their sins.Henry's Concise comment on 6:1-9 is a single block; this is its sharpest sentence, and its application (the sinner who prolongs his own plague) is Henry's own homiletic extension, not a claim about the Hebrew.
Josephus (d) says it was with the Philistines four months only, contrary to the text.Gill is flagging a real divergence in the sources: Josephus (Ant. vi.1.4) gives four months where the Hebrew gives seven. The brief's text is the Hebrew.
2the Philistines summoned the priests and diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how to send it back to its place.”
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p̄ə·liš·tîm way·yiq·rə·’ū lak·kō·hă·nîm wə·laq·qō·sə·mîm lê·mōr mah- na·‘ă·śeh la·’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh hō·w·ḏi·‘u·nū bam·meh nə·šal·lə·ḥen·nū lim·qō·w·mōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-called, the-Philistines, to-the-priests and-to-the-diviners, saying: What shall-we-do to-the-ark-of-YHWH? Make-known-to-us with-what we-shall-send-it to-its-place.
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The importance of the diviner, qosem , is shown by his being mentioned in Isaiah 3:2 in an enumeration of the leading orders in the state.
They never termed it the ark of Jehovah till this time: but now they seem to have been struck with some apprehension that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was above all gods.
3They replied, “If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means return it to Him with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why His hand has not been lifted from you.”
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way·yō·mə·rū ’im- mə·šal·lə·ḥîm ’ă·rō·wn ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl ’eṯ- ’al- tə·šal·lə·ḥū ’ō·ṯōw rê·qām kî- hā·šêḇ tā·šî·ḇū lōw ’ā·šām ’āz tê·rā·p̄ə·’ū wə·nō·w·ḏa‘ lām·māh yā·ḏōw lō- ṯā·sūr mik·kem lā·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-said: If you-are-sending-away the-ark-of-the-God-of-Israel, do-not send-it-away empty; for returning you-shall-return to-Him a-guilt-offering. Then you-shall-be-healed, and-it-shall-be-known to-you why His-hand does-not-turn-aside from-you.
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The gifts appointed by the Philistines as an asham were to serve as a compensation and satisfaction to be rendered to the God of Israel for the robbery committed upon Him by the removal of the ark of the covenant
The idolaters confess there is a true God, who punishes sin justly.
The priests and diviners evidently thought that the Hebrew Deity, in some way resident in the “golden chest,” was a childish, capricious deity, like one of their own loved godsEllicott is describing the Philistine theology, not endorsing it; the point is that their gifts were shaped by a wrong idea of the God they were trying to appease.
4“What guilt offering should we send back to Him?” asked the Philistines. “Five gold tumors and five gold rats,” they said, “according to the number of rulers of the Philistines, since the same plague has struck both you and your rulers.
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māh hā·’ā·šām ’ă·šer nā·šîḇ lōw way·yō·mə·rū ḥă·miš·šāh zā·hāḇ ʿå̄·p̄ə·lē wa·ḥă·miš·šāh zā·hāḇ ‘aḵ·bə·rê way·yō·mə·rū mis·par sar·nê p̄ə·liš·tîm kî- ’a·ḥaṯ mag·gê·p̄āh lə·ḵul·lām ū·lə·sar·nê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-said: What the-guilt-offering which we-shall-return to-Him? And-they-said: Five tumors-of-gold and-five mice-of-gold — the-number of-the-lords-of-the-Philistines; for one plague to-all-of-them and-to-your-lords.
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which they offered not in contempt of God, for they sought to gain his favour hereby; but in testimony of their humiliation, that by leaving this monument of their own shame and misery they might obtain pity from God, and freedom from their disease.
The number of the confederate cities was naturally chosen to represent the whole people.
Such a present passed as a practical acknowledgement that the god had inflicted the suffering or evil.K&D is describing a custom attested from Greco-Roman antiquity through Theodoret to modern India; he uses it to explain, not to justify, the Philistine gift.
5Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land.
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wa·‘ă·śî·ṯem ṣal·mê ʿå̄·p̄ə·lē·ḵɛm wə·ṣal·mê ‘aḵ·bə·rê·ḵem ham·maš·ḥî·ṯim ’eṯ- hā·’ā·reṣ ū·nə·ṯat·tem kā·ḇō·wḏ lê·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl ’ū·lay yā·qêl ’eṯ- yā·ḏōw mê·‘ă·lê·ḵem ū·mê·‘al ’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem ū·mê·‘al ’ar·ṣə·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-make images-of-your-tumors and-images-of-your-mice, the-ones-ravaging the-land; and-you-shall-give to-the-God-of-Israel glory. Perhaps He-will-lighten His-hand from-upon-you, and-from-upon-your-gods, and-from-upon-your-land.
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In Egypt this visitation was so dreaded that the mouse seems to have been the hieroglyphic for destruction.
That is, acknowledge, by this present, that he is the inflicter of these plagues, and has power to remove them
This is God's judgment on the idolaters, that knowing the true God, they do not worship him correctly.
6Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?
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wə·lām·māh ṯə·ḵab·bə·ḏū ’eṯ- lə·ḇaḇ·ḵem ka·’ă·šer miṣ·ra·yim ū·p̄ar·‘ōh ’eṯ- kib·bə·ḏū lib·bām ka·’ă·šer hiṯ·‘al·lêl bā·hem hă·lō·w way·šal·lə·ḥūm way·yê·lê·ḵū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-why will-you-make-heavy your-heart as the-Egyptians and-Pharaoh made-heavy their-heart? Was-it-not — when He had-made-sport of-them — they-sent-them-away, and-they-went?
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they were still fresh in the minds of men, and being extensively spread, were doubtless the means of diffusing the knowledge and fear of the true God.
It is remarkable that they so correctly point out that it was the obduracy of the Egyptians which made their punishment so severe.
You Philistines have had the experience of one plague; will you, like those foolish Egyptians, harden your hearts till you. like them, have been smitten with ten?Ellicott is reconstructing the priests' rhetoric in his own words; the Hebrew states the Egypt comparison but does not spell out the arithmetic of ten plagues.
7Now, therefore, prepare one new cart with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.
