Why this story matters

(commentary on 1 Samuel 4-6)

(Page 3 of 4)

The golden tumors and sympathetic magic

The priests explain that the people must create golden images representing both the tumors and the rats (1 Sam 6:5). They are to make five tumors and five mice, with one pair to represent each of the five Philistine cites devastated by the plague. The idea of making golden statues of peoples groin tumors may seem strange at first glance. One can imagine the resident goldsmith studying someone’s groin tumors for accuracy, then going to all the trouble of making a representation, creating a mold, and smelting gold to pour into the mold.

But for the people of that time, this would have seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It is a form of something called sympathetic magic. Sympathetic magic is predicated on the belief that like effects like. But, before we scoff at these primitive beliefs, it should be noted that this is still common today. The most obvious example from popular culture would be sticking pins in voodoo dolls. A more respected form would be the so called psychic detective. A psychic detective might commonly ask for personal possessions of the victim, such as a favorite sweater, so that they can connect to the person in the spirit realm.

Once the golden tumors are made, the Philistines test their theory that it is Yahweh causing the plague. It's actually quite a logical test. Two female cows would not leave their new calves to pull a cart somewhere unless they were forced to. This would be especially true if they'd never pulled a cart before. If they automatically take the ark and golden tumors back to the Israelites, then something must be intervening. And that something must be Israel's god.

The unfortunate men of Beth Shemesh

Needless to say, the cows head straight down the road towards the Israelites. The first village they come to is called Beth Shemesh. As the story illustrates, some men apparently became over excited and looked inside the ark. For their indiscretion, we are told, Yahweh killed 50,070 of them: "Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter" (1 Sam 6:19). However, the number of victims of Yahweh’s wrath is in dispute.

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