Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Philistines send the ark back to Israel with five golden tumors and as many golden mice, that they might escape the punishment of tumors and mice. They therefore place it on a cart, drawn not by horses but by two cows, testing whether the cows go straight toward Israel or turn aside elsewhere, so they might know whether this plague came upon them from the God of Israel or by chance. The cows with the ark go straight into Israel to the borders of Bethshemesh. The Bethshemites receive it and offer the cows as a holocaust; but God struck 50,000 of them, because they had looked upon the ark too curiously. Therefore the Bethshemites resolve to send the ark to Kiriath-jearim.
Vulgate Text: 1 Kings 6:1-21
1. The ark of the Lord was therefore in the region of the Philistines for seven months. 2. And the Philistines called their priests and diviners, saying: What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we may send it back to its place. They said: 3. If you send back the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but pay what you owe Him for sin, and then you will be healed: and you will know why His hand does not withdraw from you. 4. They said: What is it that we ought to render to Him for the offense? And they answered: 5. According to the number of the provinces of the Philistines you shall make five golden tumors and five golden mice; for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your satraps. And you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of the mice that have ravaged the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel: perhaps He may lighten His hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land. 6. Why do you harden your hearts, as Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? Was it not after He struck them that he then let them go, and they departed? 7. Now therefore take and make one new cart; and yoke to the cart two milch cows upon which no yoke has been laid, and shut up their calves at home. 8. And you shall take the ark of the Lord, and place it on the cart, and the golden objects which you are paying Him for the offense, place in a casket at its side; and let it go that it may depart. 9. And you shall watch: and if it goes up by the way of its own border toward Bethshemesh, then He has done us this great evil: but if not, we shall know that it was not His hand that struck us, but it happened by chance. 10. The men therefore did so; and taking two cows that were nursing calves, they yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 11. And they placed the ark of God upon the cart, and the casket which contained the golden mice and the likenesses of the tumors. 12. And the cows went straight along the way that leads to Bethshemesh, and they kept to one path, going and lowing, and they turned aside neither to the right nor to the left; and the satraps of the Philistines followed them to the borders of Bethshemesh. 13. Now the Bethshemites were reaping wheat in the valley: and lifting up their eyes, they saw the ark, and rejoiced when they saw it; 14. and the cart came into the field of Joshua the Bethshemite, and stood still there. And there was a great stone there, and they cut up the wood of the cart and laid the cows upon it as a holocaust to the Lord. 15. And the Levites took down the ark of God, and the casket that was beside it, in which were the golden objects, and placed them upon the great stone. And the men of Bethshemesh offered holocausts and sacrificed victims on that day to the Lord. 16. And the five satraps of the Philistines saw it, and returned to Ekron on that day. 17. And these are the golden tumors which the Philistines paid as a guilt offering to the Lord: Ashdod one, Gaza one, Ashkelon one, Gath one, Ekron one; 18. and golden mice according to the number of the cities of the Philistines, of the five provinces, from the fortified city to the unwalled village, and to the great Abel, upon which they placed the ark of the Lord, which was to that day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite. 19. But He struck some of the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked upon the ark of the Lord; and He struck of the people seventy men, and fifty thousand of the common people. And the people mourned, because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. 20. And the men of Bethshemesh said: Who shall be able to stand in the sight of the Lord, this holy God? and to whom shall it go up from us? 21. And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying: The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down and take it up to you.
Verse 1: Seven months
1. SEVEN MONTHS. — So the Hebrew, Chaldean, and the rest. Josephus is therefore wrong in saying four months. IN THE REGION OF THE PHILISTINES. The Septuagint reads, in the field, which Theodoret explains thus: "Since, he says, no city dared to receive the ark, they left it outside in the open; for so the Historiographer taught: For the ark of the Lord was, he says, in the field of foreigners for seven months; but after they supposed that with the ark remaining outside they would be free from the plagues sent by God, God brought punishments even upon inanimate things. For He sent a multitude of mice upon the vines and crops, which destroyed all their fruits."