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wə·‘at·tāh qə·ḥū wa·‘ă·śū ’e·ḥāṯ ḥă·ḏā·šāh ‘ă·ḡā·lāh ū·šə·tê ‘ā·lō·wṯ p̄ā·rō·wṯ ’ă·šer lō- ‘ā·lāh ‘ă·lê·hem ‘ōl wa·’ă·sar·tem ’eṯ- hap·pā·rō·wṯ bā·‘ă·ḡā·lāh bə·nê·hem mê·’a·ḥă·rê·hem wa·hă·šê·ḇō·ṯem hab·bā·yə·ṯāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-now, take and-make one cart new, and-two cows nursing upon-which has-not-come a-yoke; and-you-shall-bind the-cows to-the-cart, and-their-calves you-shall-return from-after-them to-the-house.
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There was no special sagacity in this advice of the priests; it was nothing more than a cleverly devised attempt to put the power of the God of the Israelites to the text, though they thereby unconsciously and against their will furnished the occasion for the living God to display His divine glory before those who did not know Him."to put the power of the God of the Israelites to the text" is a printer's slip in this edition for "to the test"; the sense is not in doubt.
This was so ordered in reverence to the Ark, and was a right and true feeling. (See Numbers 19:2 ; 2Samuel 6:3 .) So our Lord rode on an ass ‘whereon never man sat’ ( Mark 11:2 ), and His holy body was laid in Joseph’s ‘new tomb, wherein never man before was laidEllicott is here quoting the Speaker's Commentary, as he states; the Gospel cross-references (Mark 11:2; Matthew 27:60; Luke 23:53) are that note's, and are an old and widely-held figural reading, not a claim about the Hebrew of this verse.
8Take the ark of the LORD, set it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to Him as a guilt offering. Then send the ark on its way,
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ū·lə·qaḥ·tem ’eṯ- ’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh ū·nə·ṯat·tem ’ō·ṯōw ’el- hā·‘ă·ḡā·lāh wə·’êṯ ḇā·’ar·gaz miṣ·ṣid·dōw tā·śî·mū haz·zā·hāḇ kə·lê ’ă·šer hă·šê·ḇō·ṯem lōw ’ā·šām wə·šil·laḥ·tem ’ō·ṯōw wə·hā·lāḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-take the-ark-of-YHWH and-give it to the-cart; and the-vessels of-gold which you-return to-Him as-a-guilt-offering you-shall-put in-the-box at-its-side. And-you-shall-send-it-away, and-it-shall-go.
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They had either heard, or by their present sufferings were made to fear, that it was dangerous to look into the ark; and therefore they did not open it to put their present within it.
for they durst not presume to open the ark, to put them within it.
The reverent awe with which these Philistines treated the Ark, which had, they supposed, wrought them such great evil, presents a strong contrast to the careless curiosity of the men of Beth-shemesh
9but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”
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ū·rə·’î·ṯem ’im- ya·‘ă·leh de·reḵ gə·ḇū·lōw bêṯ še·meš hū ‘ā·śāh lā·nū ’eṯ- haz·zōṯ hag·gə·ḏō·w·lāh hā·rā·‘āh wə·’im- lō wə·yā·ḏa‘·nū kî lō yā·ḏōw nā·ḡə·‘āh bā·nū hū hā·yāh lā·nū miq·reh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-see: if by-the-way-of its-own-border it-goes-up, Beth-shemesh-ward — He has-done to-us this great evil. But-if not, then-we-shall-know that not His-hand touched us; a-chance it-was to-us.
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Observe the completeness of the test. If cows unaccustomed to the yoke drew the cart quietly; if in spite of their natural instincts they deserted their calves; if without human guidance they went straight to the nearest Israelite town; the obvious conclusion must be that they were controlled by a supernatural power, and that that power was the God of Israel.
The wicked attribute almost all things to fortune and chance, whereas indeed there is nothing done without God's providence and decree.
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.
10So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.
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hā·’ă·nā·šîm way·ya·‘ă·śū kên way·yiq·ḥū šə·tê ‘ā·lō·wṯ p̄ā·rō·wṯ way·ya·’as·rūm bā·‘ă·ḡā·lāh wə·’eṯ- kā·lū ḇab·bā·yiṯ bə·nê·hem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-men did so: and-they-took two cows nursing, and-bound-them to-the-cart; and-their-calves they-shut-up in-the-house.
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These two kine knew their owner, their great Owner, whom Hophin and Phinehas knew not."Hophin" is this edition's spelling of Hophni; Henry's point is the contrast with Eli's sons in ch. 2-4, who handled holy things and did not know their Owner.
this they did to restrain them from following the cows, which would disturb them in drawing the cart.
11Then they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold rats and the images of the tumors.
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way·yā·śi·mū ’eṯ- ’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh ’el- hā·‘ă·ḡā·lāh wə·’êṯ hā·’ar·gaz wə·’êṯ haz·zā·hāḇ wə·’êṯ ‘aḵ·bə·rê ṣal·mê ṭə·ḥō·rê·hem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-set the-ark-of-YHWH to the-cart, and the-box, and the-mice of-gold, and the-images-of-their-tumors.
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12And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.
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hap·pā·rō·wṯ wa·yiš·šar·nå̄h bad·de·reḵ ‘al- de·reḵ bêṯ še·meš ’a·ḥaṯ bim·sil·lāh wə·ḡā·‘ōw hā·lə·ḵū hā·lōḵ wə·lō- sā·rū yā·mîn ū·śə·mō·wl wə·sar·nê p̄ə·liš·tîm hō·lə·ḵîm ’a·ḥă·rê·hem ‘aḏ- gə·ḇūl bêṯ šā·meš
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-went-straight, the-cows, in-the-way upon the-way-of Beth-shemesh; on-one highway they-went, going and-lowing, and-they-turned-not-aside right or-left. And-the-lords-of-the-Philistines walking after-them, as-far-as the-border-of Beth-shemesh.
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But the dumb beasts did what the idol priests and diviners scarcely considered possible, for God’s hand drove them. The narrative here throughout is evidently unadorned, very easy and natural, and speaks of primitive customs, telling its story of the Divine interference of the “ Glorious Arm” with exquisite simplicity and truth. The dumb beasts went on their strange way with their golden burden, the princes of the Philistines following them, awe-struck, at a distance.
