unto

time of her death, the women that stood by her, said her, • Fear not, for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. 21 And she named the child I-cha-bod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: (because the ark of God was taken, and because of her fatherin-law, and her husband:)

22 And she said, The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken.

CHAP. V. V. 1-5. I should have thought the next news would have been, that all Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, had gathered together as one man, with a resolution to bring back the ark, or die in the attempt: but we find no motion of that kind, so little zeal or courage was there left. Nay, we do not find that they desired a treaty with the Philistines about the ransom of it, or offered any thing in lieu of it; It is gone, and let it go." If the ark will help itself, it may, for they will not help it. Unworthy they were of the name of Israelites, that could thus tamely part with the glory of Israel. God would therefore take the work into his own hands, and plead his own cause, since men would not appear for Him.

eth death. I. She was of a very tender spirit. I faithful Israelite, than the want and loss of these.
The amazing news coming at this unhappy junc- If God go, the glory goes, and all good goes.
ture, it put her into labor, as great frights or other Wo unto us, if He depart!
strong passions sometimes do. Those who are
drawing near to that needful hour, have need to
treasure up
for themselves comforts from the cov-
enant of grace, to balance, not only the usual sor-
rows, but any thing extraordinary, that may add
to the grief which they do not foresee. Faith, at
such a time, will keep from fainting. Ps. 27: 13.
She was of a very gracious spirit, v. 22. She
said, The glory is departed from Israel; not lament-
ing so much the sinking of that particular family
to which she was related, as the general calamity
of Israel in the captivity of the ark. This, this
was it, that was her grief, her death. The wo-
men that attended her, who, it is likely, were
some of the first rank in the city, encouraged her,
thinking her concern was mostly about the issue
of her pains, but she answered not, neither did she
regard it. The sorrows of her travail, had she
had no other, would have been forgotten, for joy
that a man child was born into the world. But
what is that joy, to one that feels herself dying?
No joy but that which is spiritual and divine, will
stand us in any stead then; death is too serious
a thing to admit the relish of an earthly joy, it is
all flat and sapless then. What is it to one that
is lamenting the loss of the ark! Small comfort
could she have of a child born in Israel, in Shiloh,
when the ark is gone, and is a prisoner in the
land of the Philistines.

|

Here is, I. The Philistines' triumph over the
ark; they were the more pleased, the more proud,
to be masters of it now, because, before the bat-
tle, they were possessed with a great fear of it.
God restrained them, that they did not offer any
violence to it; and whether their curiosity led
them to open it, and to read what was written on
the two tables of stone in it, we are not told;
perhaps they looked no further than the golden
outside, and the cherubims that covered it, like
children that are more affected with the fine
binding of their Bibles, than with the precious
II. This made her give her child a name which matter contained in them. They carried it to
should
ity, and her sense of it.
perpetuate the remembrance of the calam- Ashdod, one of their five cities, and that in which
Where is the glory? Dagon's temple was; there they placed it, by
Or, Alas for the glory! or, There is no glory; (v. Dagon, v. 2. Either, as a sacred thing, they de-
21.) which she thus explains with her dying lips, signed to pay some religious respect to, in con-
(v. 22.) The glory is departed from Israel; for junction with Dagon; for the gods of the heathen
the ark of God is taken. Never let the name of were never looked upon as averse to partners:
an Israelite, much less a priest, carry glory in it or, rather, as a trophy of victory, in honor of
any more, now that the ark is taken.' Note, Dagon, to whom, no doubt, they intended to offer
(1) The purity and plenty of God's ordinances, a great sacrifice, as when they had taken Sam-
and the tokens of his presence in them, are the son; (Judg. 16: 23, 24.) boasting, that as then
glory of any people, much more so than their they had triumphed over Israel's champion, so
wealth, and trade, and interest among the nations. now over Israel's God. What a reproach this
(2.) Nothing is more cutting, more killing, to a to God's great name! But so it is, because God
row-morning, behold threshold; only the
Dagon was fallen upon stump of Dagon was
his face to the ground left to him.
before the ark of the
LORD; and the head
of Dagon, and both the
palms of his hands,
were cut off upon the

o Gen. 35:17,18. John 16:21.

