The Ark Returned to Israel

1And the ark of Jehovah will be in the field of Philisteim seven months. 2And Philisteim will call for the priests and for the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of Jehovah? make known to us in what we shall send it to its place? 3And they will say, If sending away the ark of the God of Israel, ye shall not send it away empty; for turning back, ye shall turn back a trespass: then ye shall be healed and we shall make known to you why his hand shall not be removed from you. 4And they will say, What the trespass that we shall turn back to him? And they will say, The number of the princes of Philisteim, five gold tumors, and five gold mice: for one smiting upon them all and upon your princes. 5And make likenesses of your tumors, and likenesses of your mice destroying the land; and give glory to the God of Israel: perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. 6And why shall ye make your hearts heavy, as Egypt and Pharaoh made their heart heavy? Did he not then do wonders among them, and they will send them away, and they will go? 7And now take and make one new wagon, and two heifers giving milk, which a yoke came not up upon them, and make fast the heifers upon the wagon, and turn back their young from after them to the house. 8And take the ark of Jehovah and set it upon the wagon; and the vessels of gold which ye turned back to him ye shall put a trespass in a box from its side; and send it, and it went. 9And see if it shall go up the way of its bound to the House of the Sun, it did to us this great evil: and if not we shall know that not his hand struck upon us; it was a chance to us.

10And the men did so, and they will take two heifers giving milk, and they will make them fast to the wagon, and they shut up their young in the house. 11And they set the ark of Jehovah into the wagon, and the box, and the mice of gold, and the likenesses of the tumors. 12And the heifers will look about in the way, upon the way of the House of the Sun, in one highway they went going, and they lowed, and they turned not to the right and to the left; and the princes of Philisteim went after them, even to the bound of the House of the Sun.

13And the House of the Sun reaping the harvest of wheat in the valley: and they will lift up their eyes and see the ark, and they will rejoice to see. 14And the wagon came into the field of Joshua of the House of the Sun, and it will stand there; and there a great stone: and they will cleave asunder the wood of the wagon, and the heifers they brought up a burnt-offering to Jehovah. 15And the Levites brought down the ark of Jehovah, and the coffer that was with it, which in it the vessels of gold, and put upon the great stone: and the men of the House of the Sun brought up burnt-offerings and sacrificed sacrifices in that day to Jehovah. 16And the five princes of Philisteim saw, and they will turn back to Ekron in that day.

17And these the tumors of gold which Philisteim turned back a trespass to Jehovah; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one. 18And the mice of gold, the number of all the cities of Philisteim, to the five princes from the fortified city, even to the village of the countryman, and even to the great meadow which they put upon it the ark of Jehovah, even to this day in the field of Joshua of the House of the Sun.

19And he will strike upon the men of the House of the Sun, for they saw in the ark of Jehovah, and he will strike upon the people seventy men, and fifty thousand men: and the people will mourn because Jehovah smote among the people a great smiting. 20And the men of the House of the Sun will say, Who shall be able to stand before Jehovah this holy God? and to whom shall it go up from us? 21And they will send messengers to the inhabitants of the City of Forests, saying, Philisteim turned back the ark of Jehovah; come down, bring it up to you.