Nature would obviously dispose the cows to go toward their calves; their going in an opposite direction was therefore plainly a divine impulse overruling their natural inclination.
testifying at once both their natural and vehement inclination to their calves, and the supernatural and Divine power which overruled them to a contrary course.
13Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed at the sight.
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ū·ḇêṯ še·meš qō·ṣə·rîm qə·ṣîr- ḥiṭ·ṭîm bā·‘ê·meq way·yiś·’ū ’eṯ- ‘ê·nê·hem way·yir·’ū ’eṯ- hā·’ā·rō·wn way·yiś·mə·ḥū lir·’ō·wṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Beth-shemesh reaping the-harvest-of wheat in-the-valley; and-they-lifted-up their-eyes and-saw the-ark, and-they-rejoiced to-see.
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and in this wonderful way, without seeking for it, without going to war on account of it, without paying a ransom for it
This notice fixes the time of year as the end of May or beginning of June.Cambridge grounds the date on Robinson's field observations of the wheat harvest at Gaza and Hebron, not on the text alone.
The whole population was in the field. The harvest work was suspended in an instant, and all the workmen ran to where the ark was.
14The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
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wə·hā·‘ă·ḡā·lāh bā·’āh ’el- śə·ḏêh yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ bêṯ- haš·šim·šî wat·ta·‘ă·mōḏ šām wə·šām gə·ḏō·w·lāh ’e·ḇen way·ḇaq·qə·‘ū ’eṯ- ‘ă·ṣê hā·‘ă·ḡā·lāh wə·’eṯ- he·‘ĕ·lū hap·pā·rō·wṯ ‘ō·lāh Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-cart came into the-field-of Joshua the-Beth-shemeshite and-stood there; and-there a-stone great. And-they-split the-wood-of the-cart, and the-cows they-offered-up a-burnt-offering to-YHWH.
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there may seem to be a double error in this act. First, That they offered females for a burnt-offering, contrary to Leviticus 1:3 22:19 . Secondly, That they did it in a forbidden place, Deu 12:5 ,6 , into which they might easily be led by excess of joy, and eager desire of returning to their long-interrupted course of offering sacrifices.Poole states the objections in order to answer them; the excerpt is the charge, and his defence (that an extraordinary case is not to be judged by ordinary rules) follows immediately in his note.
This great stone was probably used as an altar on this occasion, and the kine stopping at it of their own accord was understood by the Bethshemites as an intimation that they were to offer sacrifices on it to the Lord God of Israel
these animals might properly be offered, as consecrated by God Himself
15And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold objects, and they placed them on the large rock. That day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.
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wə·hal·wî·yim hō·w·rî·ḏū ’eṯ- ’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh wə·’eṯ- hā·’ar·gaz ’ă·šer- ’it·tōw ’ă·šer- bōw zā·hāḇ ḵə·lê- way·yā·śi·mū ’el- hag·gə·ḏō·w·lāh hā·’e·ḇen ha·hū bay·yō·wm wə·’an·šê ḇêṯ- še·meš he·‘ĕ·lū ‘ō·lō·wṯ way·yiz·bə·ḥū zə·ḇā·ḥîm Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-Levites had-brought-down the-ark-of-YHWH and-the-box that-was-with-it, in-which the-vessels-of gold, and-they-set them on the-stone the-great. And-the-men-of Beth-shemesh offered-up burnt-offerings and-sacrificed sacrifices in-that day to-YHWH.
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In the burnt-offerings they consecrated themselves afresh, with all their members, to the service of the Lord; and in the slain-offerings, which culminated in the sacrificial meals, they sealed anew their living fellowship with the Lord.
Apparently it was only after the sacrificial feast that they forgot the reverence due to the symbol of Jehovah's presence among them.
for this, though mentioned after, was done before the sacrifices were offered.
16And when the five rulers of the Philistines saw this, they returned to Ekron that same day.
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wa·ḥă·miš·šāh sar·nê- p̄ə·liš·tîm rā·’ū way·yā·šu·ḇū ‘eq·rō·wn ha·hū bay·yō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-five lords-of-the-Philistines saw, and-they-returned to-Ekron in-that day.
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17As a guilt offering to the LORD, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’êl·leh ’ā·šām Yah·weh p̄ə·liš·tîm hê·šî·ḇū ’e·ḥāḏ haz·zā·hāḇ ’ă·šer ṭə·ḥō·rê lə·’aš·dō·wḏ lə·‘az·zāh ’e·ḥāḏ lə·’aš·qə·lō·wn ’e·ḥāḏ lə·ḡaṯ ’e·ḥāḏ lə·‘eq·rō·wn ’e·ḥāḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-these the-tumors-of gold which the-Philistines returned as-a-guilt-offering to-YHWH: for-Ashdod one, for-Gaza one, for-Ashkelon one, for-Gath one, for-Ekron one.
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In the preceding chapter only Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron are mentioned as abiding places of the Ark, but there is no doubt that during the “seven months” the sacred chest was for a long or short period located in each of the five towns, in the Dagon temple which each of the cities possessed.Ellicott's "no doubt" is an inference from the five-fold offering, not a statement of the narrative; chapter 5 names only three cities.
We have here a specific description of the propitiatory offering actually sent; ( a ) a golden “boil” for each chief city: ( b ) a golden mouse for each city and village throughout the whole country. The apparent discrepancy between the latter statement and 1 Samuel 6:4 vanishes if we regard 1 Samuel 6:4 as merely the proposal of the priests, and 1 Samuel 6:18 as a description of what was actually done
18The number of gold rats also corresponded to the number of Philistine cities belonging to the five rulers—the fortified cities and their outlying villages. And the large rock on which they placed the ark of the LORD stands to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
haz·zā·hāḇ wə·‘aḵ·bə·rê mis·par kāl- p̄ə·liš·tîm ‘ā·rê la·ḥă·mê·šeṯ has·sə·rā·nîm miḇ·ṣār mê·‘îr wə·‘aḏ hap·pə·rā·zî wə·‘aḏ kō·p̄er hag·gə·ḏō·w·lāh ’ā·ḇêl ‘ā·le·hā ’êṯ ’ă·šer hin·nî·ḥū ’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh ‘aḏ haz·zeh hay·yō·wm biś·ḏêh yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ bêṯ- haš·šim·šî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-mice-of gold, the-number-of all the-cities-of-the-Philistines belonging-to-the-five lords, from-city-of fortification and-unto village-of the-open-country; and-unto Abel the-great, on-which they-set-down the-ark-of-YHWH — unto this day, in-the-field-of Joshua the-Beth-shemeshite.
