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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Samuel 6:13 - 6:13
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The inhabitants of Bethshemesh were busy with the wheat-harvest in the valley (in front of the town), when they unexpectedly saw the ark of the covenant coming, and rejoiced to see it. The cart had arrived at the field of Joshua, a Bethshemeshite, and there it stood still before a large stone. And they (the inhabitants of Bethshemesh) chopped up the wood of the cart, and offered the cows to the Lord as a burnt-offering. In the meantime the Levites had taken off the ark, with the chest of golden presents, and placed it upon the large stone; and the people of Bethshemesh offered burnt-offerings and slain-offerings that day to the Lord. The princes of the Philistines stood looking at this, and then returned the same day to Ekron. That the Bethshemeshites, and not the Philistines, are the subject to וַיְבַקְּעוּ, is evident from the correct interpretation of the clauses; viz., from the fact that in 1Sa 6:14 the words from וְהָעֲגָלָה to גְּדֹולָה אֶבֶן are circumstantial clauses introduced into the main clause, and that וַיְבַקְּעוּ is attached to לִרְאֹות וַיִּשְׂמְחוּ, and carries on the principal clause.