1 Samuel 6
1 After the Ark of the Lord had been in the country of the Philistines for seven months,
Now the ark of the Lord was in the region of the Philistines for seven months.
2 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.”
And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying: “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Reveal to us in what manner we should send it back to its place.” And they said:
3 “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.”
“If you send back the ark of the God of Israel, do not choose to release it empty. Instead, repay to him what you owe because of sin. And then you will be cured. And you will know why his hand did not withdraw from you.”
4 “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.
And they said, “What is it that we ought to repay to him because of transgression?” And they responded:
5 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.
“In accord with the number of the provinces of the Philistines, you shall fashion five gold cysts and five gold mice. For the same plague has been upon all of you and your princes. And you shall fashion a likeness of your cysts and a likeness of the mice, which have destroyed the land. And so shall you give glory to the God of Israel, so that perhaps he may lift off his hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land.
6 Why be stubborn like the Egyptians and Pharaoh? When he punished them, didn't they send the Israelites on their way as they left?
Why have you hardened your hearts, just as Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he was struck, did he not then release them, and they went away?
7 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.
Now therefore, fashion and take a new cart, with two cows that have given birth, but on which no yoke has been imposed. And yoke them to the cart, but retain their calves at home.
8 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,
And you shall take the ark of the Lord, and you shall place it upon the cart, with the articles of gold that you have paid to him on behalf of transgression. You shall place these in a little box at its side. And release it, so that it may go.
9 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.”
And you shall watch. And if, indeed, it ascends by the way of his own parts, toward Beth-shemesh, then he has done this great evil to us. But if not, then we shall know that it is by no means his hand that has touched us, but instead it happened by chance.”
10 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.
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.
11 They put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, together with the chest containing the gold rats and models of their swellings.
And they placed the ark of God upon the cart, with the little box that held the gold mice and the likenesses of the cysts.
12 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.
But the cows went directly along the way that leads to Beth-shemesh. And they advanced only in one direction, lowing as they went. And they did not turn aside, neither to the right, nor to the left. Moreover, the princes of the Philistines followed them, as far as the borders of Beth-shemesh.
13 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.
Now the Beth-shemeshites were harvesting wheat in the valley. And lifting up their eyes, they saw the ark, and they were glad when they had seen it.
14 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.
And the cart went into the field of Joshua, a Beth-shemeshite, and it stood still there. Now in that place was a great stone, and so they cut up the wood of the cart, and they placed the cows upon it as a holocaust to the Lord.
15 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.
But the Levites took down the ark of God, and the little box that was at its side, in which were the articles of gold, and they placed them upon the great stone. Then the men of Beth-shemesh offered holocausts and immolated victims, on that day, to the Lord.
16 The five Philistine rulers saw all that happened this and then went back to Ekron the same day.
And the five princes of the Philistines saw, and they returned to Ekron on the same day.
17 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.
Now these are the gold cysts, which the Philistines repaid to the Lord for transgression: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one.
18 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.
And there were gold mice, according to the number of the cities of the Philistines, of the five provinces, from the fortified city to the village that was without a wall, and even to the great stone upon which they placed the ark of the Lord, which was, at last in that day, in the field of Joshua, the Beth-shemeshite.
19 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.
Then he struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had seen the ark of the Lord. And he struck down some of the people: seventy men, and fifty thousand of the common people. And the people lamented, because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter.
20 The people of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God? Where should the Ark go from here?”
And the men of Beth-shemesh said: “Who will be able to stand in the sight of the Lord, this holy God? And who will ascend to him from us?”
21 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.”
And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying: “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Descend and lead it back to you.”