So also Procopius: which should be understood not as though the plague of mice then began, but that it was then confirmed and increased. From this it is gathered that the ark was captured by the Philistines in September, which month among the Hebrews was solemn and in great part sacred. For in it, besides the feast of the New Moon, they celebrated the feast of Trumpets, and of Tabernacles for eight days, likewise the feast of Expiation, and of the Assembly or Gathering, as is clear from Leviticus XXIII. Therefore in that month everything was full of offerings and sacrifices, which, because the sons of Eli had violated and profaned them, and many of the people imitated them, for this reason God willed that the ark be captured in the same month, so that it might be punished in the same month in which they had sinned more gravely against it. That this is so is clear from the fact that the ark was held in Philistia for seven months, after which it was sent back to Bethshemesh when the wheat was being harvested, as is said in verse 13. Now this harvest in Palestine takes place at the end of April: now count backwards seven months from April, and you will arrive at the aforesaid September.
Tropologically we are taught here to confess our sins, however shameful, before God, so that by this confession they may be, as it were, gilded. Hear St. Gregory: "Because the shameful deeds of sins are worn away at the price of eternal salvation, they are gilded by weeping." And shortly after: "When, he says, we more attentively lament our offenses, we gild our members in the splendor of justice." And then: "Members, he says, are gilded when the body, deformed by the earthly and filthy foulness of lusts, is changed into the splendor of eternal life; when, that is, by the beauty of holy conduct, that which reeked in the stench of sins through the appetite for worldly affection now shines forth," according to that saying of the Apostle: "As you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield your members to serve justice unto sanctification."
Verse 3: Pay what you owe Him for sin
3. PAY WHAT YOU OWE HIM FOR SIN. — Understand sin as the taking of the ark, and therefore the irreverence done to the God of the Hebrews, especially in the opinion and conscience of the Philistines, says Abulensis. For otherwise, if the Philistines were waging a just war against the Hebrews, it was not a grave sin to carry off the ark along with the other spoils in a religious manner. But the true and grave sin, for which they were scourged by God, was that they had placed the ark with their idol Dagon, indeed they had subjected it to Dagon, and as it were dedicated it as a trophy: but they, being idolaters and worshippers of Dagon, did not consider this to be a sin; and therefore God struck them, so that from this they might learn to regard this as a sin, and that the ark was greater than Dagon.
Verse 5: Five golden tumors and five golden mice
5. FIVE GOLDEN TUMORS, AND FIVE GOLDEN MICE — as an expiation of the plague of tumors and mice, with which the God of Israel struck you. So it is customary to offer to the saints images of the members whose healing we have received from them, as votive offerings.
IF PERHAPS HE MAY LIGHTEN HIS HAND FROM YOU AND FROM YOUR GODS. — From this it is clear that not only Dagon, but also the other gods of the Philistines were cast down and afflicted by God through the ark.
Verse 7: Shut up their calves at home
7. AND SHUT UP THEIR CALVES (still nursing) AT HOME — drawing them away from their mothers, that is, from the cows on the journey, and shutting them up in the stable, as the Hebrew and the Septuagint indicate, so that you may see whether the cows run back to their nursing calves, or rather go on with the ark into Israel. Hence the cows were "lowing," because they were being torn from their calves.
Verse 11: They placed the ark upon the cart
11. AND THEY PLACED THE ARK OF GOD UPON THE CART — at a crossroads, says Josephus, without a driver, while the five satraps of the Philistines watched and observed which way the cows would go of their own accord, whether toward Israel or another way. These were divinatory lots, not suggested by God, and therefore superstitious and illicit (for the Philistines were devoted to auguries and sorceries, as is clear from Isaiah 2:6: "They had diviners like the Philistines"); but God directed them, either through angels, or through demons, as Mendoza holds from Origen — the instigators of this sorcery — and He impelled the cows to take the road into Israel, so that the Philistines might know from their lots that these plagues had been sent upon them by the God of Israel. Thus God directed the necromancy of the witch who raised Samuel, and caused not the demon she invoked, but Samuel himself to come forth and foretell to Saul his deserved death, 1 Kings XXVIII.
