Βασιλειῶν Αʹ 6
1 καὶ ἦν ἡ κιβωτὸς ἐν ἀγρῷ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἑπτὰ μῆνας καὶ ἐξέζεσεν ἡ γῆ αὐτῶν μύας
The people of Philistia kept God’s sacred chest in their area for seven months.
2 καὶ καλοῦσιν ἀλλόφυλοι τοὺς ἱερεῖς καὶ τοὺς μάντεις καὶ τοὺς ἐπαοιδοὺς αὐτῶν λέγοντες τί ποιήσωμεν τῇ κιβωτῷ κυρίου γνωρίσατε ἡμῖν ἐν τίνι ἀποστελοῦμεν αὐτὴν εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς
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 καὶ εἶπαν εἰ ἐξαπεστέλλετε ὑμεῖς τὴν κιβωτὸν διαθήκης κυρίου θεοῦ Ισραηλ μὴ δὴ ἐξαποστείλητε αὐτὴν κενήν ἀλλὰ ἀποδιδόντες ἀπόδοτε αὐτῇ τῆς βασάνου καὶ τότε ἰαθήσεσθε καὶ ἐξιλασθήσεται ὑμῖν μὴ οὐκ ἀποστῇ ἡ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ ἀφ’ ὑμῶν
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 καὶ λέγουσιν τί τὸ τῆς βασάνου ἀποδώσομεν αὐτῇ καὶ εἶπαν κατ’ ἀριθμὸν τῶν σατραπῶν τῶν ἀλλοφύλων πέντε ἕδρας χρυσᾶς ὅτι πταῖσμα ἓν ὑμῖν καὶ τοῖς ἄρχουσιν ὑμῶν καὶ τῷ λαῷ
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 καὶ μῦς χρυσοῦς ὁμοίωμα τῶν μυῶν ὑμῶν τῶν διαφθειρόντων τὴν γῆν καὶ δώσετε τῷ κυρίῳ δόξαν ὅπως κουφίσῃ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ἀφ’ ὑμῶν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν θεῶν ὑμῶν καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ὑμῶν
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 καὶ ἵνα τί βαρύνετε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν ὡς ἐβάρυνεν Αἴγυπτος καὶ Φαραω τὴν καρδίαν αὐτῶν οὐχὶ ὅτε ἐνέπαιξεν αὐτοῖς ἐξαπέστειλαν αὐτούς καὶ ἀπῆλθον
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 καὶ νῦν λάβετε καὶ ποιήσατε ἅμαξαν καινὴν καὶ δύο βόας πρωτοτοκούσας ἄνευ τῶν τέκνων καὶ ζεύξατε τὰς βόας ἐν τῇ ἁμάξῃ καὶ ἀπαγάγετε τὰ τέκνα ἀπὸ ὄπισθεν αὐτῶν εἰς οἶκον
“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 καὶ λήμψεσθε τὴν κιβωτὸν καὶ θήσετε αὐτὴν ἐπὶ τὴν ἅμαξαν καὶ τὰ σκεύη τὰ χρυσᾶ ἀποδώσετε αὐτῇ τῆς βασάνου καὶ θήσετε ἐν θέματι βερσεχθαν ἐκ μέρους αὐτῆς καὶ ἐξαποστελεῖτε αὐτὴν καὶ ἀπελάσατε αὐτήν καὶ ἀπελεύσεται
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 καὶ ὄψεσθε εἰ εἰς ὁδὸν ὁρίων αὐτῆς πορεύσεται κατὰ Βαιθσαμυς αὐτὸς πεποίηκεν ἡμῖν τὴν κακίαν ταύτην τὴν μεγάλην καὶ ἐὰν μή καὶ γνωσόμεθα ὅτι οὐ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ ἧπται ἡμῶν ἀλλὰ σύμπτωμα τοῦτο γέγονεν ἡμῖν
[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 καὶ ἐποίησαν οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι οὕτως καὶ ἔλαβον δύο βόας πρωτοτοκούσας καὶ ἔζευξαν αὐτὰς ἐν τῇ ἁμάξῃ καὶ τὰ τέκνα αὐτῶν ἀπεκώλυσαν εἰς οἶκον
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 καὶ ἔθεντο τὴν κιβωτὸν ἐπὶ τὴν ἅμαξαν καὶ τὸ θέμα εργαβ καὶ τοὺς μῦς τοὺς χρυσοῦς
They put in the cart Yahweh’s sacred chest and the box with the models of the gold rats and the tumors.