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All this part of the verse is exceedingly corrupt, and requires large interpolations to obtain from it any meaning.
And this place is here called Abel by anticipation, from the great mourning mentioned in the following verse.Benson defends the Masoretic reading; K&D, Cambridge and Ellicott reject it. The FSSB records both positions and adopts neither.
The reason for the offering of mice from the whole country probably was that the plague of mice had ravaged the whole country, while the pestilence was chiefly confined to the great cities.
19But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yaḵ bə·’an·šê ḇêṯ- še·meš kî rā·’ū ba·’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh way·yaḵ bā·‘ām šiḇ·‘îm ’îš ḥă·miš·šîm ’e·lep̄ ’îš way·yiṯ·’ab·bə·lū kî- Yah·weh bā·‘ām hik·kāh hā·‘ām ḡə·ḏō·lå̄h mak·kāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-He-struck among-the-men-of Beth-shemesh, because they-looked at/into the-ark-of-YHWH; and-He-struck among-the-people seventy men, fifty thousand men. And-the-people mourned, because YHWH had-struck the-people a-great striking.
Where the English smooths the original
Such errors as this, to which the text of any ancient book is liable in the process of transmission, do not affect the general historical trust-worthiness of the narrative, and the freest acknowledgment of them in no way precludes a full belief in the Inspiration of Scripture.Cambridge (1880s) is stating a principle about transmission, not about the autographs; this is the model of honesty the apparatus above tries to follow.
It is obvious to observe how the doctrine of atonement, and its necessity in the case of sinners, is taught in this and similar lessons as to the awesome HOLINESS of God.
It is a great affront to God, for vain men to pry into, and meddle with the secret things which belong not to them
here it no doubt signifies a foolish staring, which was incompatible with the holiness of the ark of GodK&D is arguing against the Rabbinic and A.V. reading "looked into the ark"; the Hebrew construction (râʼâh with b) is his evidence.
20The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom should the ark go up from here?”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’an·šê ḇêṯ- še·meš way·yō·mə·rū mî yū·ḵal la·‘ă·mōḏ lip̄·nê Yah·weh haz·zeh haq·qā·ḏō·wōš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm wə·’el- mî ya·‘ă·leh mê·‘ā·lê·nū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-said, the-men-of Beth-shemesh: Who is-able to-stand before YHWH, this holy God? And-to-whom shall-He-go-up from-upon-us?
Where the English smooths the original
These poor Hebrews felt the same fear as John was sensible of centuries later, when at the feet of the glorified Son of Man he fell as dead; but they, less blessed than John and the children of the kingdom, had no Redeemer there to raise them upEllicott's cross-reference is Revelation 1:17-18; the comparison of Beth-shemesh with John on Patmos is his figural reading, offered as such.
nor can any, but on account of the mercy seat over the ark, or through Christ, his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice
Chastisement was necessary to teach the men of Beth-shemesh that their sinfulness could not stand before the holiness of God
They should rather have asked, How may we have peace with God, and recover his favor? Mic 6:6,7. Thus, when the word of God works with terror on sinners' consciences, they, instead of taking the blame and shame to themselves, quarrel with the word, and put that from them.
21So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up with you.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yiš·lə·ḥū mal·’ā·ḵîm ’el- yō·wō·šə·ḇê qir·yaṯ- yə·‘ā·rîm lê·mōr p̄ə·liš·tîm ’eṯ- hê·ši·ḇū ’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh rə·ḏū ha·‘ă·lū ’ō·ṯōw ’ă·lê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-sent messengers to the-inhabitants-of Kiriath-jearim, saying: The-Philistines have-returned the-ark-of-YHWH; come-down, bring-it-up to-you.
Where the English smooths the original
The Ark was probably taken to Kirjath-jearim, which was neither a priestly nor Levitical city, as being the nearest place of importance on the road to Shiloh, but why it was not restored to its old resting-place does not appear.Cambridge's suggestion that Shiloh may have been occupied by the Philistines after Aphek is a conjecture; the texts he cites (Jeremiah 7:12-14; 26:6) attest only that Shiloh was ruined.
Beth-shemesh being in a low plain, and Kirjath-jearim on a hill
but say not one word of the reason of this request, lest it should discourage them
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with the ark, not with Philistia: וַיְהִי אֲרוֹן־יְהוָה — and the ark of YHWH was, in the open country of the Philistines, seven months. Geneva reads the delay as calculation ("They thought by continuance of time the plague would have ceased"); JFB says the lords "were unwilling to relinquish such a prize"; Henry turns it into a mirror for the reader, "Sinners lengthen out their own miseries by refusing to part with their sins." Gill, characteristically, checks the arithmetic against the harvest of v. 13 and against Josephus, who says four months "contrary to the text."
Then the Pentapolis convenes its kôhănîm and qōsᵉmîm. Barnes notices that Hebrew gives these priests the same noun it gives the priests of the LORD, while reserving for the diviners a word "everywhere used of idolatrous or superstitious divining" — the narrator is exact, not polite. Pulpit explains what a qosem was: "a divider or partitioner, because it was his office to separate things into the two classes of lucky and unlucky." And Benson catches the moment the vocabulary shifts: "They never termed it the ark of Jehovah till this time."
The counsel they give is uncannily near the Law. אָשָׁם is the technical Levitical category, and K&D shows that the verb chosen with it, hēšîb, "is the technical expression for the payment of compensation for a fault in Numbers 5:7" — the ark is being handled as stolen property requiring restitution. Geneva presses the point past the ritual: "The idolaters confess there is a true God, who punishes sin justly." Ellicott, however, refuses to make them theologians: they imagined the God of the golden chest was "a childish, capricious deity, like one of their own loved gods." ⚙ Both are true at once, and the chapter needs both: right category, wrong God.
