1 Samuel 6:19

And he smote the men of Bethshemesh,.... That is, God smote them, though they had received the ark with such expressions of joy, and had offered sacrifices on account of it; yet sinning in one

And he smote the men of Beth-she'mesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the

They had looked into the ark of the Lord; having now an opportunity which they never yet had, nor were ever like to have, it is not strange they had a vehement curiosity and desire to see the contents of the ark; or whether the Philistines had taken them away, and put other things in their place; and they thought they might now presume the more, because the ark had been polluted by the Philistines, and was now exposed to open view, and not yet put into that most holy place, which they were forbidden to approach. Of the people, i.e. of the people living in and near Beth-shemesh, or coming thither from all parts upon this great and glorious occasion. Heb. and, or also, he smote of the people, to wit, of or belonging to other places, though now here; so these are distinguished from the men of Beth-shemesh, of whom he speaks only in general and indefinitely, he smote the men, i.e. some or many of them, and then sets down the number of the persons smitten or slain, either excluding the Beth-shemites, or including them. Fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: this may seem an incredible relation, both because that place could not afford so great a number, and because it seems an act of great rigour, that God should so severely punish those people who came with so much zeal and joy to congratulate the return of the ark, and that for so inconsiderable an error. For the latter branch of the objection, it may be said: 1. That God always used to be most severe in punishing his own people, as sinning against more knowledge and warning than others; especially for such sins as immediately concern his own worship and service. 2. That men are very incompetent judges of these matters, because they do not understand all the reasons and causes of God’ s judgments. For although God took this just occasion to punish them for that crime which was so severely forbidden even to the common Levites under pain of death; of which see ; yet it is apparent that the people were at this time guilty of many other and greater miscarriages, for which God might justly inflict the present punishment upon them; and moreover, there are many secret sins which escape man’ s observation, but are seen by God, before whom many persons may be deeply guilty, whom men esteem innocent and virtuous. And therefore men should take heed of censuring the judgments of God, of which it is most truly said, that they are oft secret, but never unrighteous. And for the former branch of the objection, many things are or may be said: 1. That the land of Israel was strangely populous. See . 2. That all these were not the settled inhabitants of this place, but most of them such as did, and in all probability would, resort thither in great numbers upon so illustrious an occasion. 3.

1 Samuel 6:19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten [many] of the people with a great slaughter.Ver. 19. Because they had looked.] Presumptuously prying into the ark, out of an impious curiosity. Arcaua Dei sunt Arca Dei; be wise to sobriety: abuse not sacraments. The Israelites were charged on pain of death not to look upon the ark bare or uncovered; the Philistines might, and not die, because not alike obliged. Peter giveth charge against curiosity, as against theft or murder. “ Tu fuge ceu pestem τηνπολυπραγμοσυνην.” - Funccius. Scilicet in superis etiam fortuna luenda est; Nec veniam laeso numine casus habet.

(19) They had looked into the ark.—Some commentators consider that the words here should be rendered, “because they had looked at the Ark” with a foolish irreverent staring, which dishonoured the holiness of the sacred mercy-seat; but it is better far to preserve the rendering of our English Version, which is also the favourite Rabbinical explanation of the original. It seems probable that the chief men of the city, most of whom were priests and Levites, after the festive rejoicings which accompanied the sacrificial feast celebrating the Ark’s joyful return, heated with wine, lost all sense of reverence, and determined to use this opportunity of gazing into that sacred chest of which they had heard so much, and into which no profane eye in Israel had ever peered, since the golden Cover—on which the glory of the Eternal loved to rest—had sealed up the sacred treasures in the wilderness. Perhaps they wished to see those grey Sinai tablets on which the finger of God had traced His ten solemn commandments; perhaps they excused themselves by a desire to learn if the Philistines had violated the secrets of the holy chest. Even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men.—Here it is perfectly clear that the present Hebrew text, which the English Version literally renders, is corrupt. The system of writing letters for numbers, as we have seen, constantly has occasioned great discrepancies in the several versions, &c. Here the arrangement of the letters which express this enormous number is quite unusual, and taken by itself would be sufficient to excite grave doubts as to the accuracy of this text. The number of stricken ones, 50,070, is simply inconceivable. Beth-shemesh was never a large or important place; there were, in fact, no great cities in Israel, the population was always a scattered one, the people living generally on their farms. Dean Payne Smith computes the population of Jerusalem in its best days as under 70,000. The various versions, LXX., Chaldee, &c, vary in their rendering of these astounding figures. Josephus, Antt. vi. 1, § 4, in his account of this occurrence speaks of the smitten as numbering seventy. This is probably the correct number. A strange reading, which the LXX. inserts here, deserves to be quoted; it is another proof of the uncertainty of the text at the close of this sixth chapter: “And the children of Jechoniah among the Beth-shemites were not pleased with the men of Beth-shemesh because they saw the Ark, and he smote them, &c.” Erdmann, in Lange, is inclined to believe the LXX. Version represents the true text, and thus comments on it: “The reason of the sudden death of the seventy of the race of Jechoniah is their unsympathising and, therefore, unholy bearing towards the symbols of God’s presence among His people, which showed a mind wholly estranged from the living God—a symptom of the religious moral degeneracy which had spread among the people, though piety was still to be found.”

