1 Samuel 6

The Philistines Ask How to Return the Ark

1The ark of the LORD was in the territory of the Philistines seven months. 2The Philistines called the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Make known to us how we should send it to its place.” 3They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but surely return to him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will become known to you why his hand has not turned away from you.” 4They said, “What guilt offering shall we return to him?” They said, “According to the number of the rulers of the Philistines: five gold tumors and five gold mice, for one plague was upon all of you and upon your rulers. 5So make images of your tumors and images of your mice that devastate the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you, your gods, and your land. 6Why should you harden your heart as Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their heart? Was it not after he dealt severely with them that they sent them away, and they went? 7And now, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows upon which no yoke has come. Yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home away from them. 8Take the ark of the LORD and put it on the cart. Put the gold objects that you return to him as a guilt offering in a box beside it, and send it away, and let it go. 9Then watch: if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-Shemesh, he has done to us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”

The Cows Carry the Ark to Beth-Shemesh

10The men did so. They took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. 11They put the ark of the LORD on the cart, with the box and the gold mice and the images of their tumors. 12The cows went straight on the way toward Beth-Shemesh. They went on one highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-Shemesh.

Beth-Shemesh Rejoices over the Ark

13Now the people of Beth-Shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley. They lifted their eyes and saw the ark, and they rejoiced to see it. 14The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemite and stood there. A great stone was there. They split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. 15The Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was with it, in which were the gold objects, and put them upon the great stone. The men of Beth-Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the LORD. 16When the five rulers of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.

The Philistine Guilt Offering

17These are the gold tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron. 18And the gold mice were according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five rulers, from fortified city to unwalled village, as far as the great stone upon which they set down the ark of the LORD, which is in the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemite to this day.

The LORD Strikes Beth-Shemesh

19But he struck some of the men of Beth-Shemesh because they looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck among the people seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter. 20The men of Beth-Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up from us?” 21They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and bring it up to yourselves.”