1 Samuel 6:7-21 ▼

7 Now, therefore, prepare one new cart with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.

8 Take the ark of the LORD {YHWH}, set it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you⁺ are sending back to Him as a guilt offering. Then send the ark on its way,

9 but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh (house of the sun), it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”

10 So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

11 Then they put the ark of the LORD {YHWH} on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold rats and the images of the tumors.

12 And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh (house of the sun), staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines (immigrants) followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh (house of the sun) were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed at the sight.

14 The cart came to the field of Joshua (YHWH saves) of Beth-shemesh (house of the sun) and stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD {YHWH}.

15 And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD {YHWH} and the chest containing the gold objects, and they placed them on the large rock. That day the men of Beth-shemesh (house of the sun) offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.

16 And when the five rulers of the Philistines (immigrants) saw this, they returned to Ekron (torn up by the roots) that same day.

17 As a guilt offering to the LORD {YHWH}, the Philistines (immigrants) had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod (powerful), Gaza (the strong), Ashkelon (the fire of infamy), Gath (winepress), and Ekron (torn up by the roots).

18 The number of gold rats also corresponded to the number of Philistine (immigrants) cities belonging to the five rulers—the fortified cities and their outlying villages. And the large rock (great meadow) on which they placed the ark of the LORD {YHWH} stands to this day in the field of Joshua (YHWH saves) of Beth-shemesh (house of the sun).

19 But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh (house of the sun) because they looked inside the ark of the LORD {YHWH}. He struck down seventy men [70 men and 50,000 men], and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.

20 The men of Beth-shemesh (house of the sun) asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD {YHWH}, this holy God {Elohim}? To whom should the ark go up from here?”

21 So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim (city of forests), saying, “The Philistines (immigrants) have returned the ark of the LORD {YHWH}. Come down and take it up with you⁺.”