Verse 19. He smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men] The present Hebrew text of this most extraordinary reading stands thus: ויך באנשי בית־שמש - ויך בעם שבעים איש חמשים אלף איש vaiyach beanshey Beith-shemesh-vaiyach baam shibim ish, chamishshim eleph ish; "And he smote among the men of Beth-shemesh, (because they looked into the ark of Jehovah,) and he smote among the people SEVENTY men, FIFTY THOUSAND men." From the manner in which the text stands, and from the great improbability of the thing, it is most likely that there is a corruption in this text, or that some explanatory word is lost, or that the number fifty thousand has been added by ignorance or design; it being very improbable that such a small village as Beth-shemesh should contain or be capable of employing fifty thousand and seventy men in the fields at wheat harvest, much less that they could all peep into the ark on the stone of Abel, in the corn-field of Joshua. That the words are not naturally connected in the Hebrew text, is evident; and they do not stand better in the versions. 1. The VULGATE renders it thus: - Et percussit de populo SEPTUAGINTA viros; et QUINQUAGINTA MILLA plebis; "And he smote of the (chief) people SEVENTY men, and FIFTY THOUSAND of the (common) people." This distinction, I suppose, St. Jerome intended between plebis and populus; which he might think was warranted by the אנשים anashim, and איש ish, of the Hebrew text. 2. The TARGUM of Jonathan is something similar to the Vulgate: - "And he smote עמא besabey amma, of the elders of the people SEVENTY men; ובקהלא ubekahala, and of the congregation FIFTY THOUSAND men." 3. The SEPTUAGINT follow the Hebrew text: Καιεπαταξενεναυτοιςἑβδομηκονταανδρας, καιπεντηκονταχιλιαδαςανδρων; "And he smote of them SEVENTY men; and FIFTY THOUSAND men." εκτουλαου, of the people, is added by some copies. 4. The SYRIAC has forty-five thousand less! It is as follows: [-----Syriac-----] wamacho Morio beamo chamesho alapin weshabein gabrin; "And the Lord smote among the people FIVE thousand and SEVENTY men." 5. The ARABIC is nearly similar: "And the LORD smote among the people; and there died of them [---Arabic---] FIVE thousand and SEVENTY men." We have no other versions from which we can receive any farther light. 6. JOSEPHUS is different from all the rest, and has fifty thousand less, for he renders the place thus, Antiq. Jud. libe. vi., cap. i., sect. 4: ΘργηδεκαιχολοςτουΘεουμετεισιν, ὡστεἑβδομηκοντατωνεκτηςΒηθσαμηςκωμησ-βαλωναπεκτεινεν "But the displeasure and wrath of God pursued them so, that SEVENTY men of the village of Beth-shemesh, approaching the ark, which they were not worthy to touch, (not being priests,) were struck with lightning." Here we find the whole fifty thousand is omitted. 7. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, giving the opinion of other rabbins as well as his own, says, "Our rabbins say SEVENTY men, and each of them was worth fifty thousand men; or fifty thousand, every one of whom was worth the seventy of the Sanhedrin." This only shows embarrassment, but gives very little light.

1 Samuel 6:19 to 1 Samuel 7:1. The Penalty of Irreverence. Removal of the Ark to Kirjath-jearim 19. because they had looked into the ark] Better, because they had gazed upon the ark. The rendering of the E. V. follows the explanation given by Rabbinic commentators, but the expression used signifies rather “to gaze upon with profane curiosity.” The priests of Beth-shemesh must have known that even the Levites were forbidden to look upon the furniture of the Holy of Holies upon pain of death (Numbers 4:19-20), but instead of hastening to cover it with befitting reverence, they left it exposed to the public gaze, and brought down a judgment which was intended to vindicate the holiness of Jehovah. Certainly they were not punished for the unavoidable sight of the Ark as it approached them, at which they justly rejoiced (1 Samuel 6:13). It seems not improbable, however, that there is some corruption in the Heb. text here. The repetition “and he smote,” “even he smote,” is somewhat strange, and the Sept. has the following entirely different reading, which may possibly represent an earlier text. “And the sons of Jechonias rejoiced not among the men of Bethsamus because they saw the ark of the Lord: and he smote among them, &c.” i.e. either from indifference or irreligion they took no part in the general rejoicing and were punished for their impiety. fifty thousand and threescore and ten men] It is generally agreed that there is some mistake in the text here. (a) The anomalous order of the numerals in the Hebrew (70 men 50,000 men), and the absence of the conjunction and mark corruption, (b) The village of Beth-shemesh cannot possibly have contained such a number of inhabitants. It seems best with Josephus and some Heb. MSS. to omit 50,000 altogether. Possibly the number was originally expressed by a letter used as a numerical sign, and explained once rightly and once wrongly in marginal notes, both of which eventually crept into the text. “A like instance of the intrusion of a number into the text is found in Nehemiah 7:70, where the number 500 is erroneously added to the 30 (or 33) Priests’ garments given by Nehemiah, to make up 100 with the 67 given by the congregation. See Ezra 2:69, and Nehemiah 7:72.” Speaker’s Comm. p. 274. Many explanations of the passage with the retention of the number 50,000 have been attempted. The only one deserving of notice is that 50,000 is the number of the people, 70 the number of those that were smitten among them. But apart from the improbability that the village contained so many inhabitants, (and 1 Samuel 6:21 implies that the news of the return of the Ark had not spread so as to bring in others from a distance), this meaning can only be imposed upon the Hebrew and not fairly extracted from it.

Fifty thousand and three score and ten - Read “three” score and “ten”, omitting “fifty thousand”, which appears to have crept into the text from the margin.

19. He smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark — Some irregularities may be observed in their hastily using the cart for their wood, and milch kine for a burnt offering;