• Heb. and set not her heart. Ps. 77-2.
↑ That is, Where is the glory 1 Or,
There is no glory. 14:3.

p Ps. 26:8. 78:64. 106:20. Jer. 2:11.
Hos. 9:12.
q Pa. 137:5,6. John 2:17.

* 4:11,17,18,22. P. 78.61.
b 4:1. 7:12.

© Josh. 11:22. Acts 8.40. Azotus.

d Judg. 16:23. 1 Chr. 10:10. Dan. 5:
2,23. Hab. 1:11,16.

e Ex. 12:12. Ps. 97:7. Is. 19:1. 46:1,
2. Zeph. 2:11. Mark 3:11.

10:18 20. 2 Cor. 6:14-16.

f Is. 40:20.

Jer. 10:8.

41:7. 44:17-20.

Luke

46:7.

g Is. 2:18.19. 27:9. Jer. 10:11. 50:2,
Er. 6:4-6. Dan. 11:8. Mic. 1:7.
Or, the fishy part.

first appearances of vice in their children! Let them reflect on
Eli's death, on the far more dreadful condition of his sons, on
the dying agonies and sorrows of Phinehas's wife, on the slaugh-
ter of Israel, the ark taken captive, the glory departed,' and
Shiloh forsaken; and let them tremble to think how great a
matter a little fire kindleth.' (2 Kings 11: 1, 2. 2. Chr. 18: 1.
19: 2. 21: 3, 4.) In the midst of life we are in death:' some
situations, however, peculiarly remind those who are placed in
them to be ready for a sudden call; and few more than pregnancy.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. God will rather let his avowed enemies triumph for a season, than encourage hypocrites, whose crimes still more dishonor his holy name. The most avowed infidels and atheists, and the most atrocious and desperate offenders, have their pangs of conviction and disquietude of mind: with all their efforts, they cannot utterly exclude forebodings of fatal effects from their rebellion against the God of heaven; and though they conceal and quiet this appreheusion for a time, and even prosper in their ungodliness; yet their fear will come upon them, and even far worse than they ever foreboded. (Prov. 10: 24.)-When death, in its most formidable shape, finds men humbled for their sins, crying for mercy, and more anxious for the cause of God and truth, than for the most valued earthly comforts, it will eventually prove a blessing; yea, every dispensation is mercy, which rescues the immortal soul from bell. (P. O. Dan. 4: 28–37.)—What miseries do some un godly men entail on all connected with them! And what an awful lesson is here for parents, who are tempted to connive at the

NOTES.

CHAP. V. V. 1, 2. Besides the other wickedness of Israel, the idolatry of the Danites yet remained unpunished and unrepressed: and this might be one reason why the Lord was pleased to deliver his ark into the hand of these idolaters. (Judg. 18: 30, 31. 20: 8-11, 20-25.) SCOTT.

(1.) Ashdod.) Called Azotus by the Greeks, was one of the 5 satrapies of the Philistines, and a place of great strength and consequence. It was situated near the Mediterranean, between Ashkelon and Jamnia, 34 ms. N. Gaza, according to Diod. Sic: and the Antonine and Jerusalem Itineraries. It is now called Shdood; and Dr. Richardson says they neither saw nor heard of any ruins there. "The ground," he observes, "around Ashdod is beautifully undulating, but

Though the glory may successively be withdrawn from sinful nations, cities, or villages; yet it shall never depart from Israel, but shall shine forth in one place, when it has been eclipsed in another: for Jesus, our High Priest, ever liveth to maintain his own cause, and the gates of hell shall never prevail against his church; whatever may be the triumphing boasts of his enemies, or the desponding fears of his people. SCOTT.

not half stocked with cattle. The site of the town is on the summit
of a grassy hill; and, if we are to believe historians, was anciently
as strong as it was beautiful."
GREENF.