The Philistines therefore sinned here, both because they tempted the God of Israel, whom they ought to have recognized and revered from so many plagues; and because they used the augury of the cows to test whether these plagues came from God or from chance. The first Abulensis denies, Quest. XVIII; the second he passes over in silence: but Suarez asserts both, De Relig. tract. 3, book II, ch. x, § 11.
Verse 12: The cows went straight to Bethshemesh
We read in the histories of the Saints that their relics, carried by horses, stopped at a certain place, to indicate by this sign that they wished to be buried and venerated there; but these things happened by the guidance and prompting of God.
Mystically, the cows lowing and leaving their calves, and carrying the ark straight toward Bethshemesh, that is, the house of the sun, signify preachers and Saints, who, moved by the Spirit of God, press on through the mortification of carnal affection toward children and parents, and through good works strive harmoniously toward heaven. So St. Gregory, Eucherius, Rabanus, Rupert, Hugh, Lyranus, Dionysius, and others. Hear St. Gregory: "The cows go on, because holy men do good unceasingly: but they low, because they cannot extinguish carnal desires in themselves without great daily tribulation. For to low pertains to the labor of taming the flesh, but to go on pertains to perseverance in good will. For when the flesh is compelled against nature to suppress carnal impulses, it lows as it walks, because it is forbidden to fulfill its own desires." And then: "Well, he says, are these two things described in the progress of the Saints — going on and lowing; because, although for those hastening to the heavenly homeland there is great urgency of desire, there is nonetheless an invincible patience in labor." He proves this by the example of the Apostle saying: "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly calling," Philippians III, 14. And yet he lowed, saying: "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin. Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans VII, verses 23 and 24. So therefore St. Gregory says: The cows low, but they go on; because holy men, although great are the temptations which they endure, do not abandon the way to the heavenly homeland.
12. AND THE COWS WENT STRAIGHT ALONG THE WAY THAT LEADS TO BETHSHEMESH. — God willed that the ark be led by the cows to Bethshemesh rather than to any other city, because Bethshemesh was near Philistia, from which the ark was being returned (as is clear from Adrichomius's Chorography), and it was a priestly city: for it was fitting that the priests should guard and care for the ark. Bethshemesh in Hebrew means the same as house, that is, the seat and city of the Sun. It was built by the Jews in the likeness of Heliopolis of Egypt. Moreover, this Bethshemesh was not in the tribe of Benjamin, as St. Jerome writes in his Hebrew Places, nor in the tribe of Dan, as Adrichomius holds, but in the tribe of Judah, as is expressly stated in IV Kings XIV, verse 11.
Verse 14: The cart came into the field of Joshua
14. AND THE CART CAME INTO THE FIELD OF JOSHUA — or Jesus, who was a type of Jesus Christ; for He is the Bethshemite, that is, the inhabitant of the house of the Sun; because He Himself is the divine Sun who sheds His rays of wisdom and grace upon His faithful in every direction. Hear St. Justin, Dialogue Against Trypho: "They did not come to the place from which the ark had been taken, but to the field of a certain man named Jesus, or Joshua, surnamed after Him, who had been given the name Jesus, and who led the people into the land, and divided it to them by right of inheritance: and when they came to this field, they stopped. By which event it is indicated that they were led by the power of the name: no otherwise than the earlier people was led into the land through him who received the name Jesus."
AND THEY LAID THE COWS UPON IT AS A HOLOCAUST TO THE LORD. — Abulensis here discusses whether this immolation was lawful, and brings forward many arguments proving it was unlawful: namely first, that they sacrificed female cows, whereas by law the victim should be male; second, that it was outside the tabernacle and without an altar; third, that it was done by laymen. But this extraordinary case of so wonderful a return of the ark called for an extraordinary sacrifice and rejoicing, says Bede, that they should immolate to God the cows that had carried the ark, and this before the ark, which was holier than the tabernacle; though only by priests, for Bethshemesh was a priestly city. Moreover, the altar here was the stone upon which the Hebrews say Abraham had sacrificed. And the stone was a type of Christ, who is the cornerstone of the Church.
