1 Samuel 6 · a question people ask
"Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God?" What were they asking?
The men of Beth Shemesh asked two questions: "Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?" (6:20). Then they sent to Kiriath Jearim: "Come down and bring it up to yourselves" (6:21). The chapter doesn't answer the first question, and it doesn't praise or fault them for asking it. Christians read the question in two main ways. Both agree that the men called the LORD "this holy God" (6:20), as Hannah had prayed, "There is no one as holy as the LORD" (2:2).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A true confession of his holiness
Those who read it this way hear a question other Scriptures ask. "Who may ascend to the LORD’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place?" (Psalm 24:3), with the answer, "He who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalm 24:4). "If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?" (Psalm 130:3), with "But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared" (Psalm 130:4). On this reading the men of Beth Shemesh saw rightly that no one stands before the holy God on his own.
Psalm 24:3-4 · Psalm 130:3-4
A fear that sent the ark away
Those who read it this way point to the second question, "To whom shall he go up from us?" (6:20), and to what the men did next: they sent the ark away (6:21). David asked a question like it after Uzzah died: "How could the LORD’s ark come to me?" (2 Samuel 6:9). The men of Kiriath Jearim, who took the ark next, "consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the LORD’s ark" (7:1). On this reading the men of Beth Shemesh named the LORD's holiness, but asked where to send the ark rather than how to keep it.
1 Samuel 6:20-21 · 2 Samuel 6:9 · 1 Samuel 7:1
The verses
“The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?” They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the LORD’s ark. Come down and bring it up to yourselves.””
“There is no one as holy as the LORD, for there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.”