The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom should the ark go up from here?”
Parallel translations
- WEB The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?”
- KJV And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
- NKJV And the men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall it go up from us?”
- NASB And the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom will He go up from us?”
- NLT “Who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God?” they cried out. “Where can we send the Ark from here?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The men of Beth Shemesh ask who can stand before this holy God and where the ark should go. They feel the terror of God's holiness and their own unworthiness.
Overview
Shaken by the judgment, the people confess they cannot stand before such a holy God. Their question exposes the universal human problem: sinners cannot dwell safely in God's holy presence on their own. This longing for one who can stand before God is answered in Christ, our holy Mediator who brings us near (Hebrews 7:25).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 2 Sam 6:9That day David feared the LORD and asked, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”
- Mal 3:2But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
- Rev 6:17For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”
- Luke 8:37Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to depart from them, because great fear had taken hold of them. So He got into the boat and started back.
- Num 17:12–13Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!
- Ps 76:7You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?
- 2 Sam 6:7And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down on the spot for his irreverence, and he died there beside the ark of God.
- Lev 11:45For I am the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt so that I would be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
- Luke 5:8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
- 1 Sam 5:8–12So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” “It must be moved to Gath,” they replied. So they carried away the ark of the God of Israel.
- 1 Chr 13:11–13Then David became angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah; so he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 6:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.