1 Samuel 6:21

Contextual Overview

¹⁹ And he killed of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Yahweh, he killed of the people seventy men, fifty thousand men; and the people mourned, because Yahweh had smitten the people with a great slaughter. ¹⁹ But the Lord killed seventy men from Beth-shemesh because they looked into the Ark of the Lord . And the people mourned greatly because of what the Lord had done. ¹⁹ And he smote of the men of Beth–shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people seventy men, [and] fifty thousand men: and the people mourned, because the LORD had smitten the people with a great slaughter. ¹⁹ But some of the men of Beth Shemesh looked into the Ark of the Lord . So God killed seventy of them. The people of Beth Shemesh cried because the Lord had struck them down. ¹⁹ But the Lord struck down some of the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord ; he struck down 50,070 of the men. The people grieved because the Lord had struck the people with a hard blow. ¹⁹ And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and seventy men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten [many] of the people with a great slaughter. ¹⁹ He struck of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Yahweh, he struck of the people fifty thousand seventy men; and the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter. ¹⁹The LORD struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck down 50,070 men among the people, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter. ¹⁹ And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord . He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. ¹⁹ Forsothe the Lord smoot of the men of Bethsames, for thei hadden seyn the arke of the Lord, and he smoot of the puple seuenti men, and fifty thousynde of the porail. And the puple morenyde, for the Lord hadde smyte `the puple with greet veniaunce.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Kirjathjearim: Joshua 18:14, Judges 18:12, 1 Chronicles 13:5, 1 Chronicles 13:6, Psalms 78:60, Jeremiah 7:12, Jeremiah 7:14

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 7:1 - Kirjathjearim Psalms 78:67 - General Ezekiel 25:15 - to destroy Mark 5:15 - and they

Cross-References

Job 38:41
Who provides food for the ravens when their young cry out to God and wander about in hunger?

Job 38:41
Who provideth for the raven his food, when his young ones cry unto God, and wander for lack of meat?

Job 38:41
Who provides for the raven his prey, When his young ones cry to God, [And] wander for lack of food?

Job 38:41
Who gives food to the birds when their young cry out to God and wander about without food?

Job 38:41
Who prepares prey for the raven, when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

Job 38:41
Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry to God, they wander for want of food.

Job 38:41
Who provides for the raven his prey, When his young ones cry to God, And wander for lack of food?

Job 38:41
"Who provides prey for the raven When its young cry to God And wander about without food?

Job 38:41
Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?

Job 38:41
Who makith redi for the crowe his mete, whanne hise briddis crien to God, and wandren aboute, for tho han not meetis?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim,.... Which was a city further on in the tribe of Judah, and lay among some woods, from whence it had its name, and was formerly called Kirjathbaal, from Baal's being worshipped there; of which see

Joshua 15:9, they might choose to send hither to fetch the ark from them, because it was at a greater distance from the Philistines, their city Bethshemesh being on the borders of them; and because it might be a place of greater eminence and strength, and besides lay in the way to Shiloh, whereby they might suppose it was intended to be had; unless Shiloh was before this time destroyed:

saying, the Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord; which they doubted not would be good news to them:

come ye down, and fetch it up to you; but say not one word of the reason of this request, lest it should discourage them; but rather represent it as a favour to them, and an honour done them, as indeed it was. Kirjathjearim seems to have stood on an eminence in comparison of Bethshemesh, and therefore it is said to come down from the one, and go up to the other. That Bethshemesh was in a valley, see 1 Samuel 6:13 and this on a hill, 1 Samuel 7:1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Kirjath-jearim - See Joshua 9:17 note. It has been thought that there was a high place at Kirjath-jearim (the hill, 1 Samuel 7:1), the remnant of its old pagan sanctity when it was called Kirjath-Baal, “the city of Baal” (see Joshua 18:14; 2 Samuel 6:2); and that for this reason it was selected as a proper place to send the ark to.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 6:21. To the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim — They wished the ark away out of their village, but why they sent to this city instead of sending to Shiloh, does not appear: probably Shiloh had been destroyed by the Philistines, after the late defeat of Israel. This is most likely, as the ark was never more taken back to that place.

