Atlas Biblica

    1 Samuel · 21 verses

    1 Samuel 6

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    Two milk cows, deprived of their calves, carry the ark straight towards Beth-shemesh, lowing all the way and refusing even the smallest theological detour.

    A cart, a test, and some rather specific offeringsvv. 1–12

    After seven months in the land of the Philistines, the ark has worn out its welcome. The priests and diviners prescribe a guilt offering of five gold tumors and five gold rats—an unusually exact sort of repentance—and propose an experiment involving two untrained milk cows whose calves are shut away. If the cows take the road towards Beth-shemesh, the Philistines will call the plague the LORD’s doing; if not, chance may have its day. The cows settle the matter by going straight up the highway, lowing as they go, while the rulers follow behind.

    Joy at the rock, grief at the arkvv. 13–21

    Beth-shemesh sees the ark arriving during the wheat harvest and greets it with delight. At Joshua’s field, the cart becomes firewood, the cows become a burnt offering, and the Levites place the ark and its golden companions on the large rock. The Philistine rulers return to Ekron, having sent one golden tumor for each of their five cities. Then the mood turns sharply: some of the people look inside the ark, seventy die, and the rejoicing people ask who can stand before the holy God or where the ark ought to go. Their answer is to send messengers to Kiriath-jearim.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. 1 Sam 6:1When the ark of the LORD had been in the land of the Philistines seven months,

    2. 1 Sam 6:2the Philistines summoned the priests and diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how to send it back to its place.”

    3. 1 Sam 6:3They replied, “If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means return it to Him with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why His hand has not been lifted from you.”

    4. 1 Sam 6:4“What guilt offering should we send back to Him?” asked the Philistines. “Five gold tumors and five gold rats,” they said, “according to the number of rulers of the Philistines, since the same plague has struck both you and your rulers.

    5. 1 Sam 6:5Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land.

    6. 1 Sam 6:6Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?

    7. 1 Sam 6:7Now, therefore, prepare one new cart with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.

    8. 1 Sam 6:8Take the ark of the LORD, set it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to Him as a guilt offering. Then send the ark on its way,

    9. 1 Sam 6:9but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”

    10. 1 Sam 6:10So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

    11. 1 Sam 6:11Then they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold rats and the images of the tumors.

    12. 1 Sam 6:12And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

    13. 1 Sam 6:13Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed at the sight.

    14. 1 Sam 6:14The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.

    15. 1 Sam 6:15And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold objects, and they placed them on the large rock. That day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.

    16. 1 Sam 6:16And when the five rulers of the Philistines saw this, they returned to Ekron that same day.

    17. 1 Sam 6:17As a guilt offering to the LORD, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.

    18. 1 Sam 6:18The number of gold rats also corresponded to the number of Philistine cities belonging to the five rulers—the fortified cities and their outlying villages. And the large rock on which they placed the ark of the LORD stands to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.

    19. 1 Sam 6:19But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.

    20. 1 Sam 6:20The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom should the ark go up from here?”

    21. 1 Sam 6:21So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up with you.”

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 156 passages were voted onto 19 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 19Numbers 4:20But the Kohathites are not to go in and look at the holy objects, even for a moment, or they will die.”
    • 5Joshua 7:19So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him. I urge you to tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”
    • 202 Samuel 6:9That day David feared the LORD and asked, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”
    • 20Malachi 3:2But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
    • 6Exodus 7:13Still, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
    • 6Exodus 8:15When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, however, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.
    • 6Exodus 14:17And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. Then I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army and chariots and horsemen.
    • 19Exodus 19:21and the LORD said to him, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the LORD, lest many of them perish.
    • 2Genesis 41:8In the morning his spirit was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
    • 2Exodus 7:11But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts.
    • 41 Samuel 6:17–18As a guilt offering to the LORD, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
    • 4Judges 3:3the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.
    • 4Joshua 13:3from the Shihor east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north (considered to be Canaanite territory)—that of the five Philistine rulers of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, as well as that of the Avvites;
    • 51 Samuel 5:11Then the Ekronites called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!” For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was very heavy upon it.
    • 51 Samuel 5:6–7Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.
    • 6Exodus 9:34When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart—he and his officials.

    Onward

    Keep reading

    Next chapter1 Samuel 717 verses.Named herePhilistiaEverything the graph connects to this name.Book1 SamuelAll 31 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.