Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 6:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Sets five gold swellings and five gold mice against the five Philistine rulers.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 6:1–6:9
Verse 6:4 belongs to “Philistine diviners devise a guarded return test.” It sets five gold swellings and five gold mice against the five Philistine rulers; detached from the full unit, that contribution can be mistaken for the unit's whole claim.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The unit “Philistine diviners devise a guarded return test” needs this line's precise work: it sets five gold swellings and five gold mice against the five Philistine rulers. The verse remains one part of the scene rather than its complete claim.
What Remains True
Sets five gold swellings and five gold mice against the five Philistine rulers. Within 1 Samuel 6:1–6:9, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: Faithful reading of “Philistine diviners devise a guarded return test” keeps truth, power, and human cost together. Their test does not establish a method for divination, disease blame, animal mistreatment, or certainty that every disaster carries an identifiable supernatural cause.
How It Can Shape Life
- Sets five gold swellings and five gold mice against the five Philistine rulers. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: Test spiritual and providential claims patiently through the available evidence, trusted accountability, and their effects on people; do not turn impressions, signs, or religious language into unquestionable authority. Their test does not establish a method for divination, disease blame, animal mistreatment, or certainty that every disaster carries an identifiable supernatural cause.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 6:1–6:9 — Philistine diviners devise a guarded return testSources 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 6:1–6:9, 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 6:1–6:9; 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 6:1–6:9
Open source ↗