1The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines for seven months.
2The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to its own place."
3They said, "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty. Be sure to send him back a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you."
4Then they asked, "What trespass offering shall we send back to him?" They answered, "Five golden tumours and five golden mice, one for each of the lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of you, and on your lords."
5So make models of your tumours, and models of your mice that spoil the land. Give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land.
6Why then do you make your hearts hard, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh made their hearts hard? When he had dealt with them in wonderful ways, did they not let the people go, so that they left?
7So now make a new cart, and take two milk cows that have never worn a yoke. Tie the cows to the cart, and take their calves away from them, back home.
8Take the ark of the LORD and put it on the cart. Put the gold objects, which you are sending back to him as a trespass offering, in a box beside it. Then send it away, and let it go.
9"Watch it. If it goes up the road to its own land, to Bethshemesh, then it is he who has brought this great trouble on us. But if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us. It only happened to us by chance."
10The men did so. They took two milk cows and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
11They put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the box with the gold mice and the models of their tumours.
12The cows went straight along the road to Bethshemesh. They kept to the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. The lords of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Bethshemesh.
13The people of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. They looked up and saw the ark, and they were glad to see it.
14The cart came into the field of Joshua, a man of Bethshemesh, and stopped there, where there was a great stone. They chopped up the wood of the cart, and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
15The Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the box that was with it, which held the gold objects, and put them on the great stone. That same day the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.
16When the five lords of the Philistines had seen this, they went back to Ekron the same day.
17These are the golden tumours which 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.
18And there were golden mice, one for each of the cities of the Philistines that belonged to the five lords, both walled cities and country villages, as far as the great stone of Abel, on which they set down the ark of the LORD. That stone is still in the field of Joshua, the man of Bethshemesh, to this day.
19And he struck down the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck down fifty thousand and seventy men of the people. The people mourned, because the LORD had struck many of the people with a great slaughter.
20The men of Bethshemesh said, "Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? And to whom shall he go up from us?"
21So they sent messengers to the people who lived in Kirjathjearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to your place."