1 Samuel 5:8

1Sa 5:8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about [thither].

Ver. 8. What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?] Vexation should have given them understanding: and they should have consulted in this case with the priests and people of God, who could best have directed them what to do: but this they were farthest from. Afflictions, God’s hammers, without the Holy Ghost and his fire, do but beat upon cold iron.

Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about.] It was so, by a providence, through all the five cities of the Philistines, Veluti tributum per singulas poenam violatae religionis exigens, {a} thus exacting the tribute of just punishment upon them all, for religion violated.

{a} Joseph., lib. vi. cap. 1.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Sa_5:8

What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel.

The ark of God

It often happens that when a person has at last obtained that which he most desired he does not know what to do with it. This may be said of money after a life of economy and strict attention to business; of repose after a life of toil; and of many other aims and objects in life. Now in the passage quoted you find the Philistines in a similar difficulty: they had obtained possession of that which they considered the greatest prize of warfare. It was a mighty spoil; it caused no little joy to the Philistines; but his loss was a terrible and crushing blow to Israel. The ark had changed hands. The Philistines had now in their custody the Ark of God. It was a sore trouble to them. That material construction is now long ago broken up and destroyed: the wood and gold have perished; but the Divine Presence still lives on. The Church preserves her identity under all adverse circumstances: the Ark remained the same sacred witness to Gods Truth wherever carried. (2Co_2:15-16.) It is wonderful to notice how Gods Spirit forces this fact upon the world. The world is compelled to recognise the presence of religion, however it may recoil from the claims of religion. The history of the world ever since the Christian era commenced is a proof of this: what would become of any record of the first three centuries which failed to take account of the religious element? The history of the Roman Empire at that time is, in fact, the history of the Church. History tells you how Christianity springing up in the Roman provinces perplexed the authorities; how at last it spread; how outbreaks of persecution only tended to strengthen and deepen its roots; but yet all proves how the world had begun to ask this question as to the religion of the day: What shall we do with the Ark of God? Then, again: how much more attentively the action of the Church is now watched by the public, than used to be the case formerly. Whatever it be which relates to religion, there is the same watchfulness from without. Again and again the world enquires, at moments the most trivial, at social parties, at merry meetings, just for the sake of saying something, or to start a subject, What shall we do with the Ark of God? And see only how religion is employed to puff literature. Some periodical or magazine is started: it will not sell unless there be an element of religion in it. It is only one other instance of the editor eyeing religion, considering what he can get out of the religious element which will find him readers: he only says, What shall we do with the Ark of God? And further. Consider the prejudices of the present day. Mark the obvious success of attempts which at first were regarded cynically or coldly. The world has been convinced that Church principles cannot easily be laughed out of court, and that conscientious convictions are worthy of respect; that blameless lives conduce to the welfare of society. So gradually the world tempers its opposition; it wishes to moderate religious enthusiasm; it desires to reduce the Church to its own level; it would like to enjoy all successes which the Church achieves in fashioning well-ordered citizens; but at the same time the world would tie down the action of the Church to the limits of the popular will. What shall we do to these men? For that a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all those that dwell in Jerusalem. What shall we do with the Ark of God? But with regard to your own relation to holy things; does not this perplexity of the Philistines find an answer in your own hearts? You have lived many years with the light of truth burning brightly before you, God has cast your lot in a Christian land, not in a land of idols. God has blessed you with a religious home, with serious parents. How have you regarded holy things? Have not you sometimes felt them irksome? as if you did not quite know what to do with religion; as if the things of God stood in your way; as if they shackled you; as if they dwarfed the development of your life, and paralysed somewhat the hopes of your career? And yet you did not like to send the Ark away; you would not give up religion; you recognised its value too highly; you were afraid to east off God and to disown Him; yet a secret wish sprang up that you had never known so much of truth; you almost deemed the heathen happy, because you fancied that he could have no embarrassing scruples. What were you to do with the Ark of God! It so often came across your path; every now and then disputing the way; telling you that you must not do this or that. At such moments did not religion seem unwelcome? somewhat as an intruder? For thus it is that religious scruples do harass men when they least like it. Gods mercy sends the Angel to bar the way: and such is Gods love, the Angel moves further and further into narrow places, where there is no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left; narrow places where the choice more directly confronts the sinner; where he may see more evidently the blackness of sin in contrast with the pure white light of holiness. There is nothing more contemptible, or more miserable, than shifting about between two opinions. The Philistines were never more wretched than when they were employed in passing on the Ark from one city to another. Shame and disease marked that period of seven months indecision. It was far better when they sent the Ark back to its rightful owners. At least it was a decided step; there was no halting between two opinions if you want to insult God, then, use religion as a tool for your own convenience and not as a principle of life. The sin of the world has lain chiefly in this prostitution of religion. It has proved the curse and downfall of nations; the deterioration and ruin of man. Heathen ignorance is better than Christian indifference; depend upon it, nothing is so prolific of infidelity as indecision. Balaam tampering with the commands of God; Ahab sending for, but not obeying, Micaiah; Herod hearing John gladly, but persisting in his adultery; Judas following Jesus, but selling Him for silver; Demas beginning well, but falling away to self-indulgence; these are the emissaries which the devil employs to deceive mankind. Rather learn by Gods grace to regard religion and truths claims not as a moral intrusion, but as affording a principle on which to rule your life. Religion is not a subject to be handled at our will; it is not just now and then to serve our turn, and then to be laid aside for some possible future use; but it is a principle to enter into all our ways. (C. A. Raymond, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:8 rulers (or overlords): Each of the five major Philistine cities had its own ruler (6:16-18). • Move it: Despite the obvious danger, the Philistines relished their captured trophy enough to relocate it rather than return it. • Gath, one of the five major Philistine cities, was nearby.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Though they had felt God’s power, and were afraid thereof, yet they would further try him, which thing God turned to their destruction and his glory.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 8. The lords of the Philistines] The word סרני sarney, which we translate lords, is rendered by the Chaldee טורני tureney, tyrants. The Syriac is the same. By the Vulgate and Septuagint, satrapae, satraps. Palestine was divided into five satrapies: Ashdod, Ekron, Askelon, Gath, and Gaza. See Jos 13:8. But these were all federates and acted under one general government, for which they assembled in council.

