Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 6:16 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 16. 16And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Closes the Philistine rulers' witness as they return to Ekron.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 6:10–6:18
Follow the scene from 1 Samuel 6:10–6:18, not verse 6:16 alone. This line closes the Philistine rulers' witness as they return to Ekron, and the surrounding movement is The cows go directly to Beth-shemesh while lowing; Israelites receive the ark, sacrifice, and display the gold objects while the five Philistine rulers watch and return.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The unit “The return test succeeds before Philistine witnesses” needs this line's precise work: it closes the Philistine rulers' witness as they return to Ekron. The verse remains one part of the scene rather than its complete claim.
What Remains True
The contribution of 1 Samuel 6:16 is precise: it closes the Philistine rulers' witness as they return to Ekron. Its surrounding movement is The cows go directly to Beth-shemesh while lowing; Israelites receive the ark, sacrifice, and display the gold objects while the five Philistine rulers watch and return.
How It Can Shape Life
- Do not detach 1 Samuel 6:16, where the verse closes the Philistine rulers' witness as they return to Ekron, from “The return test succeeds before Philistine witnesses.” Present application requires this boundary: The animals' route does not authorize cruel experiments, omen-seeking, or claims that unusual behavior reliably reveals divine guidance.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 6:10–6:18 — The return test succeeds before Philistine witnessesSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 6:10–6:18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 6:10–6:18; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 6:10–6:18
Open source ↗