Bible Strands
1 Samuel 6:14
The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative records the Philistine cart arriving at Beth-shemesh during the wheat harvest, as the local populace witnesses the ark and prepares to respond.
The words — עֲגָלָה ('a.ga.Lah) means "cart," and תַּעֲמֹד (ta.'a.Mod) means "it stopped," marking the exact location where the transport concludes and the ritual begins.
The thread — The destruction of the cart and the slaughter of the draft animals as a burnt offering align with the sacrificial patterns found in Exodus 20:24, Judges 21:4, and 2 Samuel 24:22.
Why it lands — The text requires a tangible response to divine proximity, showing the people dismantling human convenience by breaking the cart and offering the animals rather than preserving them for future use.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth–shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the Lord.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 24:22 Araunah said to David, “May my lord the king take whatever seems good to him and offer it up. Here are the oxen for a burnt offering and the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.
- Judges 21:4 The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings.
- Exodus 20:24 You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.
- Judges 6:26 Then build a proper altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold. And with the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down, take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering.”
- 1 Samuel 7:9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. He cried out to the LORD on behalf of Israel, and the LORD answered him.
- 1 Samuel 11:5 Just then Saul was returning from the field, behind his oxen. “What troubles the people?” asked Saul. “Why are they weeping?” And they relayed to him the words of the men from Jabesh.
- 1 Samuel 20:29 saying, ‘Please let me go, because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go and see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
- 2 Samuel 24:18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
- 2 Samuel 24:25 And there he built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then the LORD answered the prayers on behalf of the land, and the plague upon Israel was halted.
- 1 Kings 18:30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people approached him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down.