1 Samuel Chapter 6

The Ark Returns to Israel

¹ Yahveh’s Ark was in Philistine territory for seven months. ² They called for the priests and fortunetellers, “What should we do with it? Tell us how to send it back.”

³ “Send it back with a guilt offering to Israel’s God. You’ll be healed, and you’ll find out why he keeps working against you.”

⁴ “What guilt offering should we send him?”

“Five gold tumors and five gold mice, to match the number of Philistine lords. The same plague has struck you and your lords. ⁵ So make images of your tumors and the mice that are ravaging the land and honor Israel’s God. Maybe he’ll lighten his oppression on you, your gods, and your land. ⁶ Why harden your hearts like Pharaoh and the Egyptians did? After he’d mocked them, didn’t they end up letting the people go? ⁷ Build a new cart and take two milk cows that have never worn a yoke. Yoke them to the cart but take their calves away from them. ⁸ Put the Ark on the cart. In a box beside it put the gold figurines you’re returning to him as a guilt offering. Send it off, and ⁹ watch it. If it goes on the road to Beth-shemesh in its own land, he’s the one that has done us this great harm. If not, we’ll know it happened by chance.”

1 Sam 6:1-9

¹⁰ They yoked two milk cows to the cart, shut up their calves at home, ¹¹ and put the Ark on the cart along with a box containing the gold mice and the images of their tumors. ¹² The cows went straight toward Beth-shemesh along one road without veering off, bawling as they went. The lords of the Philistines followed them as far as the outskirts of Beth-shemesh. ¹³ The people there were harvesting wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the Ark, they were overjoyed. ¹⁴ It came and stopped in a field that belonged to Joshua of Beth-shemesh. There was a large rock there. They split up the wood from the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to Yahveh. ¹⁵ Levites took down the Ark and the box and set them on the large rock. The men of Beth-shemesh offered sacrifices and burnt offerings that day. ¹⁶ The five lords of the Philistines saw it and went back to Ekron.

¹⁷ As a guilt offering to Yahveh, the Philistines returned one gold tumor each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. ¹⁸ The gold mice matched the number of fortified towns and unwalled villages that belonged to the five Philistine lords. The large rock they set the Ark by is still a witness in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.

1 Sam 6:10-18

¹⁹ Yahveh killed 70 men from Beth-shemesh because they looked in the Ark. The people mourned because he’d killed so many. ²⁰ Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who can stand against this holy God? Who will go up when he leaves us?” ²¹ They sent messengers to Kiriath-jearim, “The Philistines have brought back the Ark of Yahveh. Come down and get it.” ¹ The men came and took it to Abinadab’s house on the hill. They consecrated his son Eleazar to take charge of it. ² It was there some 20 years, and Israel mourned after Yahveh.   1 Sam 6:19-7:2