The History of the Divine Service at Altars (47) – The Prohibition of Bamot (24)

In past shiurim we dealt with the status of the Mishkan from the destruction of Shilo until the building of the Temple. After having discussed the Mishkan’s presence in Gilgal, Nov, and Giv'on, we will now relate to the status of the ark during the corresponding time period.

The Various Stations of the Ark

1. In the cities of the Pelishtim: At the battle fought at Even-ha-Ezer, the Pelishtim take the ark captive, and it remains in "the country of the Pelishtim" for seven months (I Shemuel 6:1). The ark moves between the cities of Ashdod (in the house of Dagon), Gat and Ekron. In each of these places, it kills many people, and smites others with swellings. In the end, the Pelishtim decide to return the ark to its rightful place, to Israel.

2. From the Pelishtim to Bet-Shemesh: The ark is then sent from the Pelishtim in a new cart driven by a pair of cows which bring it to Bet-Shemesh. After gazing upon the ark of the Lord, the people of Bet-Shemesh are smitten with a great slaughter – "smiting seventy men and fifty thousand men." From there, the ark is sent to Kiryat-Ye'arim to Avinadav’s house on the hill, and his son Elazar is sanctified to keep watch over the ark of the Lord. The verses do not spell out how long the ark remained in Bet-Shemesh. Presumably, the plague struck as soon as the people looked at the ark, and the ark was moved immediately thereafter to Kiryat-Ye'arim.

3. In Kiryat-Ye'arim: The conventional view is that the ark remains in Kiryat-Ye'arim for twenty years:

And it came to pass, while the ark remained in Kiryat-Ye'arim that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel sighed after the Lord. (I Shemuel 7:2)

The calculation of these twenty years is based on the fact that David’s first act upon arriving in Jerusalem is transferring the ark from Kiryat-Ye'arim to the City of David. Thus, this transfer certainly takes place at the beginning of his reign in Jerusalem. We may therefore suggest that the twenty years in Kiryat-Ye'arim divide up as follows: The first thirteen years parallel the great bama's time in Nov and the time of Shemuel and Shaul’s leadership. The next seven years correspond to the beginning of the great bama's time in Giv'on and the first years of David’s reign, when he ruled over the tribe of Yehuda in Chevron. At the end of twenty years, David brings the ark to Jerusalem, to the City of David.

4. The house of Oved Edom the Gittite: David brings the ark up from Kiryat-Ye'arim to the City of David. During the journey, the oxen shake the ark, Uzza rushes to stabilize it and God smites him. David then carries the ark aside to the house of Oved Edom the Gittite, and the ark remains there for three months. Scripture attests that God blesses Oved Edom and his entire household because of the ark of the Lord.

5. The City of David: After David sees the blessing in the house of Oved Edom the Gittite he takes the ark up to the City of David and sets it in a tent. Immediately thereafter: "And David offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord" (II Shemuel 6:17). Scripture does not spell out how long the ark remains in the City of David. According to Chazal, this period of time begins with the destruction of Shilo and continues throughout the time period of the great bama. The 13 years in Nov and 44 years in Giv'on yield a total of 57 years from the destruction of Shilo to the beginning of the building of the Temple.[1]

            According to our calculations, 21 years elapse between the destruction of Shilo until the ark reaches the City of David. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the ark dwells in the City of David for 36 years until the beginning of the building of the Temple.

            Now we will discuss the significance of each stop.

The Cities of the Pelishtim

As we mentioned, the Pelishtim regarded the ark with great fear and dread when it arrived during the campaign at Even ha-Ezer. Indeed, the vigilance and seriousness that the ark’s arrival inspired in them led to their victory and capturing the ark. As mentioned above, they first bring the ark to Ashdod, to their temple in the house of Dagon.[2] Why do they bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord into the Pelishti temple? Midrash Shemuel (11, 4) brings an Amoraic disagreement on this point:

Rabbi Yochanan said that they showed it honor. They said: “Let the [one] god come and rest next to the [other] god.” Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: “This one was vanquished, while this one vanquished. Let the vanquished come and serve the one that vanquished.”

