1 Samuel

¹The ark of the LORD remained in Philistine territory for seven months.

²Then the Philistines called for their priests and diviners and asked, 'What should we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how to send it back to its proper place.'

³They said, 'If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it back empty. You must include a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why his hand has not lifted from you.'

⁴'What guilt offering should we send?' they asked. The reply was, 'Five gold tumors and five gold mice — one for each of the five Philistine rulers — because the same plague struck all of you and your rulers.'

⁵'Make models of the tumors and the mice that are ravaging your land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps then he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land.'

⁶'Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When God dealt harshly with them, didn't they finally let Israel go?'

⁷'Now then, build a new cart and take two cows that have just had calves and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves away from them.'

⁸'Place the ark of the LORD on the cart, and put the gold objects you are sending as a guilt offering in a chest beside it. Then send it on its way.'

⁹'Watch what happens: if the cart goes straight toward Beth Shemesh — its own territory — then it was the LORD who brought this great disaster on us. But if not, then we will know it was not his hand; it was just a coincidence.'

¹⁰The men did as instructed. They took two nursing cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

¹¹They put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold mice and the gold models of the tumors.

¹²The cows headed straight for Beth Shemesh, staying on the main road and lowing as they went. They turned neither right nor left, and the Philistine rulers followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.

¹³The people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed.

¹⁴The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh and stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.

¹⁵The Levites brought down the ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold objects and placed them on the large stone. The men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD that day.

¹⁶The five Philistine rulers saw all this and returned to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the LORD: one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.

¹⁸The gold mice represented all the Philistine towns — both the walled cities and the open villages — that belonged to the five rulers. The large stone where the ark was set down still stands today in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

¹⁹But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy of them, and the people mourned deeply because of the great blow the LORD had dealt them.

²⁰The men of Beth Shemesh cried out, 'Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? Where can the ark go from here?'

²¹They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim with the news: 'The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come and take it back to your town.'