1 Samuel 6

1 And the ark was in the country of the Philistines seven months, and their land swarmed with mice. [a] 2 And the Philistines called their priests and their diviners and their chanters, and said, “What are we to do with the ark of the Lord? Show us how we are to send it away to its own place.” 3 And they said, “If you are sending away the ark of the covenant of the Lord God of Israel, do not send it away empty. You must certainly give back to it a payment for the torment; then you will be healed, and atonement will be made for you. Will his hand not withdraw from you then?” [b] 4 And they said, “What is the payment for the torment that we are to give back to it?” And they said, “By the number of the rulers of the Philistines: five golden sores — for one and the same blow is on you and on your rulers and on the people — [c] 5 and golden mice, the likeness of your mice that are destroying the land. And you are to give glory to the Lord, so that he may lighten his hand from you and from your gods and from your land. 6 Why do you make your hearts heavy, as Egypt and Pharaoh made their heart heavy? Was it not when he made fools of them that they sent them away, and they went? [d]

7 Now then, take and make a new wagon, and take two cows that have calved for the first time, without their calves; and yoke the cows to the wagon, and lead the calves away from behind them, back to the barn. 8 And you are to take the ark and set it on the wagon; and the golden articles you are to give back to it as the payment for the torment, and put them in a box at its side. Then send it off, and drive it away, and it will go. [e] 9 And you will watch: if it goes up the road to its own borders, toward Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm; and if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that touched us, but that this was something that simply happened to us.”

10 And the Philistines did so. They took two cows that had calved for the first time and yoked them to the wagon, and shut their calves up at home; 11 and they set the ark on the wagon, and the box, and the golden mice. [f] 12 And the cows went straight on the road, on the road to Beth-shemesh. They kept to one track, laboring as they went, and they did not turn aside to the right or to the left; and the rulers of the Philistines went behind it as far as the borders of Beth-shemesh. [g]

13 And the men of Beth-shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark of the Lord, and they were glad to meet it. 14 And the wagon came into the field of Hoshea, which was in Beth-shemesh; and they set up a great stone there beside it, and they split the wood of the wagon and offered up the cows as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. [h] 15 And the Levites brought up the ark of the Lord, and the box with it, and the golden articles that were on it, and set them on the great stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered up whole burnt offerings and sacrifices that day to the Lord. 16 And the five rulers of the Philistines saw it, and went back to Ashkelon that same day.

17 And these are the golden sores which the Philistines gave back to the Lord as the payment for the torment: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; 18 and the golden mice by the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five rulers, from the fortified city to the village of the Perizzite, and as far as the great stone on which they set the ark of the covenant of the Lord — the stone that is in the field of Hoshea of Beth-shemesh.

19 But the sons of Jeconiah were not glad along with the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked at the ark of the Lord; and he struck down among them seventy men, and fifty thousand men. And the people mourned, because the Lord had struck the people with a very great blow. [i] 20 And the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to pass before the Lord, this holy one? And to whom will the ark of the Lord go up, away from us?” 21 And they sent messengers to the people living in Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to yourselves.” [j]