1 SamuelChapitre 6

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The ark of the LORD was in Philistine territory seven months.

Then the Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how to send it back to its own place."

They answered, "If you send the ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it empty. By all means return a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not turned away from you."

"What guilt offering should we return to him?" they asked. They answered, "Five gold tumors and five gold mice, matching the number of the Philistine rulers, since the same plague struck all of you and your rulers.

Make images of your tumors and images of your mice that are ravaging the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand upon you, upon your gods, and upon your land.

Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When he dealt harshly with them, did they not let the people go, and they went?

Now then, get a new cart ready, with two milk cows that have never worn a yoke. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away from them and shut them up at home.

Take the ark of the LORD and set it on the cart, and place beside it in a box the gold objects you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it on its way,

and watch: if it goes up the road toward its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then it is the LORD who has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know it was not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance."

So the men did this. They took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart and shut their calves up at home.

They set the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the box containing the gold mice and the images of their tumors.

Then the cows went straight up the road toward Beth Shemesh. They kept to the one highway, lowing as they went, and turned neither to the right nor to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.

Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight.

The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh and stopped there beside a large stone. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.

The Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was with it, containing the gold objects, and set them on the large stone. That day the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.

The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and returned that same day to Ekron.

These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent back as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron.

And the gold mice matched the number of all the Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers—both the fortified cities and the outlying villages. The large stone on which they set the ark of the LORD is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.[^1] [^1]: The Hebrew text here reads "Abel the great"; the reading "the large stone" follows other ancient witnesses and matches verses 14–15.

But the LORD struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh because they looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men out of fifty thousand, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with such a great blow.

The men of Beth Shemesh said, "Who can stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom shall the ark go up from here?"

So 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 to your place."

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Résumé2

Chapitre 6

Main Theme: The Philistines return the Ark of the Covenant to Israel after experiencing God's punishing power.

Content: After seven months of plagues, the Philistines consult priests and diviners on how to return the ark. They send it back on a new cart pulled by two cows, along with gold objects as a guilt offering. The cart arrives at Beth Shemesh, where the people sacrifice the cows to the Lord, but 70 men are struck down because they looked into the ark. Fearing God's holiness, Beth Shemesh sends messengers to Kiriath Jearim to retrieve the ark.

Key Words/Images:

Guilt Offering (אָשָׁם): Gold tumors and gold mice that the Philistines sent to appease Israel's God.
The New Cart: A symbol of reverence; the cows walking straight to Beth Shemesh confirmed that the plagues were from God.
God's Holiness: The judgment upon Beth Shemesh shows that even Israel cannot handle the ark without reverence and remain unpunished.
Beth Shemesh: The Israelite border town where the ark first arrived, and where the people experienced both joy and judgment.

Contexte historique

Historical and Cultural Context for 1 Samuel 6

People

The priests and diviners of the Philistines (כֹּהֲנִים וְקֹסְמִים) played a central role in Philistine religious life. The priests served at the temples of gods such as Dagon, while the diviners practiced various forms of divination to interpret divine will. The combination of these two groups shows that the Philistines sought both ritual and oracular guidance during their crisis. The use of diviners (קֹסְמִים) was forbidden in Israel (Deut 18:10), but it was common practice in surrounding cultures.

The five lords (סַרְנֵי פְלִשְׁתִּים) represented the leaders of the five Philistine city-states: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. The Hebrew word "seren" (סֶרֶן) is a non-Semitic loanword, possibly of Aegean origin, and is used exclusively for Philistine rulers. This reflects the Aegean origins of the Philistines.

Places

Beth-Shemesh (בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ, "house of the sun") was located in the Shephelah region, on the border between Philistine and Israelite territory. The name suggests that the site may originally have been a Canaanite cult place dedicated to the sun god. The city was a Levitical town (Josh 21:16), which explains why Levites were present to handle the ark (v. 15). Archaeological excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh have revealed settlement from the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

Kiriath-Jearim (קִרְיַת־יְעָרִים, "city of forests") was located higher up in the Judean hills, about 13 km from Beth-Shemesh. The city had a Canaanite background and belonged to the Gibeonites (Josh 9:17). Its location on the heights gave it a degree of isolation, which may have been considered safer for storing the ark.

Events and Customs

The guilt offering (אָשָׁם) was a known category in Israelite sacrificial practice, but here the concept is used by the Philistines. The gold objects functioned as "compensation" or "atonement" for wrongdoing against the God of Israel. The practice of making votive gifts in the form of body parts or plagues that afflicted someone was widespread in the ancient world. At sanctuaries in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean region, similar votive offerings made of metal or terracotta representing healed body parts have been found.

The test with the cows was a form of divination. Cows that had recently given birth would naturally seek to return to their calves. By separating them and letting them pull the cart without guidance, the Philistines created a test: if the cows went against their natural instinct and pulled toward Israelite territory, this confirmed divine intervention. The use of animals that had never borne a yoke in religious contexts was common in antiquity and is also found in Israelite practice (Num 19:2; Deut 21:3).

The reference to Egypt and Pharaoh (v. 6) shows that the story of the exodus from Egypt was known even among neighboring peoples. The Philistine priests warned against the same kind of hardening that led to Egypt's disaster.

Key Terms

טְחֹרִים / עֹפָלִים (techorim/ofalim) – The text has two readings: "boils" or "hemorrhoids." The ketiv (the written form) has עפלי, while the qere (the read form) has טְחֹרֵי. This may indicate both the nature of the disease and a certain modesty in the transmission. Together with the mice, this suggests a serious epidemic.

עַכְבָּרִים (akbarim, "mice/rodents") are mentioned as destroyers of the land (v. 5). The golden mice represented a prayer that the plague would cease. Some scholars have proposed a link to bubonic plague based on the combination of boils and rodents, but this interpretation is speculative.

אַרְגַּז (argaz) – the word for "chest" or "box" into which the gold objects were placed, occurs only here in the Old Testament. It may be a Philistine loanword, underscoring that this was a Philistine arrangement.

Chapter-Specific Findings

Archaeological excavations have uncovered votive offerings from Philistine temples, including small metal and ceramic objects. At Ekron, a large temple complex from the Iron Age with numerous cultic items has been found. Although no gold objects as described in the text have been discovered, these findings confirm the practice of making votive offerings in Philistine religion. Furthermore, Philistine pottery has been found at Beth-Shemesh, confirming cultural contact between the Philistines and Israelites in this border region.

Personnages1

Joshua2

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Mots-clés8

Philistines — A people group who lived in Canaan and were enemies of Israel during several periods of history.
Ark — Also called the "Ark of the Covenant," a holy chest that contained the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments, and represented God's presence among the Israelites.
Dagon — The chief god of the Philistines, often associated with fertility and grain.
Ekron — One of the most important cities of the Philistines, mentioned several times in 1 Samuel 6.
Ashdod — Another major Philistine city, where the Ark was first brought after the Philistines captured it from the Israelites.
Tumors — Plagues that struck the Philistines as a result of taking the Ark. May refer to a form of boils or swellings.
Golden rats — Offerings made by the Philistines in gold to make peace with God after taking the Ark and suffering under plagues.
Beth-shemesh — A city in Judah where the Ark was returned to the Israelites after the Philistines sent it back on a cart pulled by cows.