the Week of Proper 24 / Ordinary 29
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1 Samuel 6:5
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Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
mice: Bochart has collected many curious accounts relative to the terrible devastations made by these mischievous animals. William, Archbishop of Tyre, records, that in the beginning of the twelfth century, a penitential council was held at Naplouse, where five and twenty canons were framed for the correction of the manners of the inhabitants of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, who they apprehended had provoked to bring upon them the calamities of earthquakes, war, and famine. This last he ascribes to locusts and devouring mice, which had for four years together so destroyed the fruits of the earth as to cause an almost total failure of their crops. It was customary for the ancient heathen to offer to their gods such monuments of their deliverance as represented the evils from which they had been rescued; and Tavernier informs us, that among the Indians, when a pilgrim goes to one of the pagodas for a cure, he brings the figure of the member affected, made of gold, silver, or copper, according to his circumstances, which he offers to his god. Exodus 8:5, Exodus 8:17, Exodus 8:24, Exodus 10:14, Exodus 10:15, Joel 1:4-7, Joel 2:25
give glory: Joshua 7:19, Psalms 18:44, Psalms 66:3,*marg. Isaiah 42:12, Jeremiah 3:13, Jeremiah 13:16, Malachi 2:2, John 9:24, Revelation 11:13, Revelation 16:9
lighten: 1 Samuel 5:6, 1 Samuel 5:11, Psalms 32:4, Psalms 39:10
off your: 1 Samuel 5:3, 1 Samuel 5:4, 1 Samuel 5:7, Exodus 12:12, Numbers 33:4, Isaiah 19:1
Reciprocal: Genesis 32:20 - peradventure 1 Samuel 5:9 - and they had emerods 1 Samuel 6:4 - Five golden 1 Samuel 6:8 - jewels Isaiah 44:11 - all his Joel 2:14 - Who Revelation 14:7 - give
Cross-References
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,
And it came to pass, when man began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
The number of people on earth began to grow, and daughters were born to them.
When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
Now it happened, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,
And whanne men bigunnen to be multiplied on erthe, and hadden gendrid douytris,
And it cometh to pass that mankind have begun to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters have been born to them,
Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them,
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods,.... Which some take to be images of the five cities; others of a man at large with the disease in his back parts; others of that part of the body of a man only, in a circular form, in which the disease was, and expressing that; but the text is plain for the disease only, as high large tumours: though Maimonides f says of these images, that the word is attributed to them, not because of their external form, but because of their spiritual virtue and influence; whereby the damage or disease of the emerods in the hinder parts were removed: he seems to take them to be a sort of talismans, which were images of a disease or noxious creature a country was infected with, made under some celestial influence to remove it; and Tavernier g relates, as Bishop Patrick observes, that it is a practice with the Indians to this day, that when any pilgrim goes to a pagoda for the cure of any disease, he brings the figure of the member affected, made either of gold, silver, or copper, according to his quality, which he offers to his god. There is a tradition among the Heathens, which seems to be borrowed from this history, and serves to establish the credit of it; the Athenians not receiving Bacchus and his rites with due honour, he was angry with them, and smote them with a disease in their private parts, which was incurable; on which they consulted the oracle, which advised them in order to be rid of the disease to receive the god with all honour and respect; which order the Athenians obeyed, and made images of the several parts, privately and publicly, and with these honoured the god in memory of the disease h: both the disease and cure are here plainly pointed at:
and images of your mice that mar the land; that devoured the fruits of it, as these creatures in many instances have been known to do; and particularly in Palestine, the country of the Philistines, where in some places their fields were sometimes almost deserted because of the abundance of them; and were it not for a sort of birds that devoured them, the inhabitants could not sow their seed i: the Boeotians sacrificed to Apollo Pornopion (which signifies a mouse), to save their country from them k; Aristotle l reports of field mice, that they sometimes increase to such incredible numbers, that scarce any of the corn of the field is left by them; and so soon consumed, that some husbandmen, having appointed their labourers to cut down their corn on one day, coming to it the next day, in order to cut it down, have found it all consumed; Pliny m speaks of field mice destroying the harvest; Aelianus n relates such an incursion of field mice into some parts of Italy, as obliged the inhabitants to leave the country, and which destroyed the corn fields and plants, as if they had been consumed by heat or cold, or any unseasonable weather; and not only seeds were gnawn, but roots cut up; so the Abderites o were obliged to leave their country because of mice and frogs:
and ye shall give glory to the God of Israel; by sending these images as monuments of their shameful and painful disease, and of the ruin of their fields; owning that it was the hand of the Lord that smote their bodies with emerods, and filled their fields with mice which devoured them; seeking and asking pardoning of him by the trespass offering they sent him:
peradventure he will lighten his hand from you: abate the violence of the disease, and at length entirely remove it:
and from your gods; not Dagon only, but others seem to have suffered, wherever the ark came: for the Philistines had other deities; besides Dagon at Ashdod, there were Baalzebub at Ekron, and Marnas at Gaza, and Derceto at Ashkelon; and perhaps another at Gath, though unknown; and besides the gods suffered, or however their priests, by the number of men that died, and by the fruits of the earth being destroyed; which must in course lessen their revenues: and from off your land; the fruits of which were destroyed by mice.
f Moreh Nevochim, par. 1. c. 1. g Travels, p. 92. h Scholia in Aristoph. Acharnen. Act ii. Scen. 1. p. 383, 384. Edit. Genev. 1607. i Magini Geograph. par. 2. fol. 241. k Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 1. c. 13. l Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 37. "----saepe exiguus mus", &c. Virgil, Georg. l. 1. v. 181, 182. m Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 65. n De Animal. l. 17. c. 41. o Justin. l. 15. c. 2.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 1 Samuel 6:5. He will lighten his hand from off you — The whole land was afflicted; the ground was marred by the mice; the common people and the lords afflicted by the haemorrhoids, and their gods broken in pieces.