Verse 6 is where the Hebrew turns a knife. כָּבוֹד in v. 5 (give God weight) and תְכַבְּדוּ in v. 6 (why weight your own heart) are one root. Pulpit marks the accuracy of their history — "It is remarkable that they so correctly point out that it was the obduracy of the Egyptians which made their punishment so severe" — and JFB draws the wider conclusion, that the Exodus traditions "were doubtless the means of diffusing the knowledge and fear of the true God." The Exodus is being preached in Philistia, by diviners, to a room of pagan lords.
The plan is an experiment with a control. A cart never used; cows never yoked (עָלוֹת, nursing, a rare participle); calves shut away. Benson states the physics: "untamed heifers are apt to run back, or to wander, and keep no certain and constant paths, as oxen accustomed to the yoke do." K&D states the logic: if they go anyway, "this would be a sure sign that they were driven and guided by a divine power." Cambridge tabulates the whole thing — "Observe the completeness of the test" — and Pulpit admires the caution: "it is remarkable what great care the Philistine priests take against confounding the extraordinary with the Divine."
K&D's verdict on the experiment is the sentence this movement turns on: it was "nothing more than a cleverly devised attempt to put the power of the God of the Israelites to the test, though they thereby unconsciously and against their will furnished the occasion for the living God to display His divine glory before those who did not know Him." ⚙ That is the theology of the chapter in one line. God is not obliged by a divination; He is also not embarrassed by one. He answers the question the diviners asked, in the terms they set, and the answer indicts them.
Then the verbs go straight: וַיִשַּׁרְנָה — K&D, "lit., 'they were straight in the way.'" Pulpit renders the piled-up Hebrew literally: "they went along one highway, lowing as they went." Barnes isolates the evidential value of that lowing: "Nature would obviously dispose the cows to go toward their calves; their going in an opposite direction was therefore plainly a divine impulse overruling their natural inclination." Poole hears both things in one sound — "their natural and vehement inclination to their calves, and the supernatural and Divine power which overruled them to a contrary course." Ellicott: "the dumb beasts did what the idol priests and diviners scarcely considered possible." And behind them walk five lords, who came, as JFB says, "to prevent imposture, and to obtain the most reliable evidence of the truth," and got it.
The scene changes to wheat harvest in the ʻêmeq, and Cambridge fixes the season: "This notice fixes the time of year as the end of May or beginning of June." Barnes: "The harvest work was suspended in an instant, and all the workmen ran to where the ark was." Henry compresses the joy: "their joy for that was greater than the joy of harvest." Gill lists what made it sweet — the ark returned "without seeking for it, without going to war on account of it, without paying a ransom for it."
At the field of Joshua the cart stops at a great stone, and the Beth-shemeshites split the cart for wood and send the cows up in smoke. Barnes: "This great stone was probably used as an altar on this occasion, and the kine stopping at it of their own accord was understood by the Bethshemites as an intimation that they were to offer sacrifices on it to the Lord God of Israel." Poole will not paper over the irregularity — females offered as a burnt offering (Leviticus 1:3; 22:19), and offered away from the tabernacle (Deuteronomy 12:5-6) — and he is honest that "some think these irregularities were partial causes of the following punishment." JFB defends the act: "these animals might properly be offered, as consecrated by God Himself." K&D defends the place: the ark "was the throne of the gracious presence of God," freshly sanctified by the miracle just performed. ⚙ The brief's own witnesses disagree here, and this synthesis will not pretend they don't: Poole's unease and K&D's confidence are both in the record.
Verses 17-18 read like a receipt: five tumours, one per city, and mice beyond counting. Cambridge resolves the apparent contradiction with v. 4 cleanly — v. 4 is "merely the proposal of the priests," v. 18 "a description of what was actually done" — and Ellicott gives the reason: the boils struck five cities, the mice "devastated the land." Then the text breaks. Pulpit: "All this part of the verse is exceedingly corrupt, and requires large interpolations to obtain from it any meaning." Ellicott: "The Hebrew text here is hopelessly corrupt." K&D proposes reading ʼeben (stone) for ʼābēl (mourning) with the Septuagint and Targum, and ʻēd (witness) for ʻad (unto): "And the great stone is witness... to this day." Benson and Barnes keep Abel and explain it as a name given by anticipation from the mourning of v. 19. ⚙ We do not know which is right. A stone that is either a witness or a lamentation stands in Joshua's field either way.
The chapter's reversal is brutal and deliberate: the uncircumcised did not dare open the ark (Benson: "they did not open it to put their present within it"), and Israel looked. K&D refuses the Rabbinic reading that they lifted the lid — "if this had been the meaning, the opening would certainly not have been passed over without notice" — and gives instead a gaze: "a foolish staring, which was incompatible with the holiness of the ark of God, and was punished with death, according to the warning expressed in Numbers 4:20." Cambridge agrees: "because they had gazed upon the ark." JFB and Barnes suspect the sacrificial feast had loosened them ("priests, Levites, and people may have fallen into intemperance," compare Leviticus 10:1, 9). Ellicott and Pulpit judge that the men struck were most likely priests, in whom the offence was gravest.
Then the number, which no one in the brief defends. Cambridge: "It is generally agreed that there is some mistake in the text here," the order of the numerals is anomalous, and "the village of Beth-shemesh cannot possibly have contained such a number." K&D concludes the 50,000 is "a gloss which has crept into the text through some oversight," and notes Josephus knows only seventy. Barnes simply omits it. Benson revives Bochart's "seventy men out of fifty thousand." Henry, working from a different reckoning, guesses 1170. ⚙ The sourced witnesses here differ from one another, and the FSSB records that rather than choosing a winner. Cambridge's closing sentence is the model: such transmission errors "do not affect the general historical trustworthiness of the narrative, and the freest acknowledgment of them in no way precludes a full belief in the Inspiration of Scripture."
