1 Samuel 6:18-20
Evangelical Heritage Version
18 The gold mice also corresponded to the number of all the cities of the Philistines that belonged to the five serens, the fortified cities along with the rural villages. The objects were placed on the large stone[a] on which they had placed the Ark of the Lord. That stone remains in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh to this day. 19 The Lord struck some of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men.[b] Then the people mourned, because the Lord had struck the people with such a heavy blow. 20 The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy God, the Lord? To whom can we send it[c] to get it away from here?”
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- 1 Samuel 6:18 The reading a large stone is supported by ancient versions and a few Hebrew manuscripts. The majority of Hebrew texts read in the large meadow or in Great Abel (a name which might mean great mourning).
- 1 Samuel 6:19 A few Hebrew manuscripts and the historian Josephus read seventy men. The majority of Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions read seventy men, fifty thousand men. This construction is not the normal way of recording the number 50,070. This number also seems too large for a small town like Beth Shemesh, but this large number has very strong support in the manuscript evidence. Most recent translations follow the minority reading, seventy men. Others try to solve the problem by reading fifty men of a thousand or seventy men out of fifty thousand men or fifty chief men.
- 1 Samuel 6:20 Or him
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.