probably marked by a "great stone" in the field of Joshua.58

The Philistines had remained reverently within their own territory, and the unguided kine stood still by the

first landmark in Israel. The precious burden they brought was soon surrounded by Beth-shemites. Levites

were called to lift it with consecrated hands, and to offer first the kine that had been devoted by the

Philistines to the service of the Lord, and then other "burnt-offerings and sacrifices" which the men of Beth-

shemesh had brought. But even so, on its first return to the land, another lesson must be taught to Israel in

connection with the ark of God. It was the symbol to which the Presence of Jehovah in the midst of His

people attached. Alike superstition and profanity would entail judgment at His Hand. What the peculiar

desecration or sin of the Beth-shemites may have been, either on that day of almost unbounded excitement,

or afterwards, we cannot tell.59 Suffice it that it was something which the people themselves felt to be

incompatible with the "holiness" of Jehovah God (ver. 20), and that it was punished by the death of not less

than seventy persons.60 In consequence the ark was, at the request of the Beth-shemites, once more

removed, up the heights at the head of the valley to the "city of forest-trees," Kirjath-jearim, where it was

given in charge to Abinadab, no doubt a Levite; whose son Eleazar was set apart to the office of guardian,

not priest, of the ark.61 Here this sacred symbol remained, while the tabernacle itself was moved from Shiloh

to Nob, and from Nob to Gibeon, till David brought it, after the conquest of Jerusalem, into his royal city (2

Samuel 6:2, 3, 12). Thus for all this period the sanctuary was empty of that which was its greatest treasure,

and the symbol of God's Personal Presence removed from the place in which He was worshipped.