Bible Strands
1 Samuel 6:5
Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Philistine rulers instruct their priests and diviners to craft atoning symbols after the ark of the covenant has caused catastrophic plagues among them. This directive occurs immediately after they acknowledge the plague struck both the common people and their leadership.
The words — צַלְמֵי (tzal.mei) denotes "images" or "likenesses" of the tumors and mice ravaging their territory. עַכְבְּרֵי ('akh.be.rei) specifically identifies the "mice" or "rats" as the agents of the destruction described in the narrative.
The thread — The command to "give glory" echoes Joshua 7:19, while the plague imagery directly continues the affliction sequence detailed in 1 Samuel 5:6 and 5:11. These references establish a pattern of foreign powers confronting the God of Israel through tangible signs of judgment.
Why it lands — The text demands the production of physical representations of their calamity as a preliminary step before acknowledging the God of Israel. It presents a conditional appeal for divine restraint rather than a guaranteed covenantal promise.
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
Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.
Cross-references
- Joshua 7:19 So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him. I urge you to tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”
- 1 Samuel 5:6 Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.
- 1 Samuel 5:11 Then the Ekronites called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!” For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was very heavy upon it.
- 1 Samuel 5:3 When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
- Isaiah 42:12 Let them give glory to the LORD and declare His praise in the islands.
- John 9:24 So a second time they called for the man who had been blind and said, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”
- 1 Samuel 5:9 But after they had moved the ark to Gath, the LORD’s hand was also against that city, throwing it into great confusion and afflicting the men of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.
- Psalms 32:4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah
- Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.
- Joel 1:4 What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.