Let the ark - be carried about] They probably thought that their affliction rose from some natural cause; and therefore they wished the ark to be carried about from place to place, to see what the effects might be. If they found the same evil produced wherever it came, then they must conclude that it was a judgment from the God of Israel.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(8) Gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them.—The Philistine federation seems to have been a very powerful one, and owing to the disinclination of the Israelites to maritime pursuits and foreign commerce—[the foreign commercial expeditions of King Solomon were apparently quite exceptional]—held in their hands a large proportion of the Mediterranean trade—the Mediterranean being the great highway between Eastern and Western nations; hence, no doubt, the worship of Dagon, the fish-god. It seems to have been something more than mere “Nature worship,” the devotion of the Phœnician settlers on the sea-board of Syria and Canaan to a marine deity. The constitution of Philistia was oligarchical: that is, the government was in the hands of a College of Princes, whose decision no individual could oppose. The princes (seranim) are the heads of the several city districts, which formed a confederation, each one of the five chief cities holding a number of places, country cities, or “daughter” cities, as its special district. (See Erdmann in Lange’s Commentary.) Dr. Payne Smith (Dean of Canterbury) has an ingenious and scholarly derivation for the titular designation of these lords (Hebrew, seranim), in which, rejecting the usual root sar, a prince, he connects the word with seren, a hinge; “just,” he says, “as the cardinals of the Church of Rome take their name from cardo, which has the same meaning.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. all the lords of the Philistines] A peculiar term Seren is used exclusively to denote the five ‘lords’ who ruled in the five cities of the Philistine confederacy. In all probability it preserves their native title. They had all equal rights, for though Achish is called “king of Gath” in ch. 1Sa_21:10, 1Sa_27:2, this is only from a foreign point of view, and he could not overrule the decision of his colleagues (1Sa_29:6-11). Here we find one city appealing to the rest for counsel in the calamity which had befallen it.

unto Gath] Gath may have been chosen because there was no Dagon-temple there, the Philistines attributing the plague to the antagonism between Jehovah and Dagon.

