a field (as flat) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Philistines
פְלִשְׁתִּ֖יםfe.lish.Tim
H6430
a Pelishtite or inhabitant of Pelesheth · noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
seven
שִׁבְעָ֥הshiv.'Ah
H7651
seven (as the sacred full one) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
months
חֳדָשִֽׁיםcho.da.Shim
H2320
the new moon · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 78:61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.
1 Samuel 5:1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod.
1 Samuel 5:3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they…
1 Samuel 5:10-11 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, The…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 6:1-9
The first words of the chapter tell us how long the captivity of the ark continued - it was in the country of the Philistines seven months. In the field of the Philistines (so it is in the original), from which some gather that, having tried it in all their cities, and found it a plague to the inhabitants of each, at length they sent it into the open fields, upon which mice sprang up out of the ground in great multitudes, and destroyed the corn which was now nearly ripe and marred the land. With that judgment they were plagued (Sa1 6:5), and yet it is not mentioned in the foregoing chapter; so God let them know that wherever they carried the ark, so long as they carried it captive, they shou…
And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. Or "in the field" (c) of the Philistines; hence Procopius Gazaeus observes, that none of the cities daring to receive the ark, they left it without under the open air, so thinking they should be delivered from their calamity. But the word is often used for country, and is generally so understood here; the Targum is,"in the cities of the Philistines;''in one or other of them, first for a while in Ashdod, and then for some time in Gath, and last in Ekron, and in all seven months from the time of its being taken; and it being in wheat harvest when it was returned, 1 Samuel 6:13, these seven months will carry us back to…
Therefore the ark of the Lord was in the region of the Philistines for seven months. Seven often expresses the universality of any matter, either of time, or number, or surely the fullness of spiritual grace. But the month, which is varied by the increase and decrease of the lunar light, insinuates the state of the Church laboring between good and bad times, but never failing from the Sun of righteousness. Therefore, the ark of the Lord's faith has been and will be among the nations for the entire time of the age, in which the grace of the sevenfold Holy Spirit will fill the Church and be worthy to illuminate lands, as if they were weak and subject to itself. But according to the literal present reading, which narrates that the Philistines were struck by the proximity of the ark of the Lord, it teaches that no unclean person should presume to approach the holy things; but whoever wishes to receive the Lord's body, or handle His most sacred words, let him prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup, discipline his body, and bring it into subjection, lest preaching to others, he himself should become a castaway (1 Corinthians XI, 9).
1. What do these seven months signify, if not the entire length of the present life? Although the Azotites and Ekronites cried out, "Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried around, and let the ark of God not remain among us," nevertheless the truth of the sacred history tells us — that we may recognize in the type of the holy Church — that the ark of God was in the region of the Philistines for seven months. Therefore it was not the will of evil and impious men, but the dispensation of God that was fulfilled in the salvation of the Gentiles. Already indeed the impious have been removed from paganism, already those who persecuted the confessors of Christ have died, and yet the ark of God is not taken away from the region of the Philistines: because the divine sacraments are preserved with zealous care among the Gentiles, who have been made drunk with the cup of the Holy Spirit. And it is rightly said "seven months," because the mysteries of the Holy Scriptures will endure with the faithful of Christ until the end of the world. But whoever grasps the mysteries of that same Holy Scripture through the grace of intimate charity was concerned not about the place where the ark is temporarily left, but about that place where it is eternally established.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Ekron — Firm-rooted, the most northerly of the five towns belonging to the lords of the Philistines, about 11 miles north of Gath. It was assigned to Judah (Josh. 13:3), and afterwards to Dan (19:43), but…
Ark · .OF THE LORD — .OF THE LORD
Ark Of The Covenant · Miracles connected with: Manner of its restoration — Miracles connected with: Manner of its restoration
Months · The Jews computed time by — The Jews computed time by
Philistines · Sent back the ark and were healed — Sent back the ark and were healed
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