What is not corrupt is the cry. מִי יוּכַל לַעֲמֹד לִפְנֵי יְהוָה הָאֱלֹהִים הַקָּדוֹשׁ הַזֶּה — "Who is able to stand before YHWH, this holy God?" K&D reads it as true self-knowledge: "They felt that they were none of them any better than those who had fallen, and that sinners could not approach the holy God." Cambridge sets it beside Luke 5:8 and Matthew 8:34 and marks the tragedy: "instead of fitting themselves for His Presence, they desired to free themselves from the burden of it." Henry is severest: "Foolish men run from one extreme to the other. They should rather have asked, How may we have peace with God?" Gill alone names the way through, and names it by name: none can stand "but on account of the mercy seat over the ark, or through Christ, his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice." And so the ark goes up the hill to Kirjath-jearim, and the question goes with it, unanswered for a thousand years.
⚙ Read under Sola Scriptura and offered to be tested: this chapter is a single sustained argument that God's holiness is not a function of who is handling Him. The Philistines take the ark as loot and are plagued; Israel receives it back with singing and is struck. The pagan lords will not lift the lid; the priestly town will. Twice the text makes the same measurement, once on each side of the border, and gets the same reading. That is why 6:20 is the right question and the wrong response in one breath: "Who is able to stand before YHWH, this holy God?" is exactly true, and "to whom shall He go up from us?" is exactly the wrong conclusion drawn from it. Henry saw this and said it plainly.
Two details push further. First, the Hebrew pun the English cannot keep: kâbôwd (weight, glory) in v. 5 and kâbad (make heavy, harden) in v. 6 are one root. Every creature must do something with the weight of God — give it to Him as glory, or absorb it into a hardened heart. The diviners get this right about Pharaoh and never once apply it to themselves. Second, the guilt offering is real. These men, who know nothing of Sinai, arrive by pure pressure at asham — the conviction that a wrong done to God must be repaid, not merely regretted. K&D documents the instinct across the ancient world. ⚙ I take that as evidence the category is not a Hebrew invention but a human recognition, which the Law then disciplines and the gospel then satisfies; but I hold that loosely, because this chapter states the instinct and does not explain it.
What the chapter withholds is any means of standing. There is a stone, an offering, a fire, a corpse-count and a forwarding address. There is no mercy seat mentioned, no atonement made for the seventy, no priest who intercedes. Gill supplies the missing term from elsewhere in Scripture, and I think rightly — but the honest reading of 1 Samuel 6 by itself is that it asks a question it cannot answer and sends the ark on to someone else. ⚙ The ache in the last verse is deliberate, and it is not relieved until a Man stands in the presence of God on our behalf and does not die.
Every creature must do something with the weight of God: give it back as glory, or carry it as a hardened heart.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The Philistines' tribute is moulded as עַכְבְּרֵי זָהָב (ʻakbâr, H5909) — a noun so rare it appears in only six verses in the Hebrew Bible. Two of them are Leviticus 11:29, where the mouse heads the list of swarming things that are unclean to Israel, and Isaiah 66:17, where eating the mouse is the mark of those who consecrate themselves for the garden-rites and are consumed together. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme in both. ⚙ The irony is exact and almost certainly unintended by the diviners: the only gold Philistia sends to the God of Israel is gold shaped like an abomination, an offering no Israelite could have proposed. Cambridge, on v. 5, compares the bronze serpent of Numbers 21:8 "though with caution," on the ground that "It too represented the instrument of chastisement" — the sign of the plague becomes the token of its lifting.
Leviticus 11:29 · Isaiah 66:17
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5909 ʻakbâr, a rare noun (in 6 vv canon-wide). A genuine verbal link at the level of vocabulary; there is no quotation in either direction, and the connection of sense is the synthesis's own.
The cows go הָלֹךְ וְגָעוֹ — going and lowing, the infinitive absolute doubling the action. The verb gâʻâh (H1600, "to bellow, as cattle") occurs in only two verses in the canon; the other is Job 6:5, "Does the ox low over its fodder?" — Job's proverb that a beast complains only when something it needs is missing. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme. ⚙ Read together, the rare verb makes the evidential argument Barnes makes from observation: "Nature would obviously dispose the cows to go toward their calves; their going in an opposite direction was therefore plainly a divine impulse overruling their natural inclination." Poole hears the same double witness in one sound, "their natural and vehement inclination to their calves, and the supernatural and Divine power which overruled them." The cows tell the truth about what they want with every step away from it.
Job 6:5
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H1600 gâʻâh (in 2 vv) — one of the rarest verbs in the canon, and these two verses are its entire distribution. Verbal at the lexeme level only; no citation is claimed.
עָלוֹת (ʻûwl, H5763, "to suckle") is a rare participle — five verses in all — and the Verifier places this one beside Genesis 33:13, where Jacob will not overdrive "the flocks and herds giving suck"; Isaiah 40:11, where the Shepherd "gently leads those that are with young"; and Psalm 78:71, where God takes David "from following the nursing ewes" to shepherd Jacob His people. ⚙ The same word gathers a shepherd's tenderness toward nursing animals and, here, a divine constraint laid on nursing animals that costs them everything. The canon is not inconsistent; it is showing that the God who will not overdrive the ewes may still commandeer them, and that the cost of the ark's homecoming was paid first by two cows walking the wrong way from their calves. Note that Psalm 78 links the word to David, who will one day fetch this same ark with a new cart — and bury a man for it.
Genesis 33:13 · Isaiah 40:11 · Psalm 78:71
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5763 ʻûwl (in 5 vv) across all three refs — a rare verbal link. The thematic reading that ties shepherd-tenderness to divine commandeering is ⚙ synthesis, not a sourced claim.
The עֲגָלָה חֲדָשָׁה, the new cart, is the Philistines' best guess at reverence, and K&D endorses the instinct: an old cart "already been used for all kinds of earthly purposes" would have been "an offence against the holy thing." Cambridge notes the parallel at once: "cp. 2 Samuel 6:3." The Verifier confirms the shared ark-lexeme (H727) with 2 Samuel 6:3 and its parallel 1 Chronicles 13:7. ⚙ But the parallel is an indictment, not a precedent: when David later moves the ark he adopts the Philistine method rather than the Levitical one (poles on priests' shoulders), and Uzzah dies. Gill notices the same asymmetry inside our own chapter — the Philistine workmen touched the ark and were not struck, "yet were not punished for touching it, as Uzzah was." What God overlooks in the ignorant He does not overlook in the instructed; that is precisely the logic that kills at Beth-shemesh in v. 19.