The site of Gath cannot be fixed with certainty, but Mr Porter and Lieut. Conder agree in the conclusion that it probably stood on the conspicuous hill now called Tell-es-Sâfi, 12 miles E. of Ashdod, at the foot of the mountains of Judah. “The position is one of immense strength, guarding the mouth of the valley of Elah.” Hence its importance as a border fortress, commanding one of the main approaches from Philistia to Judaea. It was captured by David (1Ch_18:1), fortified by Rehoboam (2Ch_11:8), taken by Hazael (2Ki_12:17), retaken and dismantled by Uzziah (2Ch_26:6). There is no further notice of it in the Bible: but the Crusaders occupied Tell-es-Sâfi, and built the fortress of Blanche Garde upon it.

Gath was the native place of Goliath (ch. 1Sa_17:4): and the refuge of David from the persecutions of Saul (ch. 1Sa_21:10, 1Sa_27:3).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them,.... The other four lords, for there were five with this; see Jos 13:3,

and said, what shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? they no doubt told them what they and their idol had suffered on account of it, and the resolution they were come to that it should be no longer with them; and therefore desire to know what must be done with it, whether they should return it to the people of Israel, or dispose of it somewhere else; it is probable some might be for the former, but the greater part were not, and were for keeping it in their possession somewhere or another:

and they answered, let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath; which was another of the five principalities of the Philistines, and not far from Ashdod; according to Jerom (x), it is included in the remnant of Ashdod, Jer 25:20 and according to Bunting (y) but four miles from it. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions make this to be the answer of the men of Gath, the one reading it,"and they of Gath said, let the ark of God come to us;''and the other,"they of Gath answered, let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about;''for they suspected, as Procopius Gazaeus observes, that the destruction did not come from God, but was a disease arising from some pestilential cause. They perhaps imagined it was in the air in and about Ashdod, or that though the situation of the ark was not liked, in another place it might be otherwise, and more agreeable:

and they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither; they seem not to carry it directly to the place, but carried it in a round about way, as if they had a mind to give it an airing, before they fixed it any where.

(x) Comment. in Hierem. c. 25. fol. 151. B. (y) Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 123.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The “lords” (see Jdg 3:3) were very unwilling to give up their triumph, and, with the common pagan superstition, imagined that some local bad luck was against them at Ashdod. The result was to bring the whole Philistine community under the same calamity.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lords, next in dignity to a king, like the Persian surena, Judges iii. 3., and xvi. 5. --- About. Hebrew, "and they answered, let the ark....be carried unto Geth," in which sense the Septuagint seem to have taken it. But the Vulgate is more natural. Theodoret (q. 10,) concludes, that the people imagined the mortality proceeded from some natural cause; (Calmet) otherwise it would have been very absurd to give such advice, as the ark would spread the contagion throughout the country, by being removed. From Geth it was sent to Accaron, when the magistrates of the city objected to its being admitted, ver. 10. Jospehus says, however, that it visited all the five principal cities, as if to punish them for their impiety. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Supposing that this plague was confined to Ashdod for some particular reasons, or that it came upon them by chance, or from some bad influence of the air, or of the stars, or for putting it into Dagon’s temple, which they resolved they would not do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. They sent — Feeling now that, though they had vanquished the Israelites, they could not endure the severe hand of their God, the lords of the Philistines come together in solemn convocation, and the great question before them is:

