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19 The Lord struck some of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men.[a] Then the people mourned, because the Lord had struck the people with such a heavy blow. 20 The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy God, the Lord? To whom can we send it[b] to get it away from here?”

21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim. They said, “The Philistines have sent back the Ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up for yourselves.”

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 6:19 A few Hebrew manuscripts and the historian Josephus read seventy men. The majority of Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions read seventy men, fifty thousand men. This construction is not the normal way of recording the number 50,070. This number also seems too large for a small town like Beth Shemesh, but this large number has very strong support in the manuscript evidence. Most recent translations follow the minority reading, seventy men. Others try to solve the problem by reading fifty men of a thousand or seventy men out of fifty thousand men or fifty chief men.
  2. 1 Samuel 6:20 Or him