1 Samuel 6
1 The ark was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
The people of Philistia kept God’s sacred chest in their area for seven months.
2 The Philistines called for the priests, and for the diviners, and for the magicians, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of YHWH? Tell us how we should send it to its place."
Then they summoned their priests and their (diviners/men who practice rituals to find out what would happen in the future). They asked them, “What should we do with the sacred chest of Yahweh? Tell us how we should send it back to its own land.”
3 And they said, "If you are going to send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty. But return to him a reparation, then you shall be healed and he will be reconciled to you. Will not, then, his hand be removed from you?"
Those men replied, “Send with it an offering [to show Yahweh that you know that you are] guilty [for having captured the chest], in order that the plague will stop. If you do that, and then if you are healed, you will know that Yahweh is the one who caused you to experience the plague.”
4 Then they said, "What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him?" They said, "Five golden tumors, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on you and your lords.
The people of Philistia asked, “What kind of offering should we send?” The men replied, “Make five gold models of the tumors on your skin, and five gold models of rats. Make five of each because that is the same number as the number of your kings, and because the plague has struck both you people and your five kings.
5 Therefore you shall make images of your tumors, and images of the mice that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.
Make models that represent the rats and the tumors that are ruining your land. Make them in order to honor the god of the Israeli people. If you do that, perhaps he will stop punishing [IDM] you, and your gods, and your land.
6 Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?
Do not be [RHQ] stubborn [IDM] like the Egyptians and their king were. [They did not do what the Israelis’ god told them to do, so he punished them]. After the Israelis’ god finished punishing them very severely, they were glad to allow the Israelis to leave their country [RHQ].
7 "Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cows, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and take their calves from them back home;
“So you must build a new cart. Then get two cows that have very recently given birth to calves. They must be cows that have never been hitched to a cart [MTY]. Hitch those cows to the new cart, and take the calves away from their mothers.
8 and take the ark, and lay it on the cart; and put the figures of gold, which you return him for a trespass offering, in a box by its side; and send it away, that it may go.
Put the Israelis’ god’s sacred chest on the cart. Also put in the cart the five gold models of the tumors on your skin and the five gold models of rats. Put them in a small box alongside the sacred chest. They will be an offering to show that you know that you deserved to be punished [for capturing the sacred chest]. Then send [the cows] down the road, [pulling] the cart.
9 And watch; if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it was a chance that happened to us."
[Watch the cart as the cows pull it]. If they pull it to Beth-Shemesh [town] in Israel, we will know that it was the Israelis’ god who caused us to experience this plague. But if they do not take it there, we will know that it was not the god [MTY] of the Israelis who has punished us. We will know that it just happened.”
10 The men did so, and took two milk cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home;
So the people did what the priests and men who predicted what would happen in the future told them to do. They [made] a cart [and] hitched two cows to it. They took the calves from their mothers.
11 and they put the ark on the cart, and the box with the mice of gold and the images of their tumors.
They put in the cart Yahweh’s sacred chest and the box with the models of the gold rats and the tumors.
12 The cows took the straight way by the way to Beth Shemesh; they went along the highway, mooing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the territory of Beth Shemesh.
Then the cows started walking, and they went straight toward Beth-Shemesh. They stayed on the road, and were mooing all the time. They did not turn to the left or to the right. The five kings of the Philistia area followed the cows until they reached the edge of Beth-Shemesh.
13 And those of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to meet it.
At that time, the people of Beth-Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley [outside the city]. [When the cows came along the road], they looked up and saw the sacred chest. They were extremely happy to see it.
14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stopped there near a large rock. And they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to YHWH.
The cows pulled the cart into the field of a man named Joshua, and they stopped alongside a large rock. Several men from the tribe of Levi lifted from the cart the sacred chest and the box containing the gold models of the rats and the tumors, and they put them all on the large rock. Then the people smashed the cart and kindled a fire with the wood [from which the cart had been made]. They slaughtered the cows and burned their bodies/carcasses on the fire to be an offering for Yahweh that would be completely burned. That day the people of Beth-Shemesh offered to Yahweh [many] sacrifices that were completely burned, and [other] sacrifices.
15 The Levites took down the ark of YHWH, and the chest that was with it, in which the articles of gold were, and put them on the large rock. And the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to YHWH.
16 When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.
The five kings from the Philistia area watched all this, and then they returned to Ekron, that same day.
17 These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering to YHWH: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;
The five gold models of tumors that they sent to be an offering to Yahweh to show that they knew that they deserved to be punished were gifts from [those five kings who were rulers of] Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron [cities].
18 and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages. The large rock on which they set down the ark of YHWH is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite.
The models of the five gold rats were gifts from the people of those five cities and the surrounding towns. The large rock at Beth-Shemesh, on which the [men of the tribe of Levi] set the sacred chest, is still there in the field that belonged to Joshua. When people see it, they remember [what happened there].
19 But the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the people of Beth Shemesh when they saw the ark of YHWH. So he struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned, because YHWH had struck the people with a great slaughter.
But seventy men from Beth-Shemesh looked into Yahweh’s sacred chest, and because of that, Yahweh caused them to die. Then the people mourned very much because Yahweh punished [IDM] those men like that.
20 And the men of Beth Shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before this holy thing? And to whom should he go up from us?"
They said, “No one [RHQ] can (resist the power of/stand in the presence of) Yahweh, our holy God, [and remain alive]! Where can we send the sacred chest?”
21 They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of YHWH; come down, and bring it up to yourselves."
They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-Jearim [city] to tell them, “The people of Philistia have returned Yahweh’s sacred chest to us! Come here and take it away!”