Seemingly, it was customary to bring the spoils of war into the temples. We see this when David flees from Shaul and reaches Achimelekh the priest in Nov, and the sword of Golyat the Pelishti "is wrapped in a cloth behind the efod" (I Shemuel 21:10). In addition, Chazal understand that the box of the Pelishtim, their mice of gold and the images of their swellings were placed in the Holy of Holies. In any event, the parallel with the plagues in Egypt highlights the severity of the plague and its meaning for the Pelishtim. Wherever the ark was found, in Ashdod, in Gat, and in Ekron, it caused widespread plague, enormous damage, and numerous casualties among the Pelishtim.

We should note that, following the plagues, the Pelishtim ask their priests and magicians: "What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we shall sent it to its place" (I Shemuel 6:2). It seems that they immediately grasped that the ark was not in its right place, and should be returned to its rightful home. The question for them was only how the ark should be sent back. The magicians answer that it should be returned with "a guilt-offering." They continue: "And you shall make images of your swellings, and images of your mice that ravage the land, and you shall give honor to the God of Israel: perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land" (I Shemuel 6:6). What does Scripture mean in the phrase "perhaps He will lighten His hand from off your land"? It seems like the Pelishtim are referring to a geographical issue. The ark, the representative of the God of Israel, was located in the land of the Pelishtim, a place that is not His, and therefore must be sent away from that land.

In order to test this perception, the priests and magicians propose:

Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milk cows on which there has never been a yoke, tie the cows to the cart, and leave their calves behind them at home. Then take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart; and put the golden devices that you are restoring to Him for a guilt-offering in a box by the side of it; and sent it away, that it may go. And see: it if goes up by the way of his border to Bet-Shemesh, then He has done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not His hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us. (I Shemuel 6:7-9)

This indicates that the Pelishtim do not know where to send the ark and therefore want to test it under the most 'natural' conditions to see where it will turn. To this end, the priests and magicians suggest that they take a new cart and tie to it two milk cows, on which there has never been a yoke, leaving their calves at home. They should place the ark on the cart together with the golden objects, send it away, and see where it goes. If the ark goes up to Bet-Shemesh, it is a sign that it was the ark that caused this great evil.  If not, then the plague was nothing but chance, unrelated to the ark. Indeed, the Pelishtim act in accordance with the counsel offered by the priests and magicians: "And the cows took the straight way by the road of Bet-Shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left, and the lords of the Pelishtim went after them to the border of Bet-Shemesh" (v. 12).

The Pelishtim appear to believe that there is a connection between the deity and the area of its rule. In their view, each god has a territorial presence that defines the area, which it controls. When the ark, which represents the God of Israel, reached the cities of the Pelishtim, it left its boundary, and  caused great damage. Therefore, the Pelishtim understand that they must determine if the ark will return by itself to its natural home. Indeed, when the ark returns to Israelite territory, the lords of the Pelishtim immediately go back to Ekron without lifting a finger to re-capture it.

This national-territorial ritual approach holds that every land and every people has its own patron god who rules that territory. Nations offered sacrifices to the gods of the lands they conquered in order to appease them. An example[3] of this is the sacrifice of appeasement to the god of Seir that was offered by Amatzya after his cruel and difficult victory. Thus it is stated:

Now it came to pass, after Amatzyahu was come from the slaughter of the Adomim, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and prostrated himself before them, and burned incense to them. So that the anger of the Lord burned against Amatzyahu, and He sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought after the gods of the people, who could not deliver their own people out of your hand?" (II Divrei Ha-yamim 25:14-15).

