1 Samuel 6:10

10 So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

1 Samuel 6:10 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 6:10

And the men did so
Made a new cart, not the lords of the Philistines, but workmen by their orders:

and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart;
with the gear that horses, asses, or oxen, were usually fastened to a carriage they drew:

and shut up their calves at home;
or, "in the house" ^F19; the cow house or stable where they used to be put; this they did to restrain them from following the cows, which would disturb them in drawing the cart.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 (tybb) "in domo", Pagninus, Montanus

1 Samuel 6:10 In-Context

8 Take the ark of the LORD, set it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to Him as a guilt offering. Then send the ark on its way,

9 but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”

10 So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

11 Then they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold rats and the images of the tumors.

12 And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.