1 Samuel 6

¹ And the ark of Yahweh is in the field of the Philistines seven months, ² and the Philistines call for priests and for diviners, saying, "What do we do to the ark of Yahweh? let us know wherewith we send it to its place?" ³ And they say, "If you are sending away the ark of the Elohim of Israel, you do not send it away empty; for you do certainly send back to Him a guilt-offering; then you are healed, and it has been known to you why His hand does not turn aside from you." ⁴ And they say, "What [is] the guilt-offering which we send back to Him?" and they say, "The number of the princes of the Philistines - five golden emerods, and five golden mice - for one plague [is] to you all, and to your princes, ⁵ and you have made images of your emerods, and images of your mice that are corrupting the land, and have given honor to the Elohim of Israel; it may be He does lighten His hand from off you, and from off your elohims, and from off your land; ⁶ and why do you harden your heart as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart? do they not - when He has rolled Himself upon them - send them away, and they go? ⁷ And now, take and make one new cart, and two suckling kine, on which a yoke has not gone up, and you have bound the kine in the cart, and caused their young ones to turn back from after them to the house, ⁸ and you have taken the ark of Yahweh, and put it on the cart, and the vessels of gold which you have returned to Him - a guilt-offering - you put in a coffer on its side, and have sent it away, and it has gone; ⁹ and you have seen, if the way of its own border it goes up to Beth-Shemesh - He has done to us this great evil; and if not, then we have known that His hand has not come against us; an accident it has been to us." ¹⁰ And the men do so, and take two suckling kine, and bind them in the cart, and their young ones they have shut up in the house; ¹¹ and they place the ark of Yahweh upon the cart, and the coffer, and the golden mice, and the images of their emerods. ¹² And the kine go straight in the way, on the way to Beth-Shemesh, in one highway they have gone, going and lowing, and have not turned aside right or left; and the princes of the Philistines are going after them unto the border of Beth-Shemesh. ¹³ And the Beth-Shemeshites are reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley, and they lift up their eyes, and see the ark, and rejoice to see [it]. ¹⁴ And the cart has come in unto the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite, and stands there, and there [is] a great stone, and they cleave the wood of the cart, and the kine they have caused to ascend - a burnt-offering to Yahweh. ¹⁵ And the Levites have taken down the ark of Yahweh, and the coffer which [is] with it, in which [are] the vessels of gold, and place [them] on the great stone; and the men of Beth-Shemesh have caused to ascend burnt-offerings and sacrifice sacrifices in that day to Yahweh; ¹⁶ and the five princes of the Philistines have seen [it], and turn back [to] Ekron, on that day. ¹⁷ And these [are] the golden emerods which the Philistines have sent back - a guilt-offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; ¹⁸ and the golden mice - the number of all the cities of the Philistines - for the five princes, from the fenced city even unto the hamlet of the villages, even unto the great meadow on which they placed the ark of Yahweh - [are] unto this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite. ¹⁹ And He smites among the men of Beth-Shemesh, for they looked into the ark of Yahweh, yea, He smites among the people seventy men - fifty chief men; and the people mourn, because Yahweh smote among the people - a great smiting. ²⁰ And the men of Beth-Shemesh say, "Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy Elohim? and unto whom does He go up from us?" ²¹ And they send messengers unto the inhabitants of Kirjath-Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have sent back the ark of Yahweh; come down, take it up unto you."