'Bp. Wilson observes, that in this ch. all the attributes of God are
displayed: his justice, in punishing his own people for their sins;
his goodness, in thus manifesting Himself to them that knew Him
not; his power, in making the idols fall before Him; his truth, in
vindicating Himself upon the Israelites for their sins, and the Philis-
tines for their idolatry and false gods.'
BOOTHR.

Verse 4.
Head and hands.] The former, the seat of wisdom; the latter, the
instruments of action.'
POOLE.

h Ps. 115:4-7. 135:15-18. 1 Josh. 5:15. Zeph. 1:9.

k Ex. 9:3. P. 32:4. Acts 13:11.

1 9,11. 6:5. Deut. 28:27. Job 31:3. Ps. 78:66.

m 4:8. Ex. 8:8,28. 9:28. 10:7. 12:

n 6:20. 2 Sani. 6:9. 1 Chr. 13:11-13. 15:13.

o See on 3,4.-Jer. 46:25. 48:7.

Dr. A. CLARKE. It appears to be a corrupt spelling of hemorrhoides.' HEWLETT.] While the Israelites were so degenerate, as to make no attempt for the recovery of this sacred symbol of JEHOVAH's gracious presence, and indeed were utterly unworthy of being honored in such a service; He Himself rendered the Philistines willing to send back the ark; and so over-ruled these events, as to expose idolatry to the deepest contempt, and to convince the obstinate idolaters, that they could not profane his sacred institutions with impunity. (Notes, Josh, 7:6-9. Ps. 115: 1, 2.)

1. The priests and the diviners are consulted,
v. 2. as supposed best acquainted both with the
rules of wisdom, and the rites of worship and
atonement. And the Israelites being their neigh-
Josh. bors, and famed above all people for the institu-
tions of their religion, they had, no doubt, the
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

The Lord may for a season permit his cause to be run down, in order to expose the hypocrisy, to undermine the vain confidence, or to chastise the wickedness, of his professed people: for He knows how, without any human help, and in defiance of all enemies, to recover it from the ruins, and to establish it in greater splendor; and this may account for the successes of infidels and atheists, through so many countries, which have long professed Christianity, but have corrupted and disgraced it. But the shortlived triumphings of the wicked, on such occasions, will terminate in their deeper disgrace, and more dreadful punishment.-Men may be convinced by the judgments of God, that He is a terrible enemy, and that it is in vain to contend with Him; and they may be constrained to reuder Him a feigned submission: (Ps. 66: 1— 3. 81: 14, 15.) but nothing, except his renewing grace, will produce genuine repentance, faith, and love, and conversion from every idol to his worship and service. It is equally dangerous to oppose those partial revivals of true religion, which take place from age to age: for the ark of God will cause every Dagon to fall down before it, till all of them be broken in pieces.-The zeal and pertinacity, with which the grossest idolatries and most

stupid superstitions have been supported against the cause of God and truth, display the blindness of fallen man's understanding, as much as the depravity of his affections.-Thus, convinced sinners also, with perverse assiduity, set up again those false confidences and worldly idols, which seemed to be thrown down under the preaching of the Gospel: or when the old delusion will no longer soothe their consciences, they exchange it for another equally ab surd, as long as they continue to love sin, and to hate the spiritual service and humbling truth of God. But when Christ, the true Ark of the covenant, really enters the heart of fallen man, (which is indeed Satan's temple,) all idols will fall before his presence and power; every endeavor to set them up again will be in vain; all iniquity will be forsaken; all unrighteous gain restored; and the Lord will claim and possess the throne. Yet pride, self-love, and worldly lusts, though dethroned and crucified, still remain within us. Let us then watch and pray against their prevalency; let us seek to have them more entirely destroyed; and let us consider death, through the mercy of God, and the grace of the Gospel, as attended by the final destruction of our worst enemy, the sin that dwelleth in us.'

carried, the Philistines placed it in the open field: and that then great numbers of mice began to destroy their crops and spoil the land. They were reluctant to conclude that their afflictions were from God, and framed an artful device for putting it to the trial: In short, they evinced how unwilling they were to yield, and how unable to resist. SCOTT.

