So the Philistines ask their top spiritual advisors what to do with the Ark in their midst.
And the answer they’re given is to return the Ark back to the Hebrews…
But NOT to send it back empty…
They need to return it with a guilt offering.
But what type of guilt offering?
Now the answer to that question is where things get confusing.
They were told:
“‘Five gold models of tumors and five gold rats, because that’s how many leaders the P’lishtim have, and you and your leaders all had the same illness.'”-1 Samuel 6:4
Okay, we gotta problem here Houston.
First of all, it says the the reason why they should send 5 gold mounds of both tumors and rats is because that’s “how many leaders the Philistines have”.
Remember, Philistia was a 5-city Pentapolis with only one king ruling over each city.
In total, there were only 5 kings!
Second, take a look at verses 17 & 18.
“The gold tumors which the P’lishtim sent back as a guilt offering for Adonai were one each for Ashdod, ‘Azah, Ashkelon, Gat and ‘Ekron; and the gold rats also corresponded to the number of all the cities of the P’lishtim that belonged to the five leaders — fortified cities and country villages.”
I’m sensing a contradiction here.
I mean it clearly says there were 5 gifts in total to match the number of kings.
I know the Complete Jewish Bible and other translations (I just checked the NIV and King James) say the Philistines paid 5 gold tumors AND 5 gold rats totalling 10 objects.
But I’m not so sure that’s correct.
Let’s take a look at the original Hebrew.
It says:
APHIM VA-HAMISSAH AKBRE ZAHAV
APHIM literally means “mounds” and refers to the OPHEL or tumors we discussed earlier.
And AKBRE ZAHAV means “golden mice”.
HAMISSAH means “5 of them”.
So here’s the thing.
The Hebrew word VA has two meanings.
It can mean “and”…
Or it can mean “namely” or “that is”.
Ya get what I’m saying here?
For you grammar nerds out there, I’m saying the Hebrew word “va” can have both a conjunctive and explicative function, depending on the context.
Ya feel me homies?
So in this particular case, the Hebrew phrase “va-hamissah akbre zahav,” could be translated as…
“and five golden mice.”
OR…
“namely, five golden mice.”
So where do I stand on this issue?
It’s my take this verse should be read as:
“5 gold mounds NAMELY 5 gold mice”…
That is the Philistine priests advised that 5 lumps of gold each molded into the shape of a rodent be sent.
In other words, ONE pricey gold gift for EACH of the 5 kings who ruled over their respective cities…
And NOT one gold item for both the kings and their cities totaling 10 mounds.
To create gold objects for both the kings and their cities just strikes me as weird.
However, I ain’t gonna be dogmatic on the matter.
The truth is the exact interpretation of the passage is a subject of debate among scholars…
But I wanna get your opinion…
Which interpretation do you feel the text more strongly supports?
Anyways, to close, we do find out something interesting for the first time…
That is in addition to the painful tumors the Lord inflicted upon the Philistines, he also sent an infestation of mice.
Mice infestations were serious problems back in those days.
These little critters quickly multiplied and would gobble up huge amounts of grain in a short time.
So we can see the Lord attacked the two most important things every human being needs in order to have peace of mind.
Their FLESH and their FOOD…
No wonder the Philistines were in a panic and willing to do anything to get this powerful God to stop bothering them.
We shall continue the next time we meet.
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