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1 Samuel
Chapter 6
1 And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines
seven months.
2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners,
saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we
shall send it to his place.
3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send
it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye
shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not
removed from you.
4 Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we
shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five
golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines:
for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of
your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of
Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from
off your gods, and from off your land.
6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and
Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among
them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?
7 Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which
there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their
calves home from them:
8 And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put
the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a
coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go.
9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to
Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we
shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that
happened to us.
10 And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to
the cart, and shut up their calves at home:
11 And they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the coffer
with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods.
12 And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh,
and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside
to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went
after them unto the border of Bethshemesh.
13 And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the
valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to
see it.
14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and
stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of
the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD.
15 And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer
that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the
great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and
sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD.
16 And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they
returned to Ekron the same day.
17 And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned
for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one,
for Askelon 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 lords, both of fenced cities,
and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon
they set down the ark of the LORD: which stone remaineth unto this day
in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite.
19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked
into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand
and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD
had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
20 And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before
this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
21 And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim,
saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye
down, and fetch it up to you.