I Samuel 6 · שמואל א

And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Pelishtim seven months.

And the Pelishtim called for the priests and magicians, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? tell us how we shall send it to its place.

And they said, If you send away the ark of the God of Yisra᾽el, send it not empty; but make sure to return him a guilt offering: then you shall be healed, and you will learn why his hand is not removed from you.

Then said they, What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden swellings, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Pelishtim: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.

And you shall make images of your swellings, and images of your mice that ravage the land; and you shall give honour to the God of Yisra᾽el: perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

Why harden your hearts, as Miżrayim and Par῾o hardened their hearts? after all the inflictions he wrought among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch cows, on which there has never been a yoke, and tie the cows to the cart, and leave their calves behind them at home:

and take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart; and put the golden devices which you are restoring to him for a guilt offering in a box by the side of it; and send it away, that it may go.

And see: if it goes up by the way of his border to Bet-shemesh, then he has 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.

And the men did so; and took two milch cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home:

and they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart, and the box with the mice of gold and the images of their swellings.

And the cows took the straight way by the road of Bet-shemesh, 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 Pelishtim went after them to the border of Bet-shemesh.

And they of Bet-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.

And the cart came into the field of Yehoshua, a man of Bet-shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord.

And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the box that was with it, in which were the devices of gold, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bet-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the Lord.

And when the five lords of the Pelishtim had seen it, they returned to ῾Eqron the same day.

And these are the golden swellings which the Pelishtim returned for a guilt offering to the Lord; for Ashdod one, for ῾Azza one, for Ashqelon one, for Gat one, for ῾Eqron one;

and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Pelishtim belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities, and open villages, as far as the great stone, on which they set down the ark of the Lord: which remains to this day in the field of Yehoshua, the Bet-Shimshite.

And he smote the men of Bet-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, smiting fifty thousand and seventy men of the people: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.

And the men of Bet-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us?

And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Qiryat-ye῾arim, saying, The Pelishtim have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down, and fetch