Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 1 Samuel
Chapter 6: Who Is Able to Stand Before This Holy LORD God?
Desperate to be rid of the ark, the Philistines send it home, but not empty; even pagans knew they must return a trespass offering and give glory to the God of Israel. Two nursing cows, against all nature, carry it straight to Bethshemesh. But joy turns to dread when men look irreverently into the ark, and Israel asks the question the whole book has been driving toward: 'Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God?'
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel chapter 6. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Chapter 6 brings the ark home and confronts us with the holiness of God, which even His own people cannot presume upon. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
The Trespass Offering and the Test (1 Samuel 6:1-9)
The Philistines' own priests counsel that the ark must not be sent back empty, but with a trespass offering, and devise a test to know whether God's hand truly struck them.
Return Him a Trespass Offering
"And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place. And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise 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. Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go. And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us."
Word Study
"trespass offering," Hebrew asham (אָשָׁם), "guilt offering, reparation for wrong." Remarkably, even the pagan Philistine priests knew the ark could not be sent back "empty"; guilt required an asham, a reparation offering acknowledging the wrong done and seeking to make amends. The asham was a specific offering in Israel's law (Leviticus 5), given when guilt had been incurred against the LORD. That even the heathen sensed this principle testifies to a truth written on the human conscience: sin against God cannot simply be waved away; it requires atonement. One cannot approach the holy God empty-handed and unatoned. This points forward to the true and final guilt offering, for Isaiah says of the Suffering Servant, "when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin" (Isaiah 53:10), where "offering for sin" is asham. Christ is the ultimate asham, the guilt offering that makes full reparation for our sin, so that we may come to God not empty and condemned, but covered and accepted.
Explanation
After seven months of plague, the Philistines consult their priests and diviners about how to return the ark safely. The counsel is striking: do not send it empty; send a "trespass offering", golden replicas of the tumors and the mice (which spread the plague), one for each of the five Philistine cities, and "give glory unto the God of Israel." They even recall the LORD's judgment on Egypt and warn against hardening their hearts like Pharaoh. Then they devise a shrewd test: hitch two nursing cows, never yoked, to a new cart, take their calves away, and set the ark on it. If the cows, against every maternal instinct, leave their calves and go straight to Israel's border, then the plague was truly the LORD's hand and no coincidence. The pagans build in every safeguard against wishful thinking.
Gospel Focus
Even the Philistines' dim conscience grasped a truth the modern world resists: guilt before God is real and requires atonement, one cannot simply come "empty." Their golden trespass offering was crude and pagan, but the instinct was right. And it exposes the emptiness of every attempt to approach God by our own reparations, gold images, good works, religious payments, none of which can truly cover sin. God provided the one offering that can: "the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). We come to God not with our own trespass offerings but pleading Christ, "who was delivered for our offences" (Romans 4:25). Do not come empty, and do not come in your own hands full of dead works; come in the merit of the true guilt offering, Jesus Christ, and you will be healed and accepted.
The Ark Comes Home (1 Samuel 6:10-16)
The cows go straight to Israel against all nature, proving the LORD's hand, and the men of Bethshemesh rejoice and offer sacrifice.
The Kine Took the Straight Way
"And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home: And they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods. And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh. And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD. And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD. And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day."
Word Study
"took the straight way," Hebrew vayyisharnah (וַיִּשַּׁרְנָה), from yashar, "to go straight, to be direct." The cows "took the straight way... and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left." This was a miracle of divine control over nature. Two cows that had never been yoked, torn from their nursing calves, would by every instinct have balked, wandered, or turned back to their bellowing young. Instead, "lowing as they went" (crying for their calves even as they walked away), they went straight and unswerving to Israel. The LORD directed dumb beasts to testify against Philistine unbelief. God's sovereignty extends over the instincts of animals as over the hearts of kings, "the king's heart is in the hand of the LORD... he turneth it whithersoever he will" (Proverbs 21:1). If God can make nursing cows walk straight past their calves to accomplish His purpose, He can order every circumstance to fulfill His word. Nothing is too hard for Him.
Explanation
The test is decisive. The cows go "the straight way" to Bethshemesh, lowing for their calves but never turning aside, an unmistakable sign that the LORD, not chance, had struck the Philistines. The Philistine lords follow to the border and watch. In Bethshemesh, an Israelite priestly town just across the frontier, the people are reaping wheat when they look up and, overjoyed, see the ark returning. They break up the cart for wood and offer the very cows as a burnt offering to the LORD, and the Levites take down the ark and the golden offerings onto a great stone. There is real joy and real worship at the ark's homecoming. God has vindicated Himself before the heathen and restored His ark to His land.
