3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; ye must at any rate return him a trespass-offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.
Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread, (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I have commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt; and none shall appear in my presence empty;)
Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before Jehovah thy God in the place which he will choose, at the feast of unleavened bread, and at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles; and they shall not appear before Jehovah empty:
But the firstling of an ass thou shalt ransom with a lamb; and if thou ransom [it] not, then shalt thou break its neck. All the first-born of thy sons thou shalt ransom; and none shall appear before me empty.
and he shall bring his trespass-offering to Jehovah for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the small cattle, a sheep or doe goat, for a sin-offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him [to cleanse him] from his sin.
If any one act unfaithfully and sin through inadvertence in the holy things of Jehovah, then he shall bring his trespass-offering to Jehovah, a ram without blemish out of the small cattle, according to thy valuation by shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass-offering. And he shall make restitution for the wrong that he hath done in the holy things, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and shall give it unto the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass-offering, and it shall be forgiven him. And if any one sin and do against any of all the commandments of Jehovah what should not be done, and hath not known [it], yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the small cattle, according to thy valuation, as trespass-offering, unto the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his inadvertence wherein he sinned inadvertently, and knew [it] not, and it shall be forgiven him. It is a trespass-offering: he hath certainly trespassed against Jehovah.
And his trespass-offering shall he bring to Jehovah, a ram without blemish out of the small cattle according to thy valuation, as a trespass-offering, unto the priest.
And this is the law of the trespass-offering -- it is most holy: in the place where they slaughter the burnt-offering shall they slaughter the trespass-offering; and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle on the altar round about. And he shall present of it all the fat thereof; the fat tail and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the net above the liver, which he shall take away as far as the kidneys. And the priest shall burn them on the altar, an offering by fire to Jehovah: it is a trespass-offering. Every male among the priests shall eat thereof; in a holy place shall it be eaten: it is most holy. As the sin-offering, so is the trespass-offering; [there shall] be one law for them: it shall be the priest's who maketh atonement therewith.
And it came to pass that, after they had carried it about, the hand of Jehovah was against the city with very great panic; and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and hemorrhoids broke out upon them.
And they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it kill us not, and our people. For there was deadly alarm throughout the city: the hand of God was very heavy there;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Samuel 6
Commentary on 1 Samuel 6 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 6
In this chapter we have the return of the ark to the land of Israel, whither we are now gladly to attend it, and observe,
1Sa 6:1-9
The first words of the chapter tell us how long the captivity of the ark continued-it was in the country of the Philistines seven months. In the field of the Philistines (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 (v. 5), 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. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed in the field, Deu. 28:16. But, most take it to signify, as we render it, The country of the Philistines. Now,
1Sa 6:10-18
We are here told,
1Sa 6:19-21
Here is,