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The advice of the priests was literally followed. The ark, with its trespass-
offerings,^56 was placed on a new cart, which had never served profane purposes. To
this were attached two milch cows, on whom never yoke of other service had been
laid, and from whom their calves had just been taken.
No force was to be used to keep them from returning to their calves; no guidance to
be given what road to take. And, behold, it happened as the priests had suggested it
would, if it were God Who had smitten them. "Though lowing as they went" for
their calves, the kine took the straight road to the nearest Israelitish border-city,
Beth-shemesh ("the house of the Sun"), followed by the wondering lords of the
Philistines. The boundary was reached, and the Philistines waited to see what would
happen. About fourteen miles west of Jerusalem, on the northern boundary of the
possession of Judah, about two miles from the great Philistine plain, and seven from
Ekron, lay the ancient "sun city," Beth-shemesh. It was one of those allotted by
Joshua to the priests (Joshua 21:16), though, of course, not exclusively inhabited by
them. To reach it from Ekron, the great plain has first to be traversed. Then the hills
are crossed which bound the great plain of Philistia. Ascending these, and standing
on the top of a steep ridge, a valley stretches beneath, or rather "the junction of two
fine plains."^57 This is "the valley of Beth-shemesh," where on that summer
afternoon they were reaping the wheat-harvest (1 Samuel 6:13); and beyond it, on,
"the plateau of a low swell or mound," was the ancient Beth-shemesh itself.
A fit place this to which to bring the ark from Philistia, right in view of Zorah, the
birth-place of Samson. Here, over these ridges, he had often made those incursions
which had carried terror and destruction to the enemies of Israel. The sound of the
approaching escort - for, no doubt, the Philistine "lords" were accompanied by their
retainers, and by a multitude eager to see the result - attracted the attention of the
reapers below. As, literally, "they lifted up their eyes" to the hill whence it slowly
wound down, the momentary fear at seeing the Philistine escort gave place first to
astonishment and then to unbounded joy, as they recognized their own ark heading
the strange procession. Now it had reached the boundary - probably marked by a
"great stone" in the field of Joshua.^58
The Philistines had remained reverently within their own territory, and the unguided
kine stood still by the first landmark in Israel. The precious burden they brought was
soon surrounded by Beth-shemites. Levites were called to lift it with consecrated
hands, and to offer first the kine that had been devoted by the Philistines to the
service of the Lord, and then other "burnt-offerings and sacrifices" which the men of
Beth-shemesh had brought. But even so, on its first return to the land, another lesson
must be taught to Israel in connection with the ark of God. It was the symbol to
which the Presence of Jehovah in the midst of His people attached. Alike
(^)