Heathens Return Ark

[1 Sam. 5:4] 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.
It denotes primarily compensation or reparation for the infringement of the rights of another or for the misappropriation of one’s property. Here the Philistines have misappropriated Yahweh’s ark; that is their sin.
The guilt offering consisted of five golden tumors and five golden mice, one each for every Philistine city ruled by one of the ‘lords’; the five cities are Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron (1 Sam. 6:17).
Five Emerods, (hemorrhoids), thank offerings were commonly made by the heathen in prayer for, or gratitude after, deliverance from lingering or dangerous disorders, in the form of metallic (generally silver) models or images of the diseased parts of the body. This is common still in Roman Catholic countries, as well as in the temples of the Hindus and other modern heathen.
Five golden mice, this animal is supposed by some to be the jerboa or jumping mouse of Syria and Egypt; by others, to be the short-tailed field mouse, which often swarms in unusual numbers and commits great ravages in the cultivated fields of Palestine.
Glory unto the G-d of Israel by these propitiatory presents, the Philistines would acknowledge His power and make reparation for the injury done to His ark
Their object in making a new one for the purpose seems to have been not only for cleanliness and neatness, but from an impression that there would have been an impropriety in using one that had been applied to meaner or more common services.
It appears to have been a covered wagon.
Two milch kine such untrained heifers, wanton and vagrant would pursue no certain and regular path, like those accustomed to the yoke, and therefore were most unlikely of their own spontaneous motion to indict the direct road to the land of Israel.
Bring their calves’ home from them, the strong natural affection of the dams might be supposed to stimulate their return homewards, rather than direct their steps in a foreign country.
The Philistines are required to prepare a new cart and two milch cows upon which there has never come a yoke (Num. 19:2; Deut. 21:3). When the ark is placed in the cart, the cart and the cows come into contact with is placed in the cart, the cart and the cows come into contact with the ark and thus become holy too; therefore they cannot be used for any other purpose. That is why the cows and the wood of the cart were later offered as burnt offerings to Yahweh (6:14).
The purpose of taking the calves’ home, away from them was to find out whether the cows were moved by their natural motherly instinct of following their own calves or whether they were animated by the spirit of Yahweh. The priest and diviners are not 100 percent sure if the plagues were caused by the spirit of the G-d of Israel. They use this trial-and-error method to determine whether the plagues were actually caused by the G-d of Israel or whether they happened by chance. If the cows were moved by their natural instinct and returned to their calves, then it was evident that the plagues happened by chance; but if the cows moved against the natural instinct and went towards Israel to Beth-shemesh, then it was a clear indication that they were animated by the spirit of Yahweh and that Yahweh was the cause of the plagues.
This mode of carrying the sacred symbol was forbidden; but the ignorance of the Philistines made the indignity excusable
Put the jewels . . . in a coffer by the side thereof it was the way of securing treasure in the East is still in a chest, chained to the house wall or some solid part of the furniture.
When the Ephraimites were defeated by the Philistines, it is possible that the ark was brought to Beth-shemesh, the border town, and there it received cultic treatment. Due to the unfortunate events happening in Beth-shemesh, for which the ark was considered to be the cause, the ark was sent to Kiriath-jearim, a Canaanite city (1 Sam. 6:21). Beth-shemesh - "house of the sun," now Ain Shems, a city of priests in Judah, in the southeast border of Dan, lying in a beautiful and extensive valley. Josephus says they were set
a-going near a place where the road divided into two - the one leading back to Ekron, where were their calves, and the other to Beth-shemesh. Their frequent lowing attested their keen longing for their young and at the same time the supernatural influence that controlled their movements in a contrary direction.
Imagine this, they took two milk cows and shut up the calves to restrain them from following the cows, which would disturb them in drawing the cart. Can you hear the calves crying for their mother? They set the ark of the L-RD on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their hemorrhoids. Can you imagine they put mice and hemorrhoids in G-d’s holy ark!
