撒母耳記上 6
1 耶和華的約櫃在非利士人之地七個月。
After the Ark of the Lord had been in the country of the Philistines for seven months,
2 非利士人將祭司和占卜的聚了來，問他們說：「我們向耶和華的約櫃應當怎樣行？請指示我們用何法將約櫃送回原處。」
the Philistines summoned the priests and fortune-tellers, and asked, “What should we do with the Ark of the Lord? Explain to us how to send it back to where it came from.”
3 他們說：「若要將以色列上帝的約櫃送回去，不可空空地送去，必要給他獻賠罪的禮物，然後你們可得痊癒，並知道他的手為何不離開你們。」
“If you're going to send back the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it back empty-handedly, but make sure to send along with it a gift of a guilt offering to him,” they replied. “Then you will be healed, and you will understand why he has treated you like this.”
4 非利士人說：「應當用甚麼獻為賠罪的禮物呢？」他們回答說：「當照非利士首領的數目，用五個金痔瘡，五個金老鼠，因為在你們眾人和你們首領的身上都是一樣的災。
“What kind of guilt offering should we send back to him?” asked the Philistines. “Five gold objects in the shape of the swellings, and five gold rats representing the number of rulers of the Philistines,” they replied. “The same plague attacked both you and your rulers.
5 所以當製造你們痔瘡的像和毀壞你們田地老鼠的像，並要歸榮耀給以色列的上帝，或者他向你們和你們的神，並你們的田地，把手放輕些。
Make models to represent your swellings and the rats destroying the country, and honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will stop punishing you, your gods, and your land.
6 你們為何硬着心像埃及人和法老一樣呢？上帝在埃及人中間行奇事，埃及人豈不釋放以色列人，他們就去了嗎？
Why be stubborn like the Egyptians and Pharaoh? When he punished them, didn't they send the Israelites on their way as they left?
7 現在你們應當造一輛新車，將兩隻未曾負軛有乳的母牛套在車上，使牛犢回家去，離開母牛。
So get a new cart ready, pulled by two milk cows that have never been yoked. Tie the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and put them in a stall.
8 把耶和華的約櫃放在車上，將所獻賠罪的金物裝在匣子裏，放在櫃旁，將櫃送去。
Pick up the Ark of the Lord, put it on the cart, and place the gold objects you are sending him as a guilt offering in a chest beside it. Then send the Ark away. Let it go whichever way it wants,
9 你們要看看：車若直行以色列的境界到伯‧示麥去，這大災就是耶和華降在我們身上的；若不然，便可以知道不是他的手擊打我們，是我們偶然遇見的。」
but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its home country, to Beth-shemesh, then it is the Lord who caused all this terrible trouble for us. But if it doesn't, then we'll know that it wasn't him who punished us—it just happened to us by chance.”
10 非利士人就這樣行：將兩隻有乳的母牛套在車上，將牛犢關在家裏，
So that's what the people did. They took two milk cows and tied them to the cart, and kept their calves in a stall.
11 把耶和華的約櫃和裝金老鼠並金痔瘡像的匣子都放在車上。
They put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, together with the chest containing the gold rats and models of their swellings.
12 牛直行大道，往伯‧示麥去，一面走一面叫，不偏左右。非利士的首領跟在後面，直到伯‧示麥的境界。
The cows went straight up the road to Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went, going directly on the main road and not turning either left or right. The Philistine rulers followed them all the way to the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 伯‧示麥人正在平原收割麥子，舉目看見約櫃，就歡喜了。
The people of Beth-shemesh were reaping wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the Ark, they were so happy to see it.
14 車到了伯‧示麥人約書亞的田間，就站住了。在那裏有一塊大磐石，他們把車劈了，將兩隻母牛獻給耶和華為燔祭。
The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh, and stopped there beside a large rock. The people cut up the cart for wood and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord.
15 利未人將耶和華的約櫃和裝金物的匣子拿下來，放在大磐石上。當日伯‧示麥人將燔祭和平安祭獻給耶和華。
The Levites took down the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing the gold objects, and put them on the large rock. The people of Beth-shemesh presented burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord that day.
16 非利士人的五個首領看見，當日就回以革倫去了。
The five Philistine rulers saw all that happened this and then went back to Ekron the same day.
17 非利士人獻給耶和華作賠罪的金痔瘡像，就是這些：一個是為亞實突，一個是為迦薩，一個是為亞實基倫，一個是為迦特，一個是為以革倫。
The five gold models of swellings sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to the Lord were from the rulers of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
18 金老鼠的數目是照非利士五個首領的城邑，就是堅固的城邑和鄉村，以及大磐石。這磐石是放耶和華約櫃的，到今日還在伯‧示麥人約書亞的田間。
The gold rats represented the number of Philistine towns of the five rulers—the fortified towns and their surrounding villages. The large rock on which they placed the Ark of the Lord still stands to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh as a witness to what happened there.
19 耶和華因伯‧示麥人擅觀他的約櫃，就擊殺了他們七十人；那時有五萬人在那裏。百姓因耶和華大大擊殺他們，就哀哭了。
But God killed some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the Ark of the Lord. He killed seventy, and the people mourned deeply because the Lord had killed so many.
20 伯‧示麥人說：「誰能在耶和華這聖潔的上帝面前侍立呢？這約櫃可以從我們這裏送到誰那裏去呢？」
The people of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God? Where should the Ark go from here?”
21 於是打發人去見基列‧耶琳的居民，說：「非利士人將耶和華的約櫃送回來了，你們下來將約櫃接到你們那裏去吧！」
They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim to say, “The Philistines have returned the Ark of the Lord. Come down and take it home with you.”
