The Philistines have been ravaged by God. They captured the ark of Yhwh’s covenant, thinking that they have won the victory over him. However, as we saw in the previous chapter, God showed that he has supremacy over all other gods. The Philistines now realized this and wanted to get rid of the ark by sending it back to the Israelites.
Even though they do not worship nor know the God of Israel, they knew what they were going through was the result of his judgement on them. They tried to satisfy his wrath and judgement by including golden tumours and rats (symbols of the judgement that befell them). Through the movement of the cart and cows, God confirmed to them that it was indeed his judgement upon their cities. Upon arriving in one of the towns of Israel, God struck down some seventy people because they “looked into the ark of the Lord”. They have not learned their lesson of the holiness of God. Even the Philistines, who did not receive God’s promises, began to learn to respect God