(2.) Diviners.] A kind of prophets, pretending to know the will of God, and to foretell future events. Bp. PATRICK. In what their

h

5 Wherefore, ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had wrought wonderfully among them, "did they not let the people go, and they departed? 7 Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch-kine, Pon which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them:

8 And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass-offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go.

9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his Own coast to r Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us.

10 And the men did so; and took two milch-kine, and tied them to the cart, and

stinately resisted all the methods of cure their That cattle unaccustomed to the yoke should draw
physicians had prescribed; Let them therefore so even, so orderly, and still go forward; that
send back the ark, and then,' say they, it shall without any driver, they should go from home, to
be known to you, why his hand is not removed from which all tame creatures have a natural inclina-
you; that is, by this it will appear, whether it is tion, and from their own calves, to which they
for your detaining of the ark, that you are thus had a natural affection; that, without any direc
plagued; for, if it be, upon your delivering of it tor, they should go the straight road to Beth-she-
up, the plague will cease.' God has sometimes mesh, a city eight or ten miles off, never miss the
put his people on making such a trial, whether way, never go aside into the fields to feed them-
their reformation would not be their relief; Prove selves, nor turn back home to feed their calves:
Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, Mal.3: 10. they went on lowing for their young ones, by
Hag. 2: 19. Yet they speak doubtfully, (v. 5.) which it appeared that they had not forgotten
5. They put them in a way to make a further them, but that nature was sensible of the griev-
trial, whether it was the hand of the God of Is-ance of going from them; the power of the God
'rael that had smitten them with these plagues or of nature therefore appeared so much the greater,
no; v. 7-9. for, unless, after all the other mira- in overruling one of the strongest instincts of
cles He has wrought, He will work one more, nature. These two kine, says Lightfoot, knew
and by an invisible power lead brute cows, con- their Owner, their great Owner, (Isa. 1: 3.)
trary to their natural instinct and inclination, to whom Hophni and Phinehas knew not; to which
the land of Israel, and particularly to Beth-she- I may add, they brought home the ark, to shame
mesh, they will retract their former opinion, and the stupidity of Israel, that made no attempt to
believe it was not the hand of God that smote fetch it home. God's providence is conversant
them, but a chance that happened to them, v. 8, 9. about the motions even of brute creatures, and
Thus did God suffer Himself to be tempted and serves its own purposes by them. The lords of
prescribed to, after He had been otherwise affront- the Philistines, with a suitable retinue, no doubt,
ed, by these uncircumcised Philistines. Would went after them, wondering at the power of the
they have been content that the honor of Dagon, God of Israel; thus they who thought to triumph
their god, should be put on such an issue? See over the ark, were made to go like menial ser-
how willing bad men are to shift off their convic- vants after it.
tions of the hand of God upon them, and to be-
lieve, when in trouble, it is a chance that happens
to them; and if so, the rod has no voice which

they are concerned to hear or heed.

V. 10-18. We are here told,

I. How the ark that was carried into the land
of the Philistines, a trophy of their victory, car-
ried back with it trophies of its own, and lasting
monuments of the disgrace of the Philistines.
Note, God will be no loser in his glory, at last,
the ark, but will get Him honor from those that
by the successes of the church's enemies against
seek to do Him dishonor.

II. How the kine brought it to the land of Is-
rael, v. 12. This was a wonderful instance of
the power of God over the brute creatures, and,
all things considered, no less than a miracle.
shut up their calves at
home:

pretended art consisted we do not know.'
Dr. A. CLARKE.
(4.) Golden emerods and mice.] 'It was a very ancient usage,
when a plague or other calamity infected a country, for the magicians
to form an image of the destroyer, or of things on which the plague
particularly rested, in gold, silver, ivory, wax, &c. under certain con-
figurations of the heavens and to set this up in some proper place,
that the evils thus represented might be driven away. These conse-
crated images were the same that are called talismans or telesms
among the Asiatics.' Dr. A. CLARKE. These astrologers, [diviners
v. 2.] who knew the history of the Israelites, see v. 6. had-perceived
that this God had been pleased with the brazen serpent which Moses
set up upon a pole in the wilderness.'
DODD.

