Iyyar 18 – And you shall give glory to the God of Israel…

May 15, 2025

02 – Iyyar, 1 Samuel, Egyptian, Israel, Pharaoh, Philistine

Ark of the Covenant, Philistines, Samuel

Iyyar 18, 5785; from sunset May 15, 2025, to sunset May 16, 2025

(The eighteenth day of the second month)

This is the name “Shemu’el” (שְׁמוּאֵל – Samuel) as seen in the Aleppo Codex, written over one thousand years ago.

Way back in October we began following the story of the Philistines and the Ark of the Covenant. We started off by meeting Eli, the high priest, as he sat by the door of the tent of meeting. We learned how a woman named Hannah prayed for a child and the LORD gave her a son, whom she named Samuel. We read about how she dedicated Samuel to the LORD for life. We met Eli’s crooked sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and followed their story as God decided He’d had enough of their corruption. Then we saw how God’s plan was put into action. He allowed the Philistines to defeat Israel, kill Hophni and Phinehas, and capture the Ark of the Covenant — all in one day. This set into motion the death of Eli and the birth of his grandson, Ichabod.

And, finally, we’ve followed the journey of the Ark of the Covenant from the battlefield to the temple of Dagon in Ashdod and the plague that erupted there. The Ark was subsequently moved to Gath and then Ekron where both villages were afflicted with the same plague.

They’ve had the Ark for nearly seven months now and, as we’ve learned, things have not been going well for them. Now they want to return the Ark to Israel. Let’s pick up where we left off in January…

And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it to its place.”

So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means return it to Him with a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.”

Then they said, “What is the trespass offering which we shall return to Him?”

They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden rats, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, from your gods, and from your land. Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He did mighty things among them, did they not let the people go, that they might depart? – 1 Samuel 6:2-6 (NKJ)

Throughout our studies of the story of the Ark, Eli, Ichabod, and the Philistines, we have focused on words stemming from the root “kabed” meaning to be heavy, grievous, hard, rich, honorable, or glorious.

1 Samuel 4:19: Chaved is the word used to describe the “heaviness” of Eli’s body.
1 Samuel 4:21: Phineas’ wife names her son Ichabod – departing “glory.”
1 Samuel 4:21: Phineas’ wife declares the chavod, the “glory,” has departed from Israel.
1 Samuel 4:22: And, again, she said, ‘The “glory” (chavod) has departed from Israel.’
1 Samuel 5:6: The “heavy” (chabad) hand of the LORD was upon the people of Ashdod.
1 Samuel 5:11: In Ekron, the hand of God was “very heavy” (kavdah me’od).

All of the underlined words stem from our root “kabed.” By now, perhaps your eyes have moved upward, scanning the text for more “heavy” or “glorious” words and you probably see one, but there are actually three.

The advice of the priests and the diviners in 1 Samuel 6:5 was, “and you shall give glory (kavod) to the God of Israel…” that’s an easy one to find; but where are the other two? Well, the translators have tricked us a little, this time they’ve used the word “hardened” – “Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?” Yes, these two words also come from our root “kabed.” And, yes, this word is also used in the story of Pharaoh and the plagues in Egypt.

The priests and the diviners understood that they must give glory to the God of Israel in hopes of stopping the plague. They may have been a bit confused about how to do this; but it seems they were trying to learn from Pharaoh’s mistakes.

What type of plague were the Philistines afflicted with? Do the “offerings” of the golden tumors and the golden rats give us a clue? Some scholars believe it may have been the bubonic plague. It is spread by rodents whose infected fleas bite human beings. Wikipedia says, “In the bubonic form of plague, the bacteria enter through the skin through a flea bite and travel via the lymphatic vessels to a lymph node, causing it to swell.” Notice that Gaza and Ashkelon were also represented in the offering, but the text does not say that the Ark was ever sent there. If there was any sort of trade between these five cities, it would have been easy for the fleas to travel from place to place.

We’ll be checking in with the Philistines again in the coming weeks to see how their plan was put into action.

To read all of our posts on Samuel, the Philistines, and the Ark of the Covenant, click on the name Shemu’el above.