The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 117

Israel go. So no,v the question is whether I. e. hehintl them, leaving the ldne free to the Philistines will restore the ark on the go where they chose. The usual position of warni11g of one plnguc, or whether they will the drin)r of an ox-cart in tho Enst is in hold out till they han been smitten with ten. front. Conder (' 'l'ent Work,' i. 274) de- Yer. 7. -Make a new cart, and take, &c. scribes the view up the great corn valley of the Hebrew is, "Now take and make you o Sorek to the high and rugged hills above as new cart, and two milch kine." The trnns- extremely picture~que, and this it is, he position of the A. Y. throws undue stress adds, which was spread liefore the eyes of the upon the nrb make, whereas the Hebrew five lords of the Philistines as they followed simply means that both the cart was to be the lowing oxen which !Jore the nrk on new, and the heifers untrained and unbroken the " straight way" from Ekron to Beth- to the yoke. Both these were marks of shemesh. The ruins of the latter place, he re,·erence. :K othing was to be employed in says, lie on ti knoll surrounded by olive trees, God's service which had been previously used near the junction of the valley of Sorek with for baser purposes (comp. Mark xi. 2). No the great gorge which bounded Judah on the animal was deemed fit for sacrifice which had north. laboured in the field. The separation of the THE ARK AT BETH-SHEMESH (vers. 13- kine from their calves was for the purpose of 20). Ver. 13. And they of Beth-ahemesh. demonstrating whether the plague after all More exactly, ".And Beth-shemesh was reap- was supernatural, and it is remarkable what ing its wheat-harvest," the whole population great care the Philistine priests take against being in the fields. Though a priestly city,· confounding the extraordinary with the Di- we find in ver. 15 the Levites distinguished vine. If, however, the kine act in a manner from the ordinary inhabitants, as though contrary to nature, their last doubt will be they and the priests formed only the ruling removed. class. In the valley. Now called the Wady Yer. 8.-Put the jewels of gold . . . in Surar, branching olf into another valley on a coffer. Instead of jewels the Hebrew the south. Robinson(' Later Bib!. Res.,' 153) word signifies any article of workmanship, speaks of the site of Beth-shemesh as a very and so figures, images w-rought in gold. They noble one, being "a low plateau at the junc- were to be placed reverentially at the side of tion of two fine plains." The wheat-harvest the ark, for it had w-rought them so great takes place in Palestine in May, and conse- evil that they had learned to look upon it quently the disastrous battle of Eben-ezer llith awe. must have been fought in the previous Yer. 9.-His own coast, or "border." The October. ask throughout this verse is spoken of as if Ver. 14.-Stood there, where there was a it were itself a deity. Beth-shemesh- i. e. great stone. Probably a mass of natural " the house of the sun," also called lr- rock rising through the soil. This they shcmesh, "city of the sun" (Josh. xi.x. 41) used as an altar, breaking up the ca1·t for -had evidently been in the time of the wood, and sacrificing the kine. In this Canaanites the seat of this popular idolatry. joyful work all the people seem to have It was now a city of tlie priests, situated in joined, though the sacrifice would be offered the tribe of J ndah, on its north- ea.~tern only by the priests. border, next the tribe of Dan, aud was the Ver. 15.-The Levites took down the ark. nearest Israelite town to Ekron. If, then, Naturally, in acityofwhich priests formed the the kine, albeit unused to the yoke, left ruling caste, the people would lie acquainted their calves behind, and drew the cart by with the general nature of the regulations of the most direct route unto the land of Judah, the law. .Apparently it was only after the they would give the required proof that the sacrificial feast that they forgot the reverence Philistines were smitten by the hand of due to the symbol of Jehovah's presence Tehovah, and that it was no chance that had among them. . happened unto them. Ver. 16.-They returned to Ekron the Ver. 12.-The kine took the straight way. same day. The lords of the Philistines The Hebrew brings out the directness with would of course take no part in this re- which the heifers took the route to Beth- ·Joicing, but, having seen the ark restored shemesh very forcibly. It says, ".And the and the people busied in making p~epar• kine went straight in the way upon the way ations for the sacrifice, returned imnied1ately to Beth-shemesh ; they went along one high- home. way, lowing as they went," i. e. they went Vers. 17, 18.-The golden emerods. Wo in one direct course, without deviating from have ·here and in vcr. 18 an enumeration of ~t. Nevertheless, their continual lowing the gifts differing from, without being at vari- showed the great stress that was laid upon ance with, that in ver. 4. They are still li~e their na~ure in being thus compelled to golden emerods, for which the name here 1s sep1rate themselves from their calves. And not opht;,,lim, but tehorim, the word always the lords of the Philistines weut after them. read in the synagogue (see eh. v. 6). From CH. VI, ] -21.] THE FIRST BOOK UJ<' SAMUEL. 113