Straight way - What a miracle! Two cows who had never pulled a cart before, either alone or together. No driver leads them, yet they leave home, and march the ten miles or so to a city they had never been to. They leave their own calves behind, and go straight on a certain road, with never a wrong turn, never a stop, never turning aside into the fields to feed themselves, never turning back to feed their own calves.
Lowing as they went means the cows were not especially happy. They were longing for their calves at home, yet they still did the will of G-d.
The lords of the Philistines went after them to give their tribute of homage, to prevent imposture, and to obtain the most reliable evidence of the truth. The result of this journey tended to their own deeper humiliation, and the greater illustration of G-d's glory.
As the cows are on the road back to Israel, can you see the Israelites mourning over the loss of the ark? Perhaps at that very moment they were crying out to G-d, grieving because they thought the glory had departed. G-d's glory had left anywhere! The Israelites and the Philistines were both resisting Him, so the L-RD found a few cows to show His glory through! Israel had no reason to mourn, even though they thought all was lost and there was no hope, because they thought the glory had departed.
Field of Joshua after being guided for some ten miles from the Philistine city, without stopping or go to one side or the other, now the ark stops in Israelite land, at the exact field of one chosen man.
Great Stone was probably a cultic center, and the stone was the altar.
And they clave - that is, the Beth-shemites, in an irrepressible outburst of joy, they split the wood of the cart; nothing was left all to return.
Offered the kine offered the cows as a burnt offering: They knew this was the right thing to do in honor to G-d, yet it really cost them something. Cows and carts were expensive property.
In a burnt offering everything is offered to G-d, noting is left for the use of the priest or the devotees.
In a strict sense, their offering was against the Mosaic Law. First, they offered female animals to G-d, which was forbidden (Leviticus 1:3; 22:19). Second, they made a burnt offering to G-d away from the Tabernacle, which violated the command in Deuteronomy 12:5-6 (though, since the Ark of the Covenant was there, it might be said that the holy place was "there"). Yet, G-d knew both their hearts and the remarkable circumstances and was no doubt honored.
The Holy Ark was not touched by ordinary people, but by the sanctified Levites. They along could touch the sacred ark and the box which contained the guilt offerings. They took up the ark and the box and set them down, not on any common place but on the great stone, which as a cultic stone was obviously holy.
They had wondered if all what had happened to them while they had the ark was an accident. So, they set up an elaborate and difficult test for
G-d to fulfill, and the personally observed, to see if G-d would indeed meet the test. Their reaction isn't recorded, but they must have been persuaded! The L-RD G-d of Israel had glorified Himself before the Philistines!
In the ecstasy of delight at seeing the return of the ark, the Beth-shemesh reapers pried into it beneath the wagon cover; and instead of covering it up again, as a sacred utensil, they let it remain exposed to common inspection, wishing it to be seen, in order that all might enjoy the triumph of seeing the votive offerings presented to it, and gratify curiosity with the sight of the sacred shrine. This was the offense of those Israelites (Levites, as well as common people), who had treated the ark with less reverence than the Philistines themselves.
Because some people of Beth-shemesh looked into the ark of the L-rd, it is said that Yahweh slew seventy men of them. The Hebrew text reads of the people seventy men, fifty thousand men. Fifty thousand men is an exaggeration, and it is probably a gloss. This section stand in contrast to the proceeding section, which speaks of the good natured people of Beth-shemiesh who rejoiced at the coming of the ark. A reason for the death : ‘now the sons of Jeconiah rejoiced not with the other men when they beheld the ark of Yahweh, and he slew them seventy men.’ There were two traditions. According to one, seventy men were killed, and according to the other the whole village of fifty thousand men were killed. G-d, instead of decimating, according to an ancient usage, slew only a twentieth part; that is, according to Josephus, seventy out of fourteen hundred (see Numbers 4:18-22).