'Herodotus seems to have had some knowledge of this history; but has assigned another cause. He says, the Scythians having plundered the temple of Askalon, a celebrated city of the Philistines, the goddess who was worshipped there afflicted them with a peculiar disease. The Philistines, perhaps, thus related the story; but it evidently passed for truth, that this disease was ancient, and had been sent by some avenging deity. . . . The heathen frequently offered to their gods [as Roberts asserts they do in India now] figures representing those parts of the body which had been diseased; and such kinds of ex votis are still frequent in Catholic countries; being consecrated in honor of some saint, who is supposed to have wrought the cure they are images of wax or of metal, exhibiting those parts of the body in which the disease was situated.'

ROBINSON'S CALM.

III. How it was welcomed to the land of Israel, v. 13. They were going on with their worldly business, in no care about the ark; made no inquiries what was become of it; but were as careless as the people that ceiled their own houses, and let God's house lie waste. Note, God will, in his own time, deliver his church, though fought against by its enemies, and neglected by its friends. Some observe, that the returning ark found the men of Beth-shemesh not idling or sporting in corn: thus the tidings of the birth of Christ were the streets of the city, but busy, reaping their

brought to the shepherds, when they were keeping their flock by night. The devil visits idle men with his temptations; God visits industrious men with his favors. 1. When the reapers saw the ark, (v. 13.) their joy for that was greater than high-way, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth-shemesh.

13 And they of Beth-
shemesh were reaping

g Ex. 8:5,17,24. 10:14,15. Joel 1:4-7.
2:25.
b Josh. 7:19. Pa. 18:44. 66:3. Marg.

i 5.6,11. Ps. 32:4. 39:10.
k 5:3,4,7.
19:1.

1 Job 9:4.

8:13. ་

Ex. 12:12. Num. 33:4. Is.

Ps. 95:8. Rom. 2:5. Heb.

m Ex. 7:13. 8:15. 9:16,17,34,35, 10:

3. 14:17. 15:14-16.

• Or, reproachfully.

n Ex. 12:31-33.

+ Heb. them.

o 2 Sam. 6:3. 1 Chr. 13:7.

p Num. 19:2.
9 4,5.

r Josh. 15:10. 21:16.
1 Or, it.

Is. 26:11.

t 2 Sam. 1:6.

u 2 Sam. 6:3.

venomous solpugas, a species of spider, yet so large, and so similar in form to mice, as to admit their being denominated by the same word. They destroy,' he says, and live upon, scorpions. They also bite men, whenever they can have an opportunity. The probable supposition then is, that solpugas were at this time multiplied among the Philistines, by the special providence of God, and that, being very venomous, they were the means of destroying many individuals.

En.

Mice.]Some think the jerboa, or field-mouse, which does vast damage by eating the sprouts of young corn. William of Tyre records, that in the 12th century a penitential council was held at Naplouse, where 25 canons were framed to correct the manners of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, who they apprehended had provoked God to bring upon them the calamities of earthquakes, war, and famine. This last he ascribes to locusts and devouring mice, which had for 4 years together so destroyed the fruits of the earth, as to cause almost a total failure of their crops.' GREENF.

(7.) Milch-kine.] From this it appears, that cows were wont to be used in the labors of agriculture, as well as bulls and asses. See Jahn. ED.

(8.) Jewels. The golden emerods and mice.'-By the side.] 'They durst not open the ark to put them into it.' ASSEMB. ANN. (9.) Chance.] This word is often used improperly, to signify such an occurrence as is not under the divine government; but properly signifies an event that naturally arises from such concurring causes as, in the order and nature of things, must produce it.'

Verses 10-16.

Dr. A. CLARKE.

