1 Samuel 6

6 ¹ The ark of our Father stayed in Philistine territory for seven months. ² The Philistines summoned 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 place."

³ They said, "If you send back the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means return to him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not turned away from you."

⁴ "What guilt offering should we send back to him?" they asked. They replied, "Five gold tumors and five gold mice, matching the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague struck all of you and your rulers."

⁵ "Make models of your tumors and models of the mice that are ravaging the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you, your gods, and your land." ⁶ "Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? After he dealt harshly with them, did they not finally let the people go on their way?"

⁷ "Now then, get a new cart ready, with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away from them and pen them up." ⁸ "Take the ark of the LORD and set it on the cart, and place in a chest beside it the gold objects you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it on its way, ⁹ but keep watch: if it goes up toward its own territory, to Beth-shemesh, then he is the one who has brought this great disaster on us; but if not, we will know that it was not his hand that struck us — it happened to us by chance."

¹⁰ The men did this. They took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, penning up their calves at home. ¹¹ They set the ark of our Father on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold mice and the models of the tumors.

¹² Then the cows went straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, keeping to the highway and lowing as they went; they turned neither right nor left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.

¹³ Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight.

¹⁴ The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there beside a large stone. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to our Father. ¹⁵ The Levites took down the ark of our Father and the chest beside it that held the gold objects, and they set them on the large stone. That day the people of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to our Father.

¹⁶ The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and returned to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷ These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent back as a guilt offering to our Father: one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. ¹⁸ The gold mice matched the number of all the Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers — both the fortified towns and their country villages. The large stone on which they set the ark of our Father remains a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.

¹⁹ But our Father struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked into the ark of the covenant, putting seventy men to death. The people mourned because he had struck them with such a great blow.

²⁰ The men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who can stand before our Father, this holy God? And to whom will the ark go up away from us?"

²¹ So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim, saying, "The Philistines have returned the ark of our Father. Come down and take it up to your place."