7 Now therefore make a new cart, and take two
amilch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the
kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them:
8 And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the
cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass
offering, in a acoffer by the side thereof; and send it
away, that it may go.
9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own
coast to Beth-shemesha, then
he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that
it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance
that happened to us.
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9a see, if it goeth up by the way of his
own coast to Beth-shemesh While the Philistines had seen and
suffered all that had been done in relationship to the ark of the LORD, they
still had one last test to see if their misfortunes were in truth directly
caused by the ark or if it was merely by 'chance' or coincidence that these
evils have befallen them. And this test was to see if unguided, the course
of travel by the ark would or would not go to Israel. The test was fixed to
fail unless a supernatural intervention occurred. Two milk cows never having
been yoked would not instinctively pull a cart. Their nursing calves were
lead away back home from them. Certainly if the heifers were to move it
would be toward where they noted their calves been taken or even merely wander
aimlessly. The course to Beth-shemesh would be up hill from the lower
coast land of the Philistines to the foot hills of Israel and would not be
an easy pull for the cows/kine. The result of the test was striking as
recorded in verse 12.
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