CHAPTER 6
the Philistines
summoned
the priests
and diviners,
saying,
“What
shall we do
with the ark
of the LORD?
Tell
us how
to send it back
to its place.”
They replied,
“If
you return
the ark
of the God
of Israel,
do not
send it away
empty,
but
by all means
return it
to Him
with a guilt offering.
Then
you will be healed,
and you will understand
why
His hand
has not
been lifted
from
you."
“What
guilt offering
should we send back to Him?”
asked the Philistines.
“Five
gold
tumors
and five
gold
rats,”
they said,
“according to the number
of rulers
of the Philistines,
since
the same
plague has struck
both you
and your rulers.
Make
images
of your tumors
and of the rats
that are ravaging
the land.
Give
glory
to the God
of Israel,
and perhaps
He will lift
His hand
from you
and
your gods
and
your land.
Why
harden
your hearts
as
the Egyptians
and Pharaoh
hardened
theirs?
When
He afflicted them,
did they not
send the people on their way
as they departed?
Now, therefore,
prepare
one
new
cart
with two
milk
cows
that
have never
been yoked.
Hitch
the cows
to the cart,
but take their calves
away
and pen them up.
Take
the ark
of the LORD,
set
it
on
the cart,
and
in a chest
beside it
put
the gold
objects
you are sending
Him
as a guilt offering.
Then send
the ark
on its way,
but keep watching it.
If
it goes up
the road
to its homeland,
toward Beth-shemesh,
it is the LORD
who has brought
on us
this
great
disaster.
But if
it does not,
then we will know
that
it was not
His hand
that punished
us
and that it
happened
by chance."
So the men
did
as instructed.
They took
two
milk
cows,
hitched
them to the cart,
and penned up
their calves.
Then they put
the ark
of the LORD
on
the cart,
along with the box
containing the gold
rats
and the images
of the tumors.
And the cows
headed straight
up the road
toward
Beth-shemesh,
staying on that one
highway
and lowing
as they went,
never
straying
to the right
or to the left.
The rulers
of the Philistines
followed
behind
them to
the border
of
Beth-shemesh.
Now the people of Beth-shemesh
were harvesting
wheat
in the valley,
and when they looked up
and saw
the ark,
they were overjoyed
at the sight.
The cart
came
to
the field
of Joshua
of Beth-shemesh
and stopped
there
near a large
rock.
The people chopped up
the cart
and offered
the cows
as a burnt offering
to the LORD.
And the Levites
took down
the ark
of the LORD
and
the box
containing
the gold
objects,
and they placed
them on
the large
rock.
That
day
the men
of Beth-shemesh
offered
burnt offerings
and made
sacrifices
to the LORD.
As a guilt offering
to the LORD,
the Philistines
had sent back
one
gold
tumor for each city:
Ashdod,
Gaza,
Ashkelon,
Gath,
and Ekron.
The number of gold
rats
also corresponded to the number
of Philistine
cities
belonging to the five
rulers—
the fortified
cities
and their outlying
villages.
And
to this
day
the large
rock
on
which
they placed
the ark
of the LORD
is in the field
of Joshua
of Beth-shemesh.
But God struck down
some of the people
of Beth-shemesh
because
they looked
inside the ark
of the LORD.
He struck down
seventy
men,
and the people mourned
because
the LORD
had struck
them
with a great
slaughter.
The men
of Beth-shemesh
asked,
“Who
can
stand
in the presence
of the LORD,
this
holy
God?
To
whom
should the ark go up
from here?”
So they sent
messengers
to
the people
of Kiriath-jearim,
saying,
“The Philistines
have returned
the ark
of the LORD.
Come down
and take it up
with you.”