The story of the Kuttim provides another example of this worldview. The Kuttim were brought by the Assyrian king to settle the Shomron in place of the exiled kingdom of Israel. Scripture states: "Then they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, ‘The nations which you have removed, and placed in the cities of Shomron, know not the law of the God of the land: therefore He has sent the lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the law of the God of the land’" (II Melakhim 17:26). The phrase "the law of the God of the land" indicates that they believe that there is a link between a god and his country. Thus, the Pelishtim's treatment of the ark has its basis in a well-known pagan concept.

Bet Shemesh

We must examine the way the residents of Bet-Shemesh treated the ark that suddenly appeared before them, and the significance of their sacrifices.

The Attitude Toward the Ark

This is the wording of the verses in I Shemuel:

And they of Bet-Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it… And He smote the men of Bet-Shemesh, because they had looked at the ark of the Lord, smiting seventy men and fifty thousand men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Bet-Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord, God? And to whom shall he go up from us?” (6:13, 19-20)

At first glance, this turn of events is quite understandable. The men of Bet-Shemesh are occupied with the wheat harvest in the valley, not expecting anything out of the ordinary. When they lift up their eyes, they see the ark, and Scripture notes that they are happy to see it.[4] Scripture continues to say that, after the people look at the ark, God smites "fifty men and seventy thousand men." We may assume that looking at the ark is a very serious offense that expresses the flawed attitude of the people of Israel towards it. Despite the Pelishti victory at the battle of Even-ha-Ezer and the plagues inflicted on the Pelishtim over the course of seven months, Israel has still not rectified their attitude towards the ark.

What Was the Sin of Looking at the Ark of the Lord?

The Gemara in Sota (35a-35b) asks: "'And He smote the men of Bet-Shemesh, because they had looked at the ark of the Lord' – because they looked, He smote them?" The underlying assumption of the question is that the gazing discussed here involves contempt and disrespect.[5] The Gemara cites a disagreement between the Amoraim how to understand what happened: "Rabbi Abahu and Rabbi Eleazar [disagreed]; one said that they went on reaping while they prostrated themselves [before the ark]."  When the ark arrived, they did not stop their work, but rather honored it while continuing with the harvest of the wheat. "And the other said that they also used this [disrespectful] language to it," meaning they spoke disrespectfully about the ark. The Gemara explains what they said: "Who embittered you that you were thus embittered, and what has come upon you that you are now appeased?" According to this understanding, the sin of the people of Bet-Shemesh was the insolence they displayed towards the ark.

The commentators offer different understandings. The Malbim speaks of a lack of reverence and respect:

Looking (re’iya) that is followed by the letter bet indicates comprehension and contemplation of the matter's essence. As in: "And he looked on their burdens" (Shemot 2:11). It is most often used in connection with logical matters: "Let me not see my own wretchedness" (Bemidbar 11:15); "You shall see the good of Jerusalem" (Tehilim 128:5). That is to say, they gazed upon it more than is fitting out of a lack of reverence and respect.

In contrast, the Radak understands that they opened the ark and saw what was inside:

To the point that out of sheer happiness they burst forward to look inside the ark, and they opened it and saw what was inside. Therefore they were punished, as it is written: "But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die" (Bemidbar 4:20)… It is correct what we explained that they opened it and saw what was inside. Therefore it says ba-aron ("in the ark"), and not aron.

And Rabbi Yosef Kara writes:

They saw that it [the ark] was uncovered and not one of them thought to bring a cloth with which to cover it.

It is possible that Rabbi Yosef Kara understood that the ark was missing its usual cover of the kaporet and the keruvim. Were the kaporet and the keruvim in the land of the Pelishtim? He does not address this question. For Rabbi Kara, the very fact that the ark was uncovered obligated the people of Bet-Shemesh to cover it. That they failed to do so demonstrates contempt for the honor of the ark. As mentioned, the Radak, by contrast, explains that they opened the ark to see what was inside it because of their great joy. He clearly understands that they removed the kaporet and the keruvim in order to enable them to peek inside. He infers this from the letter bet in the word ba-aron.

