The Philistines wanted no more of the Ark of the Covenant. Ever since they had
defeated the Israelites and captured the ark, they suffered immensely. God
struck the inhabitants of Ashdod with tumors (1 Samuel 5:6). Next He sent
tumors upon the men of Gath (1 Samuel 5:8). Then, in Ekron, “there was a
deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy
there. And the men who did not die were stricken with the tumors” (1 Samuel
5:11-12). The Philistines finally decided to send the once-coveted ark back to
Israel on a cart pulled by two cows. Without a driver to direct the way, the
cows transporting the ark went straight for the Israelite town of Beth
Shemesh. Sadly, not long after the ark reached the town of Beth Shemesh, the
men of the town “looked into the ark ” and God “struck the people
[Israelites] with a great slaughter” (1 Samuel 6:19, emp. added). How many
died? 50,070 men (NASB; Hebrew _’elep ch amishiym ’iysh shib ‘iym_).

Many have questioned the 50,070-men figure in 1 Samuel 6:19. How could that
many men have looked into the Ark of the Covenant? Could that many men have
even been in Beth Shemesh? Did the Bible writer just make a mistake here?

First, no one can be certain how many people were in Beth Shemesh when the
Philistines returned the ark. Although the 50,070 figure may sound too high to
some, no one knows for sure if such a number was impossible. Unlikely?
Perhaps. But “stranger” things have happened. How odd is it that some 200,000
people converge outside the 15,000-person town of Talladega twice a year to
watch cars go in circles? How amazing is it that 75 of Abraham’s descendants
grew to a family of approximately two to three million people in only 215
years (see Bass, et al., 2001; Exodus 1:5; 12:41; Numbers 1:46). How unlikely
was it for King Hezekiah to be delivered from the mighty Assyrian army?
Indeed, when it looked like unavoidable defeat for the king of Judah, the
Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians in one night (2 Kings 19:35). The
point is, we must be careful dismissing with the wave of the hand any numbers
found in Scripture simply because they may not sound feasible on the
surface.

Second, what about the question regarding the likelihood of 50,000 people
peering into the ark? Once again, that which some might call “unlikely” is not
equivalent to the “impossible.” Furthermore, there are several things that the
text does not indicate. First, we cannot know how long the ark had been in
Beth Shemesh prior to God bringing judgment upon the men of the town. It could
have been two days, two weeks, or two months. (Recall that the ark had
previously been in the Philistines’ possession for seven months—1 Samuel 6:1.)
Innumerable people could have seen the ark during this time. Second, the text
does not indicate that 50,000 people peered into the ark at the same time.
Although, if it is possible for 100,000 people to sit hundreds of feet away
and watch a pigskin bounce around on a football field, and if it is possible
for one million people to stand in Times Square and watch the New Year’s Eve
ball drop, then 50,000 people looking into the ark at virtually the same time
is not outside the realm of possibility. Still, the text simply says that the
men “looked into the ark” and God “struck the people with a great slaughter”
(1 Samuel 6:19). It does not say that they all looked into the ark at the
exact same time.

Finally, although it cannot be proven beyond all reasonable doubt that the
50,070 figure is erroneous, there is the very real possibility that either (1)
the Hebrew has been misunderstood, or (2) a copyist made an error in the
transmission process. The fact is,

> [N]owhere else is a figure like 50,070 written in this fashion according to
> the grammar of biblical Hebrew. Normally the wording would have been
> either…“seventy man and fifty thousand man” or else in the descending
> order—which was far more usual…“fifty thousand man and seventy man” (Archer,
> 1982, p. 169, emp. added).

“The fact that neither of these customary word orders was followed in the
received Hebrew text of this passage” could possibly indicate a transmissional
error (Archer, p. 169). Some Bible translators (e.g., RSV, NIV), in fact, are
so certain that the numerical figure in this passage has been corrupted
through scribal transmission that they just use the 70 figure. No doubt, they
believe the Hebrew should be understood the way Josephus understood it in the
first century (6.1.4), and the way “a few Hebrew manuscripts” have the
number—just 70. Others, like Faussett, have explained the number, saying, “God
smote in the proportion of 50 out of the 1,000, i.e. one twentieth instead of
one tenth of the population…; seventy men in all, out of the population of
Bethshemesh, which amounted to 1,400 in this view” (“Bethshemesh,” 1998).

It may be that no one will ever know with certainty this side of eternity
whether the 50,000 figure in 1 Samuel 6:19 represents a copyist’s error or a
genuine, albeit extraordinary, number of Beth Shemesh inhabitants that
actually died at the hand of God. Keep in mind, however, that even if a
copyist did introduce an error here, that in no way reflects upon the
inerrant, inspired writers. [NOTE: To read our foundational article on
copyists’ errors, see Lyons, 2007.]

1 Samuel 6:19—How could Beth Shemesh have a population of over 50,000 men?

Problem: After the people of the town of Beth Shemesh had received the ark of the covenant, some of the citizens ignored the sacredness of the ark and looked inside it. This passage states that the Lord “struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people.” However, a population of over 50,000 seems to be much too large for such a community.

Solution: First, this is most probably a scribal or transcription error. The numerical designation in Hebrew usually follows a certain pattern in which the larger number is written first, then the smaller number. The normal manner to write such a number would be “fifty thousand men and seventy men.” However, in this instance, the numbers appear backward. The text actually reads “seventy men fifty thousand men.” In addition, numerical designations are almost always connected by the conjunction “and” so that the statement would read, “fifty thousand men and seventy men.” Again this passage departs from the normal practice by omitting the “and.” These factors have lead many to suspect that the text was inadvertently corrupted in transmission.

Second, it is also conceivable that some explanation for the size of the group has simply eluded investigation to the present. Some future archaeological excavation may uncover evidence to explain why there was in fact such a large group present, or at least involved in the judgment at Beth Shemesh. Although a population of over 50,000 may have been too great for a community like Beth Shemesh, such population sizes were not unheard of in major cities in the ancient world. This large number may yet be accounted for in some way.

1 Samuel 6:19—Why did God strike the people of Beth Shemesh with such a severe judgment for looking into the Ark?

Problem: When the Philistines returned the ark of the Lord to Israel, they placed it on an ox cart and sent it down the road without a driver. When the oxen had pulled the cart into the borders of Beth Shemesh, the people of Beth Shemesh took the ark off of the cart and placed it on a large stone. However, some of the men of Beth Shemesh looked into the ark, and the Lord “struck the people with a great slaughter” (v. 19). But why did God strike the people with such a severe judgment simply because they looked into the ark?

Solution: The Lord struck the people with judgment because they committed a terrible sacrilege against God. The ark of the covenant was a symbol of the very presence of God among His people. Regulations concerning the ark and how it was to be treated were of the strictest nature because of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man (Ex. 25:10–22; 26:32–34; 37:1–9). Such an impious act of disregard for God’s holiness certainly merited the sudden and terrible judgment of God.