12 καὶ κατεύθυναν αἱ βόες ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ εἰς ὁδὸν Βαιθσαμυς ἐν τρίβῳ ἑνὶ ἐπορεύοντο καὶ ἐκοπίων καὶ οὐ μεθίσταντο δεξιὰ οὐδὲ ἀριστερά καὶ οἱ σατράπαι τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἐπορεύοντο ὀπίσω αὐτῆς ἕως ὁρίων Βαιθσαμυς
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 καὶ οἱ ἐν Βαιθσαμυς ἐθέριζον θερισμὸν πυρῶν ἐν κοιλάδι καὶ ἦραν ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν καὶ εἶδον κιβωτὸν κυρίου καὶ ηὐφράνθησαν εἰς ἀπάντησιν αὐτῆς
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 καὶ ἡ ἅμαξα εἰσῆλθεν εἰς ἀγρὸν Ωσηε τὸν ἐν Βαιθσαμυς καὶ ἔστησαν ἐκεῖ παρ’ αὐτῇ λίθον μέγαν καὶ σχίζουσιν τὰ ξύλα τῆς ἁμάξης καὶ τὰς βόας ἀνήνεγκαν εἰς ὁλοκαύτωσιν τῷ κυρίῳ
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 καὶ οἱ Λευῖται ἀνήνεγκαν τὴν κιβωτὸν τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τὸ θέμα εργαβ μετ’ αὐτῆς καὶ τὰ ἐπ’ αὐτῆς σκεύη τὰ χρυσᾶ καὶ ἔθεντο ἐπὶ τοῦ λίθου τοῦ μεγάλου καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες Βαιθσαμυς ἀνήνεγκαν ὁλοκαυτώσεις καὶ θυσίας ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ τῷ κυρίῳ
16 καὶ οἱ πέντε σατράπαι τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἑώρων καὶ ἀνέστρεψαν εἰς Ἀσκαλῶνα τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ
The five kings from the Philistia area watched all this, and then they returned to Ekron, that same day.
17 καὶ αὗται αἱ ἕδραι αἱ χρυσαῖ ἃς ἀπέδωκαν οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι τῆς βασάνου τῷ κυρίῳ τῆς Ἀζώτου μίαν τῆς Γάζης μίαν τῆς Ἀσκαλῶνος μίαν τῆς Γεθ μίαν τῆς Ακκαρων μίαν
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 καὶ μῦς οἱ χρυσοῖ κατ’ ἀριθμὸν πασῶν πόλεων τῶν ἀλλοφύλων τῶν πέντε σατραπῶν ἐκ πόλεως ἐστερεωμένης καὶ ἕως κώμης τοῦ Φερεζαίου καὶ ἕως λίθου τοῦ μεγάλου οὗ ἐπέθηκαν ἐπ’ αὐτοῦ τὴν κιβωτὸν διαθήκης κυρίου τοῦ ἐν ἀγρῷ Ωσηε τοῦ Βαιθσαμυσίτου
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 καὶ οὐκ ἠσμένισαν οἱ υἱοὶ Ιεχονιου ἐν τοῖς ἀνδράσιν Βαιθσαμυς ὅτι εἶδαν κιβωτὸν κυρίου καὶ ἐπάταξεν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἑβδομήκοντα ἄνδρας καὶ πεντήκοντα χιλιάδας ἀνδρῶν καὶ ἐπένθησεν ὁ λαός ὅτι ἐπάταξεν κύριος ἐν τῷ λαῷ πληγὴν μεγάλην σφόδρα
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 καὶ εἶπαν οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ ἐκ Βαιθσαμυς τίς δυνήσεται διελθεῖν ἐνώπιον κυρίου τοῦ ἁγίου τούτου καὶ πρὸς τίνα ἀναβήσεται κιβωτὸς κυρίου ἀφ’ ἡμῶν
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 καὶ ἀποστέλλουσιν ἀγγέλους πρὸς τοὺς κατοικοῦντας Καριαθιαριμ λέγοντες ἀπεστρόφασιν ἀλλόφυλοι τὴν κιβωτὸν κυρίου κατάβητε καὶ ἀναγάγετε αὐτὴν πρὸς ἑαυτούς
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!”
