1 Samuel 6:20 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”

NIV: And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, 'Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?'

NASB: And the men of Beth-shemesh said, 'Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom will He go up from us?'

CSB: The people of Beth-shemesh asked, "Who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord this holy God? To whom should the ark go from here? "

NLT: Who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God?' they cried out. 'Where can we send the Ark from here?'

KJV: And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?

NKJV: And the men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall it go up from us?”

The Lord has shocked the people of Beth-shemesh by killing seventy of their men. This is in response to their profane treatment of the ark, likely that they opened it an looked inside . They clearly violated commands about how to correctly handle the ark of God (Numbers 4), choosing to offer sacrifices before the ark in the open in a spirit of celebration instead of treating the holiness of God among them with humility and reverence.

It's likely the people had an overly simple view of the Lord. They might have assumed He was like the gods of the other nations, so they could treat the ark as they might some kind of idol. They certainly seemed to have such a mindset in their battle with the Philistines seven months earlier (1 Samuel 4). It becomes clear in the following chapter that the Israelites were participating in the worship of foreign gods during this time (1 Samuel 7:3).

It's not surprising in their mourning that they sound like the Philistine people of Ashdod when the Lord caused the tumors to break out (1 Samuel 5:8). Who can stand before the LORD, this set apart God? To whom can we send Him away from us? As was the case with those in each Philistine city the ark arrived in, the people wanted to move the ark of the Lord out of town rather than risk more affliction from Him for violating His holiness (1 Samuel 5:6–12).

Centuries earlier, the Israelites at the food of Mount Sinai had a similar reaction to God's presence. God instructed Moses to consecrate the people and warned Moses to keep the people away from the mountain where He would come and display His presence. That display would confirm that God was speaking through Moses (Exodus 19:9). "On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled" (Exodus 19:16). God gave the Ten Commandments. "When all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, 'You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.' Moses said to the people, 'Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin'" (Exodus 20:18–20). They understood the holiness of God. Rather than run from God or try to get God to move elsewhere, they recognized their need for a mediator (Deuteronomy 18:15–18; 1 Timothy 2:5–6) and promised obedience.

The Philistine religious leaders advise the five lords of the Philistines to send the ark of the Lord back to Israel with a guilt offering to stop the plague of tumors ravishing their land (1 Samuel 5:6–12). The Philistines place the ark along with five golden mice (or five golden tumors and five golden mice) on a new cart hitched to two untrained milk cows whose calves are shut up at home. The cows head straight for the Israelite border town of Beth-shemesh. There, the people rejoice and offer the cows before the ark as a burnt offering to the Lord. The Lord kills seventy men of the town because the people looked at the ark. Frightened, the people send to Kiriath-jearim and ask them to take the ark.

First Samuel 6 finds most of the Philistines convinced that the plague and panic (1 Samuel 5:6–12) are from the Lord. They place the ark of the Lord and a guilt offering of golden mice on a cart pulled by two milk cows. The cows pull the ark straight to the Israelite town of Beth-shemesh, where the rejoicing people offer the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord before the ark. The Lord kills seventy men of the town for looking at (or in) the ark. The people of Beth-shemesh send word to those in another town to take the ark away.

First Samuel introduces the key figures who led Israel after the era of the judges. The books of 1 and 2 Samuel were originally part of a single text, split in certain translations shortly before the birth of Christ. Some of the Bible’s most famous characters are depicted in this book. These including the prophet Samuel, Israel’s first king, Saul, her greatest king, David, and other famous names such as Goliath and Jonathan. By the end of this book, Saul has fallen; the book of 2 Samuel begins with David’s ascension to the throne.