Respecting this judgment inflicted on the Philistines, JAHN dissents entirely from the common view, that it was dysentery, or hæmorrhoides, see note, ch. 5: 6. and, following Lichtenstein in Eichhorn's The presumption of the Philistines, in requiring this additional Bibliothek, supposes the word rendered mice, v. 5, 11, 18. to mean proof of JEHOVAH's power, was very great; but it was over-ruled

their wheat-harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.

a

14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt-offering unto the LORD. 15 And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt-offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD.

16 And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they

returned to Ekron the same day.

17 And these are the golden emerods, which the Philistines returned for a trespass-offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ek

ron one.

the joy of harvest. Note, The return of the ark,
and the revival of holy ordinances, after days of
restraint and trouble, cannot but be matter of
great joy to every faithful Israelite.

2. They offered up the kine for a burnt-offering,
using the wood of the cart for fuel; (v. 14.) which
probably, the Philistines intended, when they sent
them, should be a part of their trespass-offering,
to make atonement, v. 3, 7. However, the men
of Beth-shemesh thought it proper to use them,
because it was by no means fit they should ever
be put to any other use; and, no doubt, they
were accepted, though the animals were females,
whereas, in strictness, every burnt-offering was
to be male.

3. They deposited the ark, with the chest of
jewels the Philistines presented, on the great stone
in the
open field. The intrinsic grandeur of in-
stituted ordinances ought not to be diminished, in
our eyes, by the meanness and poverty of the place
where they are administered.

4. They offered the sacrifices of thanksgiving
to God, some think, on the great stone, more
probably, on an altar of earth made for the pur-
pose, v. 15. And the case being extraordinary,
the law for offering at the altar in the court of
the tabernacle was dispensed with, and the more
easily, because Shiloh was
now dismantled.
Beth-shemesh, though it lay within the lot of the
tribe of Dan, yet belonged to Judah, so that this
accidental bringing of the ark hither, was an in-
dication of its designed settlement there, in pro-
those cities assigned out of the lot of Judah to the
cess of time. Ps. 78: 67, 68. It was one of
sons of Aaron, Josh. 21: 16. Whither should the
ark go, but to a priest's city? And it was well
they had those of that sacred order ready, (for
though they are here called Levites, (v. 15.) yet it
should seem they were priests,) both to take down
the ark, and to offer the sacrifices.

but let no man think that service done for God will justify him in any instance of disrespect or irreverence toward the things of God. Or, it may be, they presumed on the present mean circumstances the ark was in, newly come out of captivity, and unsettled; now that it stood upon a cold stone, they thought they might make free with it; they should never have such another opportunity of being familiar with it. But it is an offence to God, if we think meanly of his ordinances, because of the mean manner of their administration. Had they looked with an understanding eye on the ark, and not judged purely by outward appearance, they would have thought it never shone with greater majesty than now, when it had triumphed over the Philistines, and come out of its house of bondage (like Christ out of the grave) by its own power; had they considered this, they would not have looked into it thus, as a common chest.

This

2. Their punishment for this sin; He smote the men of Beth-shemesh, many of them, with a great slaughter. How jealous is God for the honor of his ark! He smote 50,000 and 70 men. account of their numbers smitten, is expressed in a very unusual manner in the original, which, beside the improbability that so many should be guilty, and so many slain, occasions many learned men to question, whether we take the matter right. In the original it is, He smote in (or among) the people, threescore and ten men; 50,000 men. The Syriac and Arabic read it, 5,070 men; the common people. 70 men as valuable as 50,000 the Chaldee, 70 men of the elders, and 50,000 of so some, because they were priests. Some think the 70 were the Beth-shemites slain for looking into the ark, and the 50,000 those slain by the ark, in the land of the Philistines. He smote 70 men, that is, 50 out of a thousand; which was one in 20, a half decimation; so some understand it. The Septuagint read it much as we do, He smote 70 men, and 50,000 men. Josephus says only 70 were smitten.

