FIRST SAMUEL

 

1 Samuel Chapter 6

1 ¶ The ark of the LORD was in the land of the Philistines for seven months.

2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? tell us how we can send it back to its place.

3 And they said, If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but you must return it with a trespass offering: then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand is not removed from you.

4 Then they asked, What trespass offering shall we send back to him? They answered, Five golden swellings, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on all of you, and on your lords.

5 Therefore you shall make images of your swellings, and images of the mice that are destroying the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel: perhaps he will lighten his hand upon you, upon your gods, and upon your land.

6 Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had done wonders among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

7 Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milk cows, that have never been yoked, and yoke the cows to the cart, and take their calves home away from them:

8 And take the ark of the LORD, and place it on the cart; and put the figures of gold, which you are returning to him for a trespass offering, in a box by its side; then send it away, and let it go.

9 Then watch; if it goes up the road to its own land toward Bethshemesh, then it is he who has done 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.

10 ¶ So the men did this; and took two milk cows, and yoked them to the cart, while shutting up their calves at home:

11 And they placed the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the box containing the gold mice and the images of their swellings.

12 And the cows went straight up the road toward Bethshemesh, and followed the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Bethshemesh.

13 And the men of Bethshemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley: and they looked up, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.

14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stopped there, where there was a large rock: and the men split up the wood of the cart, and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.

15 And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the box that was with it, which contained the figures of gold, and placed them on the large rock: and that very day the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices to the LORD.

16 And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron on the same day.

17 And these are the golden swellings that the Philistines sent back as a trespass offering to the LORD; one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Askelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron;

18 And the golden mice, also corresponded to the number of the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both walled cities, and country villages. The large rock, on which they placed the ark of the LORD: is to this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite.

19 ¶ And the Lord struck down some of the men of Bethshemesh, because they looked into the ark of the LORD, he struck down seventy people out of fifty thousand: and the people mourned, because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.

20 And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before the LORD this holy God? and to whom shall he go from here?

21 And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD; come down, and take it up to you.