1 Samuel 6:19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Because they had looked into the ark Which God had forbidden, not only to the common people, but to the sons of Levi also, Numbers 4:20. But the people, having now an opportunity which they had not had before, were moved with a vehement curiosity to see the contents of the ark, forgetting the divine prohibition and their duty. Perhaps they were desirous to see whether the Philistines had taken out the tables of the covenant; or to have a view of such an ancient, sacred monument, written with God's own hand. Even he smote of the people In and near Beth-shemesh, and coming from all parts on this occasion. Fifty thousand threescore and ten men This translation is made by an unaccountable transposition of the words; which, in the Hebrew, lie exactly thus. He smote of the people threescore and ten men, fifty thousand men; the most probable sense of which is this: He smote threescore and ten men, fifty out of a thousand men. That is, God was so merciful as not to slay all that were guilty, but only seventy of them, observing this proportion, that out of a thousand offenders he smote only fifty persons, or a twentieth part. And this interpretation is very easy, by only supplying the letter מ mem before אל Š eleph, a thousand, making the sense to be, out of a thousand. And there are many passages of Scripture where this particle is manifestly wanting to make out the true meaning. This translation was long ago proposed by Bochart, and approved by Dr. Waterland, who renders the passage, He smote of the people threescore and ten men out of fifty thousand: which, he says, “is a juster rendering of the Hebrew, and is well defended by Le Clerc upon the place.” Josephus, it must be observed, mentions only seventy Beth-shemites as smitten on this occasion; Antiq., book 6, cap. 2. And Dr. Kennicott appeals to three Hebrew MSS., in confirmation of this sense of the clause. A great slaughter It was a great slaughter, considering the smallness of this place, probably only a village.