1And the ark of the LORD was in the field of the Philistines seven months.2And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Make it known to us: by what shall we send it to its place?"3They said, "If you are sending off the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, for you shall return a guilt offering to him; then you will be healed and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you."4They said, "What is the guilt offering that we will return to him?" They said, "According to the number of the lords of the Philistines, five golden tumors and five golden mice, for one plague is to all of them and to your lords."5You shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that are corrupting the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.6And why do you make your heart heavy, as Egypt and Pharaoh made their heart heavy? Did not—as he toyed with them—he send them and they went—7And now take and make one new cart and two milk cows that have not gone up upon them, and bind the cows to the cart and return their sons from behind them to the house.8And you shall take the ark of the LORD and put it on the cart, and the vessels of gold that you have restored to him as a guilt offering you shall put in a box at its side, and send it away, and it shall go.9And you will see: if it goes up along the way to its own territory toward Beth-shemesh, he has done this great moral evil to us; but if not, then we will know that his hand has not touched us—it was a chance occurrence for us.10And the men did so and took two cows of burnt offering and bound them to the cart and their sons all in the house.11And they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors.12And the cows went straight on the way to Beth-shemesh. They stayed on one track; they went and lowed, and they did not turn aside to the right or left, and the lords of the Philistines walked after them to the border of Beth-shemesh.13And the Beth-shemesh reapers of the wheat harvest in the valley lifted up their eyes and saw the Ark and rejoiced to see it.14And the cart came to the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite and stood there; and there was a great stone. And they split the wood of the cart, and the cows—they offered them up as a burnt offering to the LORD.15And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was with it, in which were the gold vessels. And they set it beside the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices to the LORD on that day.16And the five lords of the Philistines saw it, and they returned to Ekron that day.17And these are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron.18And the golden mice according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, from fortified city to village of the rural-dweller and to Great Abel, on which they granted the ark of the LORD until this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite.19And he struck the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, and he struck seventy men of the people, fifty thousand men. And the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.20And the men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? And to whom will he go up from us?"21They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, "The Philistines have returned the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD; come down and bring it up to you."
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Chapter 7
1And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the LORD and brought it to the house of Abinadab in Gibeah. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to keep the ark of the LORD.