And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
This verse belongs to the history of 1 Samuel 3-7, when the word of the Lord was precious and there was no open vision. It stands in the time when Samuel remained true amid evil, when God passed by Eli to commune with a child, and when the message of condemnation to the house of Eli became Samuel's commission as a prophet of the Most High. It records what happened in Ekron after the Philistines brought the ark there, when many died under God's heavy hand in deadly destruction caused by keeping the ark. Those who did not die were smitten with emerods, and the cry of the city went up to heaven as a desperate appeal for relief.
Emerods were tumors, and the smiting of the survivors was a painful, distressing and fatal disease. The cry going up to heaven marks the city's extreme terror and distress under judgment. That affliction followed the ark wherever it was taken, from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron, so that moving the ark from place to place did not end the suffering. The suffering came while the ark was among them because the divine presence accompanying it punished the Philistines for transgressing God's holy law. The same invisible presence that had in time past attended the ark to be the strength and glory of obedient Israel still attended it to bring terror and destruction to transgressors. Under this affliction the Philistines sought to send the ark away and to offer images of their tumors and of the mice that damaged the land.
The smiting and the city's cry show that God had not wholly cast aside Israel and would not long suffer the exultation of the Philistines. God had used the Philistines as the instrument to punish the unfaithfulness of Israel, and He employed the ark to punish the Philistines. The wicked may triumph for a time while they see Israel suffering chastisement, but the time will come when they too must meet the sentence of a holy, sin-hating God. Wherever iniquity is cherished swift and unerring divine judgments will follow.
This verse belongs to the history of 1 Samuel 3-7, when the word of the Lord was precious and there was no open vision. It stands in the time when Samuel remained true amid evil, when God passed by Eli to commune with a child, and when the message of condemnation to the house of Eli became Samuel's commission as a prophet of the Most High. It records what happened in Ekron after the Philistines brought the ark there, when many died under God's heavy hand in deadly destruction caused by keeping the ark. Those who did not die were smitten with emerods, and the cry of the city went up to heaven as a desperate appeal for relief.
Emerods were tumors, and the smiting of the survivors was a painful, distressing and fatal disease. The cry going up to heaven marks the city's extreme terror and distress under judgment. That affliction followed the ark wherever it was taken, from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron, so that moving the ark from place to place did not end the suffering. The suffering came while the ark was among them because the divine presence accompanying it punished the Philistines for transgressing God's holy law. The same invisible presence that had in time past attended the ark to be the strength and glory of obedient Israel still attended it to bring terror and destruction to transgressors. Under this affliction the Philistines sought to send the ark away and to offer images of their tumors and of the mice that damaged the land.
The smiting and the city's cry show that God had not wholly cast aside Israel and would not long suffer the exultation of the Philistines. God had used the Philistines as the instrument to punish the unfaithfulness of Israel, and He employed the ark to punish the Philistines. The wicked may triumph for a time while they see Israel suffering chastisement, but the time will come when they too must meet the sentence of a holy, sin-hating God. Wherever iniquity is cherished swift and unerring divine judgments will follow.