Irrespective of which approach we take, looking at the ark involved some measure of contempt, disrespect, or scorn for what it represents. The assumption underlying the prohibition to look at the ark of the Lord is that the Shekhina rests therein. Thus the children of Kehat were admonished: "But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die" (Bemidbar 4:20). And the Torah similarly testifies elsewhere: "For no man shall see me, and live." (Shemot 33:20).

“Seventy Men and Fifty Thousand Men”

The relationship between the two numbers given to describe the subsequent plague is not clear. Fifty thousand men killed for the sin of looking at the ark of the Lord is a huge number. It is absolutely clear that the city of Bet-Shemesh of those days did not have fifty thousand men, so the verse requires explanation.

Chazal in tractate Sota (35b) note the lack of clarity regarding the number of casualties:

Rabbi Abahu and Rabbi Elazar [disagree]; one said that there were only seventy men [smitten] each of whom was the equal of fifty thousand men, while the other said that there were fifty thousand men [smitten] each of whom was equal to the seventy who constituted the Sanhedrin.

The Malbim explains that seventy men were punished, out of the population of fifty thousand people:

It seems that the entire population there [of Bet-Shemesh] was fifty thousand people, of whom seventy men died. And the verse means: "And He smote seventy men of the fifty thousand people." Because the partitive mem is sometimes omitted, as in: "Elchanan the son of Dodo [of] Bet-Lechem" (II Shemuel 23:24), and the like, where the partitive mem is omitted. This teaches that they were all distressed about the deaths of their brothers, and it seemed to them as if they had all been smitten."

The Abravanel (I Shemuel 6:19) discusses the numbers seventy and fifty thousand in their plain sense, understanding that fifty thousand and seventy is the total number of casualties due to interaction with the ark since it was captured:

It may further be asked: Why does it say: "Seventy men and fifty thousand men"? It should have said: "Fifty thousand and seventy men," and how could so many people have died in such a small place? This is amazing. What is correct in my eyes is that only seventy men of the people of Bet-Shemesh died… And the fifty thousand men that is mentioned is the number of people who were killed because of the ark, whether in the cities of the Pelishtim or in Bet-Shemesh, the sum of all of them was fifty thousand people. Scripture saw fit to report this here because with this it completed the story of the Pelishtim and the arrival of the ark. In conclusion it reports of the wonders of the ark and about all who died because of it. And the letter bet in be-anshei Bet-Shemesh serves here in the sense of "with," as in: "With his chariots and with his horsemen" (Shemot 14:18)… And the structure of the verse which says "fifty thousand men" is: “And He smote with the men of Bet-Shemesh, the entire smiting involved fifty thousand men,” because the smiting of the Pelishtim mentioned earlier together with the men of Bet-Shemesh who also died because of the ark, was fifty thousand men total.

The Meaning of the Sacrifice

When the ark arrives in Bet-Shemesh, Scripture states: "And the cart came into the field of Yehoshua, a man of Bet-Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone; and they split the wood of the cart, and offered the cows as a burnt-offering to the Lord" (I Shemuel 6:15). That is to say, they placed the ark of the Lord and the box containing the gold objects on the great stone, and offered a sacrifice. During this period, bamot were permitted, and there was no problem with offering a sacrifice. In his article referenced above (note 3), Rav Yoel Bin-Nun argues that since Bet-Shemesh was located on the border of the territory of Yehuda, both the residents and the Pelishtim related to the place as the border of God's territory. Thus, they erected an open temple at the great stone as a border marker, demonstrating their adoption of the attitude of the Pelishtim to a certain degree.

This difficult episode ends with the ark being brought up from Bet-Shemesh to Kiryat-Ye'arim, and Elazar the son of Avinadav dedicated to keep watch over it.

 

(Translated by David Strauss)

, full_html, This shiur discusses and analyzes the stops of the ark from the time of the destruction of Shilo until the building of the Temple.