1 Samuel 6

Revised Geneva Translation

6 So the Ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines for seven months.

² And the Philistines called the priests and the soothsayers, saying, “What shall we do with the Ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it home again?”

³ And they said, “If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but give it a Sin Offering. Then you shall be healed, and it shall be revealed to you why His Hand has not departed from you.”

⁴ Then they said, “What shall be the Sin Offering which we shall give to it?” And they answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden rats, according to the number of the princes of the Philistines. For one plague was on you all, and on your princes.

⁵ “Therefore, you shall make the likenesses of your tumors and the likenesses of your rats who destroy the land. So you shall give glory to the God of Israel, so that He may take His Hand from you and from your gods and from your land.

⁶ “Why, then, should you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts when He wrought mightily among them? Did they not let them go, and they departed?

⁷ “Now, therefore, make a new cart, and take two milk cows, upon which there has never come a yoke. And tie the cows to the cart and bring the calves home from them.

⁸ “Then take the Ark of the LORD and set it upon the cart. And put the jewels of gold, which you give it for a Sin Offering, in a coffer by its side. And send it away, so that it may go.

⁹ “And watch. If it goes up by way of its own territory, to Beth Shemesh, it is He who brought us this great calamity. But if not, we shall know then that it is not His Hand that struck us. It happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰ And the men did so. For they took two cows that gave milk and tied them to the cart and shut up the calves at home.

¹¹ So, they set the Ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the coffer with the rats of gold, and with the likenesses of their tumors.

¹² And the cows went the straight way to Beth Shemesh, and kept one path, and lowed as they went, and turned neither to the right nor to the left. Also, the princes of the Philistines went after them to the borders of Beth Shemesh.

¹³ Now, they of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And they lifted up their eyes and spied the Ark and rejoiced when they saw it.

¹⁴ And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth Shemite, and stood still there. There was also a great stone. And they split the wood of the cart and offered the cow for a Burnt Offering to the LORD.

¹⁵ And the Levites took down the Ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it (in which the jewels of gold were) and put them on the great stone. And the men of Beth Shemesh offered Burnt Offering and sacrificed Sacrifices that same day to the LORD.

¹⁶ And when the five princes of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

¹⁷ So these are the golden tumors which the Philistines gave for a Sin Offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Askelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron;

¹⁸ and golden rats (according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines) to the five princes (both of walled towns and of towns unwalled) as far as the great Stone of Abel, upon which they set the Ark of the LORD (which remains to this day in the field of Joshua, the Beth Shemite).

¹⁹ And He struck some of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked in the Ark of the LORD. He killed fifty thousand seventy men among the people. And the people lamented because the LORD had killed the people with so great a slaughter.

²⁰ Therefore, the men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this Holy LORD God? And to whom shall He go from us?”

²¹ And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the Ark of the LORD. Come down! Take it up to you!”