Samuel: Chapter 6

 

What do you see 

making its way towards you?

Will you rise

Or will you fall?

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This chapter continues several of the leitworts of the previous chapter, repeating the thematic hand (y'd) and heavy-honor (k'v'd). Yet the root k'v'd, which previously echoed the despairing "honor is lost from Israel" of the defeated Israelites, here gains deeper resonance, stretching back all the way to the Exodus, with Pharaoh's heavy (k'v'd) heart: "Why harden you hearts as Egypt and Pharoah did" warn the Philistine magicians.

And indeed, the Philistines take heed. Now, instead of taking the Ark as they did before, they send it (sh'l'kh)--another leitword, that echoes Pharaoh's sending forth the Israelites. The power of God's hand loosens the human hand. Relinquishin the control they previously celabrated, the Philistines embody their elided shame in forever-gold, offereing it to God. 

Yet the relinquishment is not total: rather, it is a provisinal test. They  free the Ark, placing it on a wagon drawn by two nursing cows, and see if it can override the biological imperative of motherhood to make its way back (the last of the chapter's keywords), rising and fallng to Isralite terratory. This "seeing" is the last remnant of transgresive control, and remains dangerous. The Isralites, overjoyed to see the Ark coming towrads them through the fields, are punished for their casual gaze.

The story which was introduced with the declaration that "God continued to show himself to Samuel in Shilo" closes with a punishment for those who gaze on God unbiddne outside Shilo's confines.