2 Samuel 6:3 · 1 Chronicles 13:7
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H727 ʼârôwn (in 174 vv) — a common noun, so the lexeme alone proves only a shared subject. The real link is the shared motif of a new cart carrying the ark, noted by Cambridge and K&D; tiered structural, not verbal, because the frequency is too high to carry a verbal claim.
Verse 6 is the rare case of a text citing another text out loud: the diviners name Egypt and Pharaoh and the hardening. The verb they use, כִּבְּדוּ (kâbad, H3513, "make heavy"), is one of the Exodus hardening verbs (Cambridge cites Exodus 8:15, 32; 9:34; K&D cites Exodus 7:13), and הִתְעַלֵּל is the verb of Exodus 10:2 — K&D: "when He (Jehovah) had let out His power upon them." ⚙ Two things follow. First, pagan memory here preaches better than Israel's: JFB observes that these traditions "were doubtless the means of diffusing the knowledge and fear of the true God." Second, the Philistines get the moral right and miss its address — Pulpit: "It is remarkable that they so correctly point out that it was the obduracy of the Egyptians which made their punishment so severe," yet within twelve verses Israel will do the hardening.
Exodus 7:13 · Exodus 10:2
basis: Not from the Verifier candidate list; the basis is the verse's own explicit naming of Egypt and Pharaoh, plus the shared Exodus vocabulary (kâbad, ʻâlal in Hitpael) identified by K&D at Exodus 7:13 and 10:2 and by Cambridge at Exodus 8:15, 32; 9:34. Tiered structural rather than verbal because no lexeme frequency was computed for this pair.
Four times in this unit the Philistines name their offering אָשָׁם (ʼâshâm, H817; vv. 3, 4, 8, 17) — the Levitical category of guilt and of the compensation guilt requires. K&D anchors the term in Leviticus 5:14-6:7 and shows that the verb paired with it, hēšîb, is "the technical expression for the payment of compensation for a fault in Numbers 5:7." A Verifier pair check on 1 Samuel 6:3 and Isaiah 53:10 — the verse in which the Servant's soul is made an ʼâshâm — confirms the shared lexeme H817, together with יָד (yâd, hand), the word for the hand that will not turn aside from Philistia in vv. 3, 5 and 9. ⚙ The link runs in both directions. It shows that the Philistine priests reached, under pressure alone, for a category the Law had already defined; and it shows what that category finally costs, which is not gold cast in the shape of one's own affliction. Barnes reaches the same conclusion from this chapter without the lexeme: the necessity of atonement "is taught in this and similar lessons as to the awesome HOLINESS of God."
Leviticus 5:15 · Numbers 5:7 · Isaiah 53:10
basis: Verifier pair check (1 Samuel 6:3 ↔ Isaiah 53:10): shared Hebrew lexemes H817 ʼâshâm (in 41 vv) and H3027 yâd (in 1445 vv). H817 is uncommon but not rare enough to carry a verbal tier, and neither verse cites the other, so this is tiered structural, not verbal. The Leviticus and Numbers references are K&D's, not Verifier-computed.
The cry of v. 20 is not unique to Beth-shemesh, and Cambridge names its companions: Malachi 3:2 ("who may abide the day of his coming?"), Luke 5:8 (Peter: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man"), and Matthew 8:34, where a whole district begs Jesus to leave its borders. Ellicott adds Revelation 1:17, John falling as dead at the feet of the glorified Son of Man. ⚙ The pattern is constant: a true perception of holiness, followed by a request that holiness go somewhere else. What changes across the Testaments is not the terror but the answer — Cambridge marks the failure here ("instead of fitting themselves for His Presence, they desired to free themselves from the burden of it"), and Ellicott marks what Beth-shemesh lacked: "they, less blessed than John and the children of the kingdom, had no Redeemer there to raise them up."
Luke 5:8 · Matthew 8:34 · Revelation 1:17
basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew↔Greek), so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier may be claimed. The recorded basis is the commentators' own cross-references: Cambridge cites Malachi 3:2, Luke 5:8 and Matthew 8:34 at 1 Samuel 6:20; Ellicott cites Revelation 1:17-18 there. The link is a shared pattern of response to holiness, not a quotation.
Verse 18 ends in a textual wound. The Masoretic text has אָבֵל הַגְּדוֹלָה, "the great Abel" (mourning); the Septuagint and Targum read ʼeben, stone. K&D proposes a second emendation, ʻēd (witness) for ʻad (unto), yielding "the great stone is witness... to this day," and cross-refers Genesis 31:52, where a heap and a pillar are made witnesses between Jacob and Laban; Cambridge offers the same reading and the same cross-reference. Against them, Benson, Barnes and Poole keep Abel and explain it as a name given by anticipation from the mourning of v. 19. Pulpit calls the clause "exceedingly corrupt"; Ellicott, "hopelessly corrupt." ⚙ This thread is therefore offered flagged, not confirmed: if the emendation stands, a witness-stone in Joshua's field joins the canon's line of stones that testify; if the Masoretic reading stands, the stone is named for grief. The FSSB will not choose for the reader where its own sources refuse to agree.
Genesis 31:52
basis: The link depends on a disputed emendation of 1 Samuel 6:18 (ʼābēl→ʼeben and ʻad→ʻēd) proposed by K&D and Cambridge on the authority of the LXX and Targum; Benson, Barnes and Poole retain the Masoretic reading. Genesis 31:52 is K&D's and Cambridge's own cross-reference for ʻēd, not a Verifier-computed lexeme pair. Provenance contested — verify before relying on it.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The law of the unused vessel runs through this chapter: a cart חֲדָשָׁה (new) and cows "upon which no yoke has come" (Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3, cited by Cambridge and K&D). Ellicott, quoting the Speaker's Commentary, carries the principle forward: "This was so ordered in reverence to the Ark, and was a right and true feeling... So our Lord rode on an ass 'whereon never man sat' (Mark 11:2), and His holy body was laid in Joseph's 'new tomb, wherein never man before was laid' (Matthew 27:60; Luke 23:53)." ⚙ The figure is not decoration. What bears the presence of God must be unclaimed by any prior use — and in the Gospels the two objects that bear Him into Jerusalem and out of death are chosen by exactly this rule. Barnes cites the same Gospel texts at v. 7. The reading is old and widely held; it is a typological correspondence, not an argument from the Hebrew.
