1 Samuel 6
1 And it was [the] ark of Yahweh in [the] region of [the] Philistines seven months.
The people of Philistia kept God’s sacred chest in their area for seven months.
2 And they summoned [the] Philistines the priests and the diviners saying what? will we do to [the] ark of Yahweh make known to us how? will we send it to own place its.
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] about to send away [the] ark of [the] God of Israel may not you send away it empty for certainly you will send back to him a guilt offering then you will be healed and it will be known by you why? not does it turn aside hand his 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 And they said what? [is] the guilt offering which we will send back to him and they said [the] number of [the] rulers of [the] Philistines five (tumors of *Q(K)*) gold and five mice of gold for a plague one [belongs] to all of them and to rulers your.
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 And you will make images of (tumors your *Q(K)*) and images of mice your which are ruining the land and you will give to [the] God of Israel honor perhaps he will lighten hand his from with you and from on gods your and from on land your.
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 And why? will you harden heart your just as they hardened Egypt and Pharaoh heart their ¿ not just when he dealt wantonly with them and they sent away them and they went.
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 And therefore take and make a cart new one and two cows nursing which not it has gone up on them a yoke and you will harness the cows on the cart and you will take back young ones their from after them the house towards.
“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 you will take [the] ark of Yahweh and you will put it into the cart and - [the] articles of gold which you have sent back to him a guilt offering you will put in the box from side its and you will send away it and it will 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 you will see if [the] way of own territory its it will go up Beth Shemesh he he has done to us the harm great this and if not and we will know that not hand his it touched us chance it it 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 And they did the men thus and they took two cows nursing and they harnessed them on the cart and young ones their they shut up in the house.
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 of Yahweh into the cart and the box and [the] mice of gold and [the] images of tumors their.
They put in the cart Yahweh’s sacred chest and the box with the models of the gold rats and the tumors.
12 And they were straight the cows in the road on [the] road of Beth Shemesh on a highway one they went continuously and lowed and not they turned aside right [hand] and left [hand] and [the] rulers of [the] Philistines [were] going after them to [the] border 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 Beth Shemesh [were] harvesting [the] harvest of wheat in the valley and they lifted up eyes their and they saw the ark and they rejoiced to see [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 it came to [the] field of Joshua [the] Beth Shemeshite and it stopped there and [was] there a stone large and they split [the] wood of the cart and the cows they offered up a burnt offering to Yahweh.
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 And the Levites they brought down - [the] ark of Yahweh and the box which [was] with it which [were] in it [the] articles of gold and they put [them] to the stone large and [the] people of Beth Shemesh they offered up burnt offerings and they sacrificed sacrifices on the day that to Yahweh.
16 And five [the] rulers of [the] Philistines they saw and they went back Ekron on the day that.
The five kings from the Philistia area watched all this, and then they returned to Ekron, that same day.
17 And these [are] [the] tumors of gold which they sent back [the] Philistines a guilt offering to Yahweh 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] mice of gold [the] number of all [the] cities of [the] Philistines of [the] five the rulers from a city of fortification and unto village[s] of the hamlet-dweller[s] and to - Abel the great which they set down on it [the] ark of Yahweh until the day this in [the] field of Joshua [the] Beth Shemeshite.
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 And he struck down among [the] people of Beth Shemesh for they had looked in [the] ark of Yahweh and he struck down among the people seventy man fifty thousand man and they mourned the people for he had struck Yahweh the people a blow (great *LB(ah)*)
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 they said [the] people of Beth Shemesh who? is he able to stand before Yahweh the God holy this and to whom? will it go up from with 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 And they sent messengers to [the] inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim saying they have brought back [the] Philistines [the] ark of Yahweh come down take up it to you.
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!”
