And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home:

They did therefore in this manner: and taking two kine, that had suckling calves, they yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.

And the men did so; and took two milch cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home:

And the men do so, and take two suckling kine, and bind them in the cart, and their young ones they have shut up in the house;

And the men did so; they took two cows, yoking them to the cart and shutting up their young ones in their living-place:

Therefore, they did it in this way. And taking two cows that were feeding calves, they yoked them to the cart, and they enclosed their calves at home.

And the men did so,.... Made a new cart, not the lords of the Philistines, but workmen by their orders:
and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart; with the gear that horses, asses, or oxen, were usually fastened to a carriage they drew:
and shut up their calves at home; or, "in the house" (s); the cow house or stable where they used to be put; this they did to restrain them from following the cows, which would disturb them in drawing the cart.
(s) "in domo", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

These two kine knew their owner, their great Owner, whom Hophni and Phinehas knew not. God's providence takes notice even of brute creatures, and serves its own purposes by them. When the reapers saw the ark, they rejoiced; their joy for that was greater than the joy of harvest. The return of the ark, and the revival of holy ordinances, after days of restraint and trouble, are matters of great joy.

The God of Israel actually did what the idolatrous priests hardly considered possible. When the Philistines, in accordance with the advice given them by their priests, had placed the ark of the covenant and the expiatory gifts upon the cart to which the two cows were harnessed, "the cows went straight forward on the way to Bethshemesh; they went along a road going and lowing (i.e., lowing the whole time), and turned not to the right or to the left; and the princes of the Philistines went behind them to the territory of Bethshemesh." בּדּרך ישּׁרנה, lit., "they were straight in the way," i.e., they went straight along the road. The form ישּׁרנה for יישׁרנה is the imperf. Kal, third pers. plur. fem., with the preformative י instead of ת, as in Genesis 30:38 (see Ges. 47, Anm. 3; Ewald, 191, b.). Bethshemesh, the present Ain-shems, was a priests' city on the border of Judah and Daniel (see at Joshua 15:10).