Numbers 19:2 · Mark 11:2 · Matthew 27:60 · Luke 23:53
The diviners name the right category: אָשָׁם, guilt, and the compensation that guilt requires. K&D ties the term to Leviticus 5:14-6:7 and the verb to the restitution law of Numbers 5:7 and Leviticus 6:4. But what they send is five gold tumours and a fistful of gold mice — the shape of their affliction, not the price of their offence; and by v. 19 it is clear the offering settled nothing about Israel's own standing before the same God. Barnes states the lesson the chapter is teaching: "It is obvious to observe how the doctrine of atonement, and its necessity in the case of sinners, is taught in this and similar lessons as to the awesome HOLINESS of God." ⚙ The canon's answer to an asham that gold cannot fund is a person: Isaiah 53:10 sets the Servant's own life in the place of the guilt offering — a Verifier pair check confirms that 6:3 and that verse share the lexeme H817 ʼâshâm — and the New Testament reads the Servant as Christ. The category comes from Leviticus and is confessed here by pagans; the payment comes from the cross.
Leviticus 5:15 · Isaiah 53:10
Beth-shemesh asks the chapter's last theological question — "Who is able to stand before YHWH, this holy God?" — and the narrative gives no answer; it gives a forwarding address. K&D judges their self-knowledge sound: "They felt that they were none of them any better than those who had fallen, and that sinners could not approach the holy God." Gill alone, at v. 20, names the term the chapter withholds: none can stand "but on account of the mercy seat over the ark, or through Christ, his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice." ⚙ That is the apostolic logic exactly — the lid these men should not have looked under is the place where blood was sprinkled, and the New Testament names Christ as that place (Romans 3:25) and the throne of judgment as a throne one may now approach (Hebrews 4:16). Ellicott's contrast is the pastoral form of the same point: John, falling as dead before the glorified Son of Man, is raised by the voice of the One he feared, while Beth-shemesh "had no Redeemer there to raise them up." The link between the ark's lid and Christ's atoning place is ancient and widely held; the specific application to this verse is Gill's and Ellicott's, and I follow them.
1 Samuel 6:20 · Romans 3:25 · Revelation 1:17
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text. Two places in this unit are textually insecure, and the brief's own sources say so out loud. (1) 6:18: the Masoretic אָבֵל הַגְּדוֹלָה ("the great Abel/mourning") is read as ʼeben ("stone") by the LXX and Targum; K&D further emends ʻad ("unto") to ʻēd ("witness"). Pulpit calls the clause "exceedingly corrupt"; Ellicott, "hopelessly corrupt"; Cambridge sets out two possible restorations. Benson, Barnes, Poole and Gill retain Abel and explain it by anticipation from v. 19. The literal rendering above prints the Masoretic word and flags the dispute rather than silently adopting an emendation. (2) 6:19: the Hebrew reads "seventy men, fifty thousand men" — smaller number first, no conjunction, an order K&D calls "altogether unparalleled." K&D notes the words are absent from several Hebrew MSS and that Josephus knows only seventy; Barnes omits the 50,000 as a marginal gloss; Cambridge and Pulpit agree the text is corrupt (Pulpit follows Kennicott's ayin/nun confusion); JFB reads "fifty out of a thousand"; Benson revives Bochart's "seventy out of fifty thousand"; Henry, on some other reckoning, prints 1170. No reading is adopted here as certain.
Words. אַרְגָּז (v. 8, 11, 15) occurs nowhere else in the canon; "chest" is inferred from context and the versions (K&D), and Gill records "basket," "scrip" and "purse" among the ancient guesses. In v. 4 the consonantal ʻŏphālîm is read aloud as ṭᵉḥôrîm, a substitution Pulpit notes; both Strong's numbers (H6076, H2914) appear in the brief's interlinear and both are preserved above.
Sources. Every quotation is a verbatim, contiguous excerpt from the public-domain commentary supplied in the brief, selected by anchor and expanded by code — nothing has been retyped, modernised or stitched. Where the commentators disagree (Poole versus JFB and K&D on the lawfulness of the Beth-shemesh sacrifices; Pulpit versus Cambridge and Ellicott on whether there was a plague of mice at all; the whole field on the numbers of v. 19), the disagreement is reported rather than resolved. Gill's and K&D's classical and ethnographic citations (Aristotle, Pliny, Aelian, Herodotus, Theodoret, Tavernier) are theirs, from the 18th and 19th centuries, and have not been independently checked here.
Threads. Three badges rest on Verifier-computed shared lexemes (H5909, H1600, H5763), each rare enough to carry a verbal tier; the ark-lexeme link to 2 Samuel 6:3 rests on a very common noun (174 verses) and is therefore tiered structural, on the strength of the shared new-cart motif rather than the word. The asham thread to Isaiah 53:10 rests on a Verifier pair check run for this unit, which returned H817 (41 verses) and H3027 — uncommon but not rare, hence structural rather than verbal. The Exodus thread is not a Verifier pair at all — its basis is the verse's own explicit naming of Pharaoh, plus the commentators' Exodus references — and is tiered structural for that reason. The cross-Testament thread (Luke 5:8, Matthew 8:34, Revelation 1:17) cannot use shared Strong's numbers across languages and is tiered structural on the commentators' own cross-references. The Genesis 31:52 witness-stone thread is flagged: it depends on a contested emendation.
Machine layer. Everything marked ⚙ — the literal renderings, the divergence notes, the word notes, the grand commentary's connective argument, the sola reading and its pullquote (which is a line of synthesis, not a verse of Scripture) — is fallible synthesis built on the sourced facts above, and is offered to be tested against the text.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)