1 Samuel 6:10

6:10-18 These two kine knew their owner, their great Owner, whom Hophin and Phinehas knew not. God's providence takes notice even of brute creatures, and serves its own purposes by them. When the reapers saw the ark, they rejoiced; their joy for that was greater than the joy of harvest. The return of the ark, and the revival of holy ordinances, after days of restraint and trouble, are matters of great joy.

And the men did so,.... Made a new cart, not the lords of the Philistines, but workmen by their orders: and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart; with the gear that horses, asses, or oxen, were usually fastened to a carriage they drew: and shut up their calves at home; or, "in the house" (s); the cow house or stable where they used to be put; this they did to restrain them from following the cows, which would disturb them in drawing the cart. (s) "in domo", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Nob was a city of the priests, the high priest resided there, and the tabernacle was pitched there 1 Samuel 21:4 , 1 Samuel 21:6 , 1 Samuel 21:9 ; 1 Samuel 22:10 . It was situated on the road from the north to Jerusalem, near Anathoth, and within sight of the holy city Isaiah 10:32 ; Nehemiah 11:32 . But the site has not been identified with certainty.

9-12. Beth-shemesh—that is, "house of the sun," now Ain Shems [Robinson], 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 lowings attested their ardent longing for their young, and at the same time the supernatural influence that controlled their movements in a contrary direction.

The God of Israel actually did what the idolatrous priests hardly considered possible. When the Philistines, in accordance with the advice given them by their priests, had placed the ark of the covenant and the expiatory gifts upon the cart to which the two cows were harnessed, "the cows went straight forward on the way to Bethshemesh; they went along a road going and lowing (i.e., lowing the whole time), and turned not to the right or to the left; and the princes of the Philistines went behind them to the territory of Bethshemesh." בּדּרך ישּׁרנה, lit., "they were straight in the way," i.e., they went straight along the road. The form ישּׁרנה for יישׁרנה is the imperf. Kal, third pers. plur. fem., with the preformative י instead of ת, as in Genesis 30:38 (see Ges. 47, Anm. 3; Ewald, 191, b.). Bethshemesh, the present Ain-shems, was a priests' city on the border of Judah and Dan (see at Joshua 15:10 ).

22 . they inquired of the Lord further ] The technical phrase for ascertaining God’s will by means of the Urim and Thummim in the breastplate upon the High-priest’s Ephod ( Exodus 28:30 ; Numbers 27:21 ). See on 1 Samuel 28:6 , and cp. ch. 1 Samuel 14:3 , 1 Samuel 22:10 , 1 Samuel 23:9 , 1 Samuel 30:7 . the stuff ] The baggage of the people who had come to Mizpah from a distance. Compare “Therefore away to get our stuff aboard.” Shakespeare, Com. of Errors , IV. 4.