1 Samuel 6:9

9 and ye have seen, if the way of its own border it goeth up to Beth-Shemesh -- He hath done to us this great evil; and if not, then we have known that His hand hath not come against us; an accident it hath been to us.'

1 Samuel 6:9 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 6:9

And see if it goeth up by the way of its own coast to
Bethshemesh
The nearest city to the land of the Philistines, which lay on their borders, and the borders of the tribe of Judah, (See Gill on Joshua 15:10). Now the lords of the Philistines are directed by their priests to observe, whether these kine, that drew the cart on which the ark was, took the direct road to the borders of the land of Israel, and to Bethshemesh, the nearest city that lay on that coast: if so, they might conclude then,

he hath done us this great evil;
that is, the God of Israel, whose ark this was; he had inflicted the disease of the emerods on them, and sent such numbers of mice into their fields, that had destroyed the increase of them:

but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that hath smote
us;
but that there is some other cause of it:

it was a chance that happened to us;
and so might have been the case if the ark had never been taken or detained, and to be imputed to fate, or to the stars, or some secret causes they know not of.

1 Samuel 6:9 In-Context

7 `And now, take and make one new cart, and two suckling kine, on which a yoke hath not gone up, and ye have bound the kine in the cart, and caused their young ones to turn back from after them to the house,

8 and ye have taken the ark of Jehovah, and put it on the cart, and the vessels of gold which ye have returned to Him -- a guilt-offering -- ye put in a coffer on its side, and have sent it away, and it hath gone;

9 and ye have seen, if the way of its own border it goeth up to Beth-Shemesh -- He hath done to us this great evil; and if not, then we have known that His hand hath not come against us; an accident it hath been to us.'

10 And the men do so, and take two suckling kine, and bind them in the cart, and their young ones they have shut up in the house;

11 and they place the ark of Jehovah upon the cart, and the coffer, and the golden mice, and the images of their emerods.