What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel — Their prize has become a sore burden on their hands, and they know not how to dispose of it. At length they decide:

Let the ark… be carried about unto Gath — They seem to have imagined that the difficulty might have arisen from some local cause, and that a change of place might disarm the ark of its power. The site of Gath has long remained unknown. In 1857 Revelation J.L. Porter explored Philistia in special search of it, and supposes he has identified it with Tell-es-Safieh, which is situated ten miles east of Ashdod, and nearly the same distance south of Ekron.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The lords of the Philistines. Philistia was governed by a council of five princes, but whether they were elective or hereditary in the several towns is by no means clear. They are called "seranim," from seren, "a hinge," just as the cardinals of the Church of Rome take their name from the Latin word cardo, which has the same meaning. There is no ground for connecting the word with sar, "a prince." When Ewald did so he probably forgot that the two words begin with different letters seren with samech, and sar with shin. Seranim is the word constantly used of the lords of the Philistines (Jos_13:3; Jud_1:3:3 16:5, 8, etc.; 1Ch_12:9) though after being correctly so styled in 1Sa_29:2, they are popularly called in vers. 3, 4, 9, sarim, "princes." Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. Unwilling to part with so signal a proof of their victory, the lords of the Philistines determine to remove the ark to another locality, but thereby only made the miraculous nature of what was taking place more evident to all. Of Gath but little is known; but Jerome describes it as still a large village in his days, and as situated near the border of Judaea, on the road from Eleutheropolis to Gaza.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To Gath - Supposing that this plague was confined to Ashdod for some particular reasons, or that it came upon them by chance, or for putting it into Dagon's temple, which they resolved they would not do.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The Ark in Gath and Ekron

v. 8. They sent, therefore, and gathered all the lords of the Philistines, the heads of their five city-states, unto them and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? As eager as they were to have the ark in their city as a trophy of their great victory, so eager were they now to get rid of the unlucky piece of furniture. And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. The princes of the Philistines intended to make an experiment, in order to determine whether the misfortunes which struck Ashdod were really to be attributed to the ark or were the result of chance. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither, farther to the east.

v. 9. And it was so that, after they had carried it about, caused it to be taken in the indicated direction, to this second city, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction, disquietude, consternation taking hold upon all the inhabitants, a feeling of impending disaster; and He smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts, they were plagued with the same eruption of boils as the people of Ashdod had been, and the boils apparently broke open, causing painful ulcers.

v. 10. Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron, the chief city in the northwestern part of the Philistine country. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, by the command of the Philistine chiefs, that the Ekronites cried out, for they had been informed of the plague which had struck Ashdod and Gath, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us to slay us and our people. But their protest was ignored, and the ark was brought into their city.

v. 11. So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, for a second conference, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not and our people. The plague was not only generally prevalent, but also especially malignant, the effects being exceptionally deadly; for there was a deadly destruction, a consternation of terror on account of the sudden death of so many people, throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there, the severity of the plague here reached its greatest height.

v. 12. And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods, being extremely ill with the boil-sickness; and the cry of the city went up to heaven, for the Philistines were forced to acknowledge that in this place the almighty hand of the God of Israel was revealed. Thus the Lord revenged the sacrilege of the heathen in laying their hands upon the ark consecrated to Him. When unbelievers presume to attack the Word of God, to blaspheme and persecute the Word of Salvation, and, in addition, refuse to bow under the chastening hand of God, He often visits them with very severe plagues and terrors.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Yahweh's hand was against

This is an idiom. AT: "Yahweh punished" (See: Idiom)

both small and great

Possible meanings are 1) this is a merism that refers to age. AT: "men of all ages" or 2) this is a merism that refers social class. AT: "from the poorest and weakest men to the richest and most powerful men" (See: Merism)

tumors

Possible meanings are 1) painful swelling under the skin or 2) hemorrhoids. See how you translated this in 1 Samuel 5:6

translationWords

rule

Philistines

Gath

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.