The interpretation timeline

1Sam 5:11

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1Sam 5:11 · Douay-Rheims
“They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines: and they said: Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return into its own place, and not kill us and our people.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
735
A.D.
Bede Patristic
A.D. 673–735
“They sent therefore, and gathered all the satraps of the Philistines, etc. Many believers of the nations today, though not in words, say: Abandon the faith, and let it return to the children of Israel, so that at last, having cut us off, they may be grafted according to nature into their own olive tree. For it is better that the ignorant perish, than to be condemned for the transgression of faith, which we cannot keep, along with other sins.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.