1 Samuel 5:6 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod. — A painful and distressing sickness, in the form, perhaps, of tumours — (the word emerods should be spelt hemorrhoids) — broke out among the inhabitants of the Philistine city in which was situated the idol temple, where was placed the Ark of the Covenant. The LXX. has an addition to the Hebrew text here which speaks of a terrible land plague which, apparently from subsequent notices, visited Philistia in addition to the bodily sufferings here spoken of. The Greek Version adds to 1 Samuel 5:6 these words: “and mice were produced in the land, and there arose a great and deadly confusion in the city.” In 1 Samuel 6:4, &c, among the expiatory offerings sent by the idolators to Israel to appease what they imagined the offended Hebrew God, “golden mice” are mentioned: “images of the mice that mar the land.” The mouse, according to Herodotus and the testimony of hieroglyphics, was an old symbol of pestilence. The Greek translators, however, failing to understand the meaning of the offering of golden mice, added the words — apparently in accordance with a received tradition — by way of explanation.