Verse 17: The golden tumors
17. THESE ARE THE GOLDEN TUMORS. — These golden tumors and mice, says Abulensis, Quest. XIII, the Hebrews either melted down into certain sacred vessels; or preserved them in the tabernacle as votive offerings, for the memory of this divine power and just vengeance, just as the bronze serpent of Numbers ch. XXI, and the censers of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, Numbers XVI.
Verse 18: Golden mice and the great Abel
18. AND GOLDEN MICE ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE CITIES OF THE PHILISTINES, OF THE FIVE PROVINCES (of the five satrapies of the Philistines, which extend and stretch out) FROM THE FORTIFIED CITY TO THE UNWALLED VILLAGE, AND TO THE GREAT ABEL. — Just as therefore there were only five golden tumors, so also only as many golden mice were offered by the Philistines: because there were that many satraps and satrapies.
AND TO THE GREAT ABEL, UPON WHICH THEY PLACED THE ARK. — "The great Abel" was a great stone, as the Chaldean and the Septuagint translate it, and as is clear from verses 14 and 15. This stone was called Abel, that is, mourning, from the mourning of the Philistines, just as the threshing floor of Atad was named Abel on account of the mourning which the Hebrews made there for the death of Jacob, Genesis L, 11; so Bede, Lyranus, Abulensis, Hugh, Dionysius, Vatablus, Serarius, Mariana, Salianus, and others. The first opinion, as it is more common, is also the truer.
Verse 19: God struck the men of Bethshemesh
19. AND HE STRUCK (that is, killed) SOME OF THE MEN OF BETHSHEMESH, BECAUSE THEY HAD SEEN THE ARK OF THE LORD — uncovered and bare: for this was forbidden under penalty of death in Numbers IV; so Abulensis, Quest. XXVI. Indeed, because they had looked inside, to see whether the Philistines had removed the tablets of the law from it, or had placed something else in it.
The true cause of the striking, therefore, was that the Bethshemites uncovered the ark which had returned from Philistia covered with its veils, and stripped of them they gazed upon it; which was not permitted even to the Levites under penalty of death, as is clear from Numbers ch. IV, verses 5 and 20. So great was the sacredness of the ark, because it was, as it were, the seat and throne of God, who wished to dwell and be hidden in it as though invisible.
Allegorically, the ark containing manna represented the Eucharist, and those who look upon it irreverently and receive it unworthily are often punished with temporal death, and will always be punished with eternal death, as the Apostle teaches, 1 Corinthians XI, 30. For this reason the priest in the Mass washes the tips of his fingers.
Hear Chrysostom, Homily 60 to the People: "How pure ought one to be who partakes of such a sacrifice? Brighter than what sunbeam should be the hand that divides this flesh? The mouth that is filled with spiritual fire? The tongue that is reddened with most awesome blood? Consider with what honor you are distinguished; at what table you feast: what the angels seeing shudder at, and do not dare to look upon freely, because of the splendor flashing from it; on this we feed; with this we are united, and have been made one body and one flesh of Christ."
AND HE STRUCK SEVENTY MEN OF THE PEOPLE — chief men, because for seven months they had left the ark in the power of the enemy, and had not been willing to face any danger of war for it, say Theodoret and Procopius.
AND FIFTY THOUSAND OF THE COMMON PEOPLE. — So also the Septuagint and the Chaldean. But why were so many thousands struck for so slight a glance and fault? Therefore marvel and wonder here at the severity of God's judgments, as in the destruction of Sodom and the flood under Noah. So St. Gregory, Theodoret, Eucherius, Angelomus, Rupert, Dionysius, Mariana, Mendoza, and Salianus. For the ark represented God, and was His throne and seat.
Again learn here with what veneration and caution we ought to handle sacred vessels.
Verse 21: Messengers to Kiriath-jearim
21. AND THEY SENT MESSENGERS TO THE INHABITANTS OF KIRIATH-JEARIM — either because they were closer, to whom therefore the ark could be transferred more quickly; or because they were stronger, who therefore could more easily protect the ark from the Philistines, should they wish to reclaim it; or because they were more noble, with whom therefore the ark would be kept with greater worship and veneration. So Mendoza.