1 Samuel 6:5

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Wherefore ye shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. (ASV)

Pro

Con

The context for this verse is:

1 Samuel 6
1 Now the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with
the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it to its place.”
3 So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means
return it to Him with a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why
His hand is not removed from you.”
4 Then they said, “What is the trespass offering which we shall return to Him?” [the priests and
the diviners] answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden rats, according to the number of the
lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of you and on your lords.
5 Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ravage the land, and
you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, from your gods,
and from your land."

The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant from Israel and had nothing but trouble because of it. They called their priests and diviners to determine what should be done. It is the Philistine priests and the diviners who respond as cited by PRO.

There is nothing in the context to cause us to believe that God is speaking through the Philistine priests and diviners. They speak wisely in providing their advice but what they speak in their own wisdom. It has nothing to do with the Biblical God and the Biblical God is not promising anything to the Philistines. On the contrary, because the Philistines worship false gods, the philistines should not expect God to bless them them. The priests and the diviners rightly say, "perhaps," because they do not speak for God and do not know what will happen in the future.

The verse describes the Philistines who worship many gods and has nothing to do with Israel or the Hebrews.

Neutral

Edit this section to note miscellaneous facts.

JW:

The following has been moved from Pro to Neutral:

"Here, the Biblical God appears to be promising to "lay off" other gods: the Hebrews originally believed in the existence of many gods. For more on this topic, see the Deuteronomy 32:8 section."

JW:

Reason for Move = As explained by Con, the suggestion above that the Biblical God is saying this verse is False.

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