1 Samuel 6


1 Samuel 6 is the sixth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter describes how the Ark of Covenant was returned to Israel by the Philistines, a part of the "Ark Narrative" within a section concerning the life of Samuel.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 21 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q51 with extant verses 1–13, 16–18, 20–21.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.

Places

  • Ashdod
  • Ashkelon
  • Beth Shemesh
  • Ekron
  • Gath
  • Gaza
  • Kiriath Jearim

    Period

The event in this chapter happened at the end of judges period in Israel, about 1100 BC.

The Ark returned to Israel (6:1–19)

The Philistines realized that the Ark of the Covenant had to be returned to Israel to stop the plagues, so they consulted their priests and diviners to avoid further humiliation. Two issues were raised in verse 3:
  1. What was the appropriate offering to accompany the ark?
  2. Was it really YHWH who had humiliated them?
The answer for the first concern is to send gifts on the basis of value, corresponding to the victims and representing the plagues. The gifts are called 'guilt offering, serving a double function: as a sacrifice to ensure that YHWH would 'lighten his hand' and as a compensatory tribute to YHWH. They learned from the Exodus tradition 'not to be obstinate and prevent the return of the ark'.
The answer to the second concern was sought by the use of divination, utilizing untrained cows, separated from their young calves, and released unguided, so when the cows went straight to the territory of Israel, the Philistines were convinced that the plagues came from YHWH and their gifts were acceptable. The Israelites celebrated the return of the ark, and utilized the cows to be an appropriate sacrifice for the removal of ritual 'contamination', as the animals and the cart were new, unused, and therefore ritually clean. The sacrifice was performed on a 'large stone of Abel' in the field of an unknown Joshua, which afterward also became the resting place for the ark.

Verse 1

  • "In the country": or "in the field" denoting a place outside 'under the open air', because apparently none of the Philistine cities dared to host the ark and the people thought it would deliver them from their calamity. However, Targum states "in the cities of the Philistines", that is, from one city to the other.
  • "Philistines": a group of people coming from the northeastern Mediterranean area and entering "Palestine" around 1200 BCE.
  • "Seven months": the ark was returned during the wheat harvest, so the battles between Israel and the Philistines which led to the capture of the ark happened at the end of autumn or the beginning of winter. Josephus states that the ark was with the Philistines four months only.

    Verse 5

  • "Tumors" : or "bleeding piles", or more probably "boils". The mention of "mice" together with "tumors" indicates that the outbreak could be bubonic plague.

    The Ark at Kirjath Jearim (6:20–21)

Similar to what happened to the Philistines, the ark caused plagues for Israelites when they did not show due respect to it, so the ark was moved from Beth-shemesh to Kiriath Jearim, probably due to its previous connection with Baal-worship. The custodian of the city was Eleazar, son of Abinadab, both had names that often appear in levitical lists.

Verse 21

  • "Kiriath Jearim": now identified with Deir el-Azar, a place near Abu Ghosh on a hill about 7 miles west of Jerusalem.

    Commentaries on Samuel

General

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