IT was a very ancient usage, when a plague or other calamity infested a country, city, c. for the magicians to form an image of the destroyer, or of the things on which the plague particularly rested, in gold, silver, ivory, wax, clay, c., under certain configurations of the heavens and to set this up in some proper place, that the evils thus represented might be driven away. These consecrated images were the same that are called talismans, or rather telesms, among the Asiatics. Mr. Locke calls the diviners talismans, but this is a mistake the image, not the fabricator, was called by this name.

I have seen several of these talismans, of different countries; and such images were probably the origin of all the forms of gods which, in after times, were the objects of religious worship. It is well known that Ireland is not infested with any venomous creature; no serpent of any kind is found in it: -

"No poison there infects, no scaly snake

Lurks in the grass, nor toads annoy the lake."

This has been attributed to a telesm, formed with certain rites under the sign Scorpio. Such opinions have been drawn from very ancient pagan sources: e.g.: A stone engraved with the figure of a scorpion, while the moon is in the sign Scorpio, is said to cure those who are stung by this animal. Apollonius Tyaneus is said to have prevented flies from infesting Antioch, and storks from appearing in Byzantium, by figures of those animals formed under certain constellations. A brazen scorpion, placed on a pillar in the city of Antioch, is said to have expelled all such animals from that country. And a crocodile of lead is also said to have preserved Cairo from the depredations of those monsters. See Calmet.

Virgil refers to this custom, Eclogue viii., ver. 80, where he represents a person making two images or telesms, one of wax, another of clay, which were to represent an absent person, who was to be alternately softened or hardened, as the wax or clay image was exposed to the fire: -

Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit

Uno et eodem igni: sic nostro Daphnis amore.

"As this clay hardens, and this wax softens, by one and the same fire, so may Daphnis by my love."

This thought is borrowed from Theocritus, Idyl. ii., ver. 28.

A beautiful marble figure of Osiris, about four inches and a quarter high, now stands before me, entirely covered with hieroglyphics; he is standing, and holds in each hand a scorpion and a snake by the tails, and with each foot he stands on the neck of a crocodile. This I have no doubt was a telesm, formed under some peculiar configuration of the heavens, intended to drive away both scorpions and crocodiles. This image is of the highest antiquity, and was formed probably long before the Christian era.

Tavernier observes that something like what is mentioned in the text is practiced among the Indians; for when a pilgrim goes to one of the idol temples for a cure, he brings the figure of the member affected, made either of gold, silver, or copper, according to his circumstances, which he offers to his god. This custom was common among the heathens, and they consecrated to their gods the monuments of their deliverance. From heathenism it was adopted by corrupt Christianity; and Theodoret informs us that in his time there might be seen about the tombs of the martyrs figures of eyes, hands, feet, and other parts of the body, which represented those of the offerers which they supposed had been healed by the intercession of those holy persons! This degrading superstition is continued among the papists to the present day: I have seen at St. Winifred's well, in Holywell, Flintshire several staves, crutches, and handbarrows, hung up in different places, which were reported to be the votive offerings of the maimed, the halt, the withered, c., who had received their cure by the virtue of the saint! It is true the crutches are such as no man or woman could ever walk with and the barrows are such as most evidently never carried any human being. But they serve the purpose of superstition, and keep up an idolatrous reverence for the well and the legendary virgin.

After all, I need not say that the system of judicial astrology is vain, unfounded, absurd, and wicked. It in effect presumes to take the government of the world out of the hand of an all-wise God, and to abandon it to the most fortuitous and unconnected occurrences of life; for the stars have their influences according to this pretended science, conformably to the occurrences here below: e.g., if a child be born but one hour sooner or later than a particular configuration of the heavens, his destiny will be widely different from what it otherwise would have been; and as an almost infinite number of casualties may accelerate or retard a birth, consequently the whole destiny of man is influenced and ruled by these casualties: to say nothing of the absurdity, that those omnipotent stars ever can affect the infant while invested with a thin covering of flesh in the womb of its parent. But the whole science is a tissue of absurdities.