1 Samuel 6

And the Box of God was in the field of the Philistines seven months.

And the Philistines called to the priests and to the diviners, saying, “What should we do with the Box of God? Cause us to know with what we should send it to its place.” \*

And they said, “If you are sending away the Box of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but returning, return to him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand has not turned from you.”

And they said, “What {is} the guilt offering that we should return to him?” And they said, “From the number of the lords of the Philistines, five tumors of gold and five mice of gold, for one plague was to all of them and to your lords. \*

And you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice, the ones destroying the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.

And why do you make your heart heavy, just as the Egyptians and Pharaoh made their heart heavy? When he dealt severely with them, did they not send them away, and they went? \*

And now, take and make a new cart, and two nursing cows upon which a yoke has not gone up. And you shall harness the cows to the cart, but you shall return their calves from behind them to the house.

And you shall take the Box of God and put it into the cart, and you shall set the objects of gold that you are returning to him {as} a guilt offering in a box by its side. And you shall send it away, that it may go.

And you shall look; if it goes up the way of its border, {to} Beth Shemesh, he has done this great harm to us. But if not, then we will know that his hand has not touched us; it has happened to us {by} chance.” \*

And the men did thus, for they took two nursing cows, and they harnessed them to the cart, but they shut up their calves in the house.

And they set the Box of God in the cart and the box and the mice of gold and the images of their tumors.

And the cows went straight in the way on the way of Beth Shemesh. They went in one path, going and lowing, and they did not turn {to} the right or {to} the left. And the lords of the Philistines were going after them unto the border of Beth Shemesh. \*

Now Beth Shemesh was harvesting the harvest of wheat in the valley. And they lifted up their eyes, and they saw the Box, and they rejoiced to see {it}.

And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Bethshemite, and it stood still there. Now a great stone was there. And they broke up the wood of the cart, and they offered the cows {as} a burnt offering to God. \*

Now the Levites had taken down the Box of God and the box that {was} with it, in which were the objects of gold, and they had set {them} on the great stone. And the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to God.

And the five lords of the Philistines saw, and they returned {to} Ekron on that day. \*

And these {are} the tumors of gold that the Philistines returned {as} a guilt offering to God: for Ashdod, one; for Gaza, one; for Ashkelon, one; for Gath, one; for Ekron, one.

And the mice of gold {were} from the number of all of the cities of the Philistines {that were} to the five lords, from the city of fortification and to the village of the countryside and to the great Abel, on which they rested the Box of God. {It is} in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite to this day. \*

But he struck among the men of Beth Shemesh because they looked into the Box of God. And he struck among the people 70 men, 50, 000 men. And the people mourned because God had struck a great striking among the people.

And the men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand to the face of God, this holy God? And to whom will he go up from upon us?” \*

And they sent messengers to the dwellers of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the Box of God. Come down and bring it up to you.” \*