3. The terror struck upon the men of Beth-shemesh, by this severe stroke, v. 20. Some think, it bespeaks their murmuring against God, as if He had dealt hardly and unjustly with them. Instead of quarrelling with themselves, and their own sins, they quarrelled with God and his judgments; as David was displeased, in a case not much unlike, 2 Sam. 6: 8, 9. I rather think it bespeaks their awful and reverent adoration of God, as the Lord God, as a holy Lord God, a God before whom none is able to stand. Thus they infer from the tremendous judgment, Who is able to stand before the God of the ark?? To stand before God to worship Him, blessed be his name, is not impossible; we are through Christ invited, encouraged, and enabled to do it; but to stand before God, to contend with Him, we are not able.

V. 19-21. Here is, 1. The sin of the men of Beth-shemesh, v. 19. Every Israelite had heard great talk of the ark, and been possessed with a profound veneration for it; but they had been told, it was lodged within a veil, and even the high priest himself might not look upon it 18 And the golden but once a year, and then through a cloud of inmice, according to the cense. Perhaps, this made many say, (as we are number of all the cities apt to covet what is forbidden,) they would give a great deal for a sight of it. Some of these of the Philistines be- Beth-shemites, we may suppose, for that reason longing to the five rejoiced to see the ark, (v. 13.) more than for the lords, both of fenced sake of the public. Yet this did not content cities, and of country- them; they would go further, and take off the villages, even unto the covering, and look into it; under pretence of great stone of Abel, seeing whether the Philistines had not taken the two tables out of it, or some way damaged them; whereon they set down but really to gratify a sinful curiosity of their own, the ark of the LORD; which intruded into things God had thought fit which stone remaineth to conceal from them. Note, It is a great affront unto this day in the to God, for vain men to pry into, and meddle | field of Joshua the with, the secret things which belong not to them, 4. Their desire, hereupon, to be rid of the ark, Deut. 29: 29. Col. 2: 18. We were all ruined v. 20. They begin to be as weary of it as the Beth-shemite. by an ambition of forbidden knowledge. What Philistines had been; whereas, if they had treated 19 And he smote made this looking into the ark a great sin, was, it with due reverence, who knows, but it might the men of Beth-she- it proceeded from a very low and mean opinion have taken up its residence among them, and they mesh, because they had of the ark. The familiarity they had with it, on had all been blessed for the ark's sake? But thus, this occasion, bred contempt and irreverence. when the Word of God works with terror on sinPerhaps, they presumed on their being priests; ners' consciences, they, instead of taking the blame but the dignity of the ministerial office will be so and shame to themselves, quarrel with the Word, far from excusing, that it will aggravate, a care- and put that from them, Jer. 6: 10. Thus do less and irreverent treatment of holy things. They foolish men run from one extreme to the other, should, by their example, have taught others to from presumptuous boldness to slavish shyness. keep their distance, and look on the ark with a Kirjath-jearim, i. e. the city of woods, belonging holy awe. Perhaps, they presumed on the kind to Judah; (Josh. 15: 9, 60.) it lay in the way d Ex. 19:21. Lev. 10:1-3. Num. 4.4, entertainment they had given it, and the sacrifices from Beth-shemesh to Shiloh; so that when they they had now offered to welcome it home with; sent to them to fetch it, we may suppose they in

▾ 7:9,17. 11:15. 20:29. Ex. 20:24.

Judg. 6:26. 21:4. 2 Sam. 24:18,25.

1 Kings 18:30-38.

4.12. Judg. 3:3. 16:5,23--30.

75:1. 2 Chr. 26:6. Jer. 25:20. Zech.

9.6.

t Judg. 16:1,21.

Judg. 1:18. Zech. 9:5.

d 5.8. 2 Sam. 1:20. 21:22. Am. 6:2. e 5:10. 2 Kings 1:2. Am. 1:8.

• Or, great stone.

5,15,90. Deut. 29:29. 2 Sam. 6.7. Col. 2:18. 1 Pet. 4:17.

The number, [i. e. of the slain] as it stands in our version, is so very large, to be found in one small city, and the expression in the original is so uncommon, that it is generally allowed some mistake is made. The passage may be rendered, 'He smote... seventy men,