1 Samuel 6
1 The ark of the LORD remained in Philistine territory for seven months.
2 The Philistines summoned the priests and diviners and asked, “What should we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”
3 They replied, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty. Be sure to return a guilt offering with it. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not withdrawn from you.”
4 They asked, “What guilt offering should we return to him?” They answered, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague struck all of you and your rulers.
5 Make images of your tumors and images of the mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand against you, your gods, and your land.
6 Why should you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? Was it not only after he dealt harshly with them that they let the people go, and they left?
7 Now then, make a new cart and take two cows that have calved, which have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, and take their calves back home, away from them.
8 Take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart. Put the gold objects you are returning to him as a guilt offering in a box beside it. Send the ark away and let it go.
9 Watch: if it goes up the road to its own territory, toward Beth-shemesh, then he has brought this great disaster on us. But if not, we will know that his hand did not strike us; it was a chance occurrence.”
10 The men did so. They took two cows that had calved, hitched them to the cart, and shut their calves up at home.
11 They placed the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the box, the gold mice, and the images of their tumors.
12 The cows went straight along the road to Beth-shemesh, following one highway. They went, lowing as they went, without turning aside to the right or the left. The Philistine rulers followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. They looked up, saw the ark, and rejoiced at the sight.
14 The cart came to the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stopped there, where a large stone stood. They split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
15 The Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was with it, which held the gold objects, and set them on the large stone. That day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to the LORD.
16 The five Philistine rulers saw this and returned to Ekron that same day.
17 These are the gold tumors that the Philistines returned to the LORD as a guilt offering: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron.
18 The gold mice corresponded to the number of all the Philistine cities belonging to the five rulers, from fortified city to unwalled village, including great Abel, where they set down the ark of the LORD. It remains to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.
19 The LORD struck the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck seventy of the people—fifty thousand men. The people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.
20 The men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who can stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom will he go up from us?”
21 They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to your place.”
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