1 Samuel
Chapter 6
1 The chest of God stayed in the land of the Philistines for seven months.
2 The Philistines asked their priests and fortune-tellers, “What should we do with the ark of God? Tell us how to send it back to where it belongs.”
3 They said, “If you send back the ark of the God of Israel, don’t send it empty. Instead, definitely send a guilt offering with it. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why he is still punishing you.”
4 They asked, “What should we give as a guilt offering to him?” They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice, equal to the number of Philistine rulers, because the same disease struck all of you and your rulers.”
5 So you will make models of your tumors and of the mice that ruin the land; and you will honor the God of Israel. Maybe He will ease His grip on you, your gods, and your land.
6 Why then do you make your hearts hard, like the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When God showed them amazing things, didn’t they let the people go, and they left?
7 So now, build a new cart, and get two milk cows that have never worn a yoke. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves back home away from them.
8 Take God’s ark and put it on the cart; put the gold offerings you’re giving back for your wrongdoing in a box next to it; and then send it off so it can leave.
9 Look and see if it returns to Bethshemesh in its own territory, then God has caused this terrible thing to us. But if not, then we will know it was not God who hurt us, it just happened by chance.
10 The men followed the instructions; they took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and kept their calves inside at home.
11 They put the ark of God on the cart, along with the box containing the gold mice and the statues of their tumors.
12 The cows went straight on the road to Bethshemesh, walking on the main road and mooing as they walked, not turning right or left; and the Philistine leaders followed them to the border of Bethshemesh.
13 The people of Bethshemesh were cutting their wheat in the valley. They looked up, saw the ark, and were happy to see it.
14 The cart arrived in Joshua’s field, a man from Beth-shemesh, and stopped by a big stone. They cut up the cart’s wood and used it to make a fire to burn the cows as an offering to God.
15 The Levites moved God’s chest and the box that was with it, which held the gold jewels, and placed them on a large rock. That day, the people of Bethshemesh offered burnt gifts and sacrifices to God.
16 When the five Philistine leaders saw it, they went back to Ekron that day.
17 These are the gold tumors the Philistines gave as a guilt offering to God: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron.
18 The gold mice matched the number of all the Philistine cities governed by the five rulers, including walled cities and villages, up to the large stone of Abel, where they placed God’s ark. This stone is still in Joshua the Bethshemite’s field today.
19 God punished the men of Bethshemesh for looking inside the ark of God, killing 50,070 of them, and the people mourned because God had struck down many with a great loss of life.
20 The people of Bethshemesh asked, “Who can stand before this holy God? And who will He leave us to go to?”
21 They sent messengers to the people of Kirjathjearim to say, “The Philistines have returned the ark of God; come and take it to your place.”