Gospel Focus
The obedient, unswerving path of the cows, going straight ahead against every natural pull, is a quiet picture of wholehearted devotion. They "turned not aside to the right hand or to the left," the very language God uses for the faithfulness He desires: "turn not from it to the right hand or to the left" (Joshua 1:7). Even as they lowed for what they left behind, they pressed on to their appointed end. So the believer is called to go straight after God, though the heart may cry for what is left behind, "no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). And behind it all is the sovereign God who directs even the steps of beasts; He who guided the cows can guide your path. Go straight, do not turn aside, and trust the God who orders all things.
Who Is Able to Stand? (1 Samuel 6:17-21)
Joy turns to dread when men look irreverently into the ark and are struck down, and Israel confronts the terror of God's holiness.
This Holy LORD God
"And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the LORD: which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite. 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. 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? And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you."
Word Study
"holy," Hebrew qadosh (קָדוֹשׁ), "holy, set apart, utterly other." The men of Bethshemesh, after the slaughter, cry, "Who is able to stand before this holy (qadosh) LORD God?" Qadosh means separate, transcendent, morally and majestically "other", the defining attribute the seraphim proclaim: "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:3). The Bethshemites had treated the ark with irreverent familiarity, "looking into" what God had forbidden any but the high priest to approach, presuming on the holy as if it were common. Their judgment taught Israel what the Philistines had also learned: God's holiness is not to be trifled with by anyone, His own people included. The right response to holiness is not casual curiosity but reverent fear. And their question, "who is able to stand?", is the great human problem that only the gospel answers: no sinner can stand before the holy God in himself, but of the servant of Christ it is said, "God is able to make him stand" (Romans 14:4), and one day to be presented "faultless before the presence of his glory" (Jude 1:24).
Explanation
The chapter lists the golden trespass offerings, five tumors and mice for the five cities, laid on the great stone that remained as a memorial. But then joy turns to horror: the men of Bethshemesh "looked into the ark of the LORD", an act of irreverent presumption, treating the holy as common, and God struck them. (The number in the Hebrew text is difficult and much discussed, but the point is a great and sobering slaughter.) The very people who rejoiced at the ark's return now lament, and ask the piercing question: "Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God?" It is the same lesson as Uzzah later, and Nadab and Abihu before: God's holiness is gracious but never safe to presume upon. Unable to bear His presence, they send the ark on to Kirjath-jearim.
Gospel Focus
"Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God?" is the question that runs through all Scripture, and the whole Bible answers it. In ourselves, no one can stand; the holiness that judged Bethshemesh would consume us all, for "who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" (Malachi 3:2). The Philistines' golden offerings and Israel's presumption alike prove that no one approaches the holy God on their own terms. But the gospel is the answer to the cry: through Jesus Christ, the true trespass offering, sinners are cleansed and made able to stand. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1), and He "is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory" (Jude 1:24). The holiness that terrified Bethshemesh becomes, in Christ, the glory in which we shall stand unashamed. Do not treat the holy as common; come reverently, and come through the Mediator who alone makes us able to stand.
Chapter 6 in Review
1 Samuel 6 brings the ark home and confronts us with the holiness of God. Even the pagan Philistines knew the ark could not be sent back "empty," but with a "trespass offering," acknowledging that guilt before God requires atonement. Two nursing cows, against all nature, carry the ark straight to Bethshemesh, proving the LORD's hand. There is joy and worship at its return, but when men look irreverently into the ark, God strikes them, and Israel cries, "Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God?"
For the Apostolic reader, the chapter is full of gospel. The trespass offering points to Christ, the true guilt offering who alone makes reparation for sin, so we need not come empty or in our own dead works. The sovereign God who directed the cows directs all things. And the holiness that judged presumption at Bethshemesh presses the great question that only Christ answers: no sinner can stand before the holy God in himself, but Jesus makes us "able to stand," and will one day present us "faultless before the presence of his glory."
- Even pagans knew guilt needs a "trespass offering"; sin against God requires atonement, fulfilled in Christ.
- The cows went "the straight way" against nature; God sovereignly orders even the instincts of beasts.
- God's holiness is gracious but never to be presumed upon, even by His own people.
- "Who is able to stand?", no sinner can in himself; Christ makes us able to stand, faultless in glory.
Questions for Reflection
- Do you try to approach God with your own "trespass offerings," or plead only the merit of Christ?
- The cows went straight, though lowing for their calves. Where is God calling you to go straight without looking back?
- Do you treat the holy things of God with reverent fear, or with careless familiarity?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The trespass offering; Christ the true guilt offering: 1 Samuel 6:1-9; Leviticus 5; Isaiah 53:6, 10; Romans 4:25.
- The straight way of the cows; going straight after God: 1 Samuel 6:10-16; Proverbs 21:1; Joshua 1:7; Luke 9:62.
- The holiness of God; who is able to stand: 1 Samuel 6:17-21; Isaiah 6:3; Malachi 3:2; Romans 8:1; 14:4; Jude 1:24.