The Ark Returned to Israel

1 The Ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines for seven months. 2 The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the Ark of the Lord? Show us how we should send it to its place.”

3 They said, “If you send the Ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it empty; but by all means return a trespass offering to him. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.”

4 Then they said, “What should the trespass offering be which we shall return to him?”
They said, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, for the number of the Philistines rulers, for one plague was on all of you and your rulers. 5 Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that mar the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his hand from you, from your gods, and from your land. 6 Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonders among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

7 “Now therefore prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has been no yoke and tie the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. 8 Take the Ark of the Lord and lay it on the cart. Put the jewels of gold, which you are sending as a trespass offering, in a box by its side, and send it off, that it may go its way. 9 If it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has done this great disaster to us, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us. It was by chance that this happened to us.”

10 The men did this and took two milk cows and tied them to the cart and penned up their calves at home. 11 They put the Ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. 12 The cows took the straight way by the way to Beth Shemesh. They went along the highway, lowing as they went and did not turn away to the right or to the left, and the rulers of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.

13 The people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they looked up and saw the Ark and rejoiced at seeing it. 14 The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh and stood there, where there was a great stone. Then they split the wood of the cart and offered up the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 The Levites took down the Ark of the Lord and the box 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 offerings and made sacrifices the same day to the Lord.

16 When the five rulers of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. 17 These are the golden tumors which the Philistines sent as a trespass offering to the Lord: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; 18 and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five rulers, both of fortified cities and of country villages, to the great stone on which they set down the Ark of the Lord. That stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

19 He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. He struck 50,070 of the men. Then the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people in a great slaughter. 20 The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? To whom shall it go, away from us?”

21 They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the Ark of the Lord. Come down and bring it up to yourselves.”

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