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<p>The first words of the chapter tell us how long the captivity of the ark continued—it was <i>in the country of the Philistines seven months. In the field of the Philistines</i> (so it is in the original), from which some gather that, having tried it in all their cities, and found it a plague to the inhabitants of each, at length they sent it into the open fields, upon which mice sprang up out of the ground in great multitudes, and destroyed the corn which was now nearly ripe and marred the land. With that judgment they were plagued (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.6.5" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.6.5">1 Sam. 6:5</a>), and yet it is not mentioned in the foregoing chapter; so God let them know that wherever they carried the ark, so long as they carried it captive, they should find it a curse to them. <i>Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed in the field</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.28.16" href="/passage/?search=Deut.28.16">Deut. 28:16</a>. But, most take it to signify, as we render it, <i>The country of the Philistines</i>. Now, 1. Seven months Israel was punished with the absence of the ark, that special token of God’s presence. How bare did the tabernacle look without it! How was the holy city now a desolation, and the holy land a wilderness! A melancholy time no doubt it was to the good people among them, particularly to Samuel; but they had this to comfort themselves with, as we have in the like distress when we are deprived of the comfort of public ordinances, that, wherever the ark is, <i>the Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven</i>, and by faith and prayer we may have access with boldness to him there. We may have God nigh unto us when the ark is at a distance. 2. Seven months the Philistines were punished with the presence of the ark; so long it was a plague to them, because they would not send it home sooner. Note, Sinners lengthen out their own miseries by obstinately refusing to part with their sins. Egypt’s plagues would have been fewer than ten if Pharaoh’s heart had not been hardened not to let the people go. But at length it is determined that the ark must be sent back; there is no remedy, they are undone if they detain it.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. The priests and the diviners are consulted about it, <a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.6.2" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.6.2">1 Sam. 6:2</a>. They were supposed to be best acquainted both with the rules of wisdom and with the rites of worship and atonement. And the Israelites being their neighbours, and famed above all people for the institutions of their religion, they had no doubt the curiosity to acquaint themselves with their laws and usages; and therefore it was proper to ask them, <i>What shall we do to the ark of Jehovah</i>? All nations have had a regard to their priests, as the men whose lips keep knowledge. Had the Philistines diviners? We have divines, of whom we should enquire wherewith we shall <i>come before the Lord</i> and <i>bow ourselves before the most high God</i>.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. They give their advice very fully, and seem to be very unanimous in it. It was a wonder they did not, as friends to their country, give it, <i>ex officio—officially</i>, before they were asked. 1. They urge it upon them that it was absolutely necessary to send the ark back, from the example of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, <a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.6.6" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.6.6">1 Sam. 6:6</a>. Some, it may be, were loth to yield, and were willing to try it out with the ark awhile longer, and to them they apply themselves: <i>Wherefore do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did</i>? It seems they were well acquainted with the Mosaic history, and could cite precedents out of it. This good use we should make of the remaining records of God’s judgments upon obstinate sinners, we should by them be warned not to harden our hearts as they did. It is much cheaper to learn by other people’s experience than by our own. The Egyptians were forced at last to let Israel go; therefore let the Philistines yield in time to let the ark go. 2. They advise that, when they sent it back, they should send a trespass-offering with it, <a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.6.3" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.6.3">1 Sam. 6:3</a>. Whatever the gods of other nations were, they knew the God of Israel was a jealous God, and how strict he was in his demands of sin-offerings and trespass-offerings from his own people; and therefore, since they found how highly he resented the affront of holding his ark captive, those with whom he had such a quarrel must <i>in any wise return him a trespass-offering</i>, and they could not expect to be healed upon any other terms. Injured justice demands satisfaction. So far natural light instructed men. But when they began to contrive what that satisfaction should be, they became wretchedly vain in their imaginations. But those who by wilful sin have imprisoned the truth in unrighteousness, as the Philistines did the ark (<a class="bibleref" title="Rom.1.18" href="/passage/?search=Rom.1.18">Rom. 1:18</a>), may conclude that there is no making their peace with him whom they have thus injured but by a sin-offering; and we know but one that can take away sin. 3. They direct that this trespass-offering should be an acknowledgement of the punishment of their iniquity, by which they might take shame to themselves as conquered and yielding, and guilty before God, and might <i>give glory to the God of Israel</i> as their mighty conqueror and most just avenger, <a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.6.5" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.6.5">1 Sam. 6:5</a>. They must make images of the <i>emerods</i>, that is, of the swellings and sores with which they had been afflicted, so making the reproach of that shameful disease perpetual by their own act and deed (<a class="bibleref" title="Ps.78.66" href="/passage/?search=Ps.78.66">Ps. 78:66</a>), also images of the <i>mice that had marred the land</i>, owning thereby the almighty power of the God of Israel, who could chastise and humble them, even in the day of their triumph, by such small and despicable animals. These images must be made of gold, the most precious metal, to intimate that they would gladly purchase their peace with the God of Israel at any rate, and would not think it bought too dearly with gold, <i>with much fine gold</i>. The <i>golden emerods</i> must be, in number, five, according to the <i>number of the lords</i>, who, it is likely, were all afflicted with them, and were content thus to own it; it was advised that the <i>golden mice</i> should be five too, but, because the whole country was infested with them, it should seem, upon second thoughts, they sent more of them, <i>according to the number both of the fenced cities and of the country villages</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.6.18" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.6.18">1 Sam. 6:18</a>. Their priests reminded them that <i>one plague was on them all</i>; they could not blame one another, for they were all guilty, which they were plainly told by being all plagued. Their prop
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