Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 6

What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? — During the seven months that followed the great Philistine victory of Aphek, the Ark remained in the country of Israel's enemies. It was moved from temple to temple in the various cities, but the same doom always followed it.

The inhabitants of the city where the Ark was were smitten with deadly abscesses. In addition, according to the statement in 1 Samuel 6:5, a plague of field mice probably desolated the land during the same period.

In their distress, the Philistine rulers, determining to get rid of the fatal trophy of which they were once so proud, consulted their priests and diviners as to the most graceful and effective way of returning the captured Hebrew emblem. The “diviners” in the counsels of all the nations of antiquity occupy a distinguished place. We hear of them under different designations, such as magicians, sorcerers, soothsayers, augurs, oracles, etc.

They plied their strange trade, now with the aid of arrows, now with the entrails of slain animals, now with observation of the stars, now with the watching of natural signs, the flight of birds, etc. These men, who in one form or another dabbled in occult science, and perhaps here and there were aided by evil and unclean spirits, but who more frequently traded on the credulity and superstition of their fellows, occupied a considerable position among the nations of antiquity.

We hear of them frequently among the Israelites, who seem to have adopted this class of advisers from the heathen nations around them. Isaiah (Isaiah 3:2) specially mentions them and considers these diviners among the leading orders of the State. The English Version, however, with singular inconsistency, renders the word in that same passage as “prudent;” possibly, it has been ingeniously suggested, owing to the translators being displeased at finding the professors of a forbidden art ranked so highly among the chosen people.

In the first verse, the Septuagint adds, "and the land swarmed with mice," another of the many explanatory additions so common in the Greek translation of the Hebrew.

Send it not empty. —The advice was to propitiate with gifts the powerful Hebrew Deity, whom they imagined was offended and angry at the insult offered Him—the being placed in an inferior position in the Dagon temple.

The priests and diviners evidently thought that the Hebrew Deity, in some way resident in the “golden chest,” was a childish, capricious deity, like one of their own loved gods—Dagon, or Beelzebub, lord of flies. Their people had insulted Him; He had shown Himself powerful enough, however, to injure His captors, so the insults must cease, and He must be appeased with rich offerings.

Five golden emerods, and five golden mice. —It was a general custom among ancient nations to offer to the deity to whom sickness or recovery from sickness was ascribed, likenesses of the diseased parts; similarly, those who had survived a shipwreck would offer pictures, or perhaps their garments, to Neptune, or, according to some accounts, to Isis. (See, for instance, Horace, Carm. i. 5.) Slaves and gladiators would present their weapons to Hercules; captives would dedicate their chains to some deity. This practice has found favor in more recent times. In the fifth century, Christians—Theodoret tells us—would often offer in their churches gold or silver hands and feet, or eyes, as a thank-offering for cures received in answer to prayer. Similar votive offerings are still made in Roman Catholic countries.

Images of your mice. —This is the first mention of the plague of “mice” in the Hebrew text. The Greek Version had (see above) carefully appended to the description of the bodily disease the account of this scourge which devastated the land of Philistia.

In these warm countries bordering the Mediterranean, vast quantities of these mice from time to time seem to have appeared and devoured the crops. Aristotle and Pliny both mention their devastations.

In Egypt, this visitation was so dreaded that the mouse seems to have been the hieroglyphic for destruction. The curse then weighed heavily in Philistia, both on people and the land.

As the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts. —We have here the traditional account of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, no doubt, as it was preserved in Philistia. These constant references to the story of Moses and the Exodus are indications of the deep impression those events had made on the surrounding nations; hence the value they set on the Ark, which they looked upon as the visible symbol of the mighty Hebrew God.

The argument here used by the priests and diviners is: You all remember the well-known story of the obduracy of the powerful Egyptians in connection with these Israelites, yet even they, in the end, had to let them go. You Philistines have had the experience of one plague; will you, like those foolish Egyptians, harden your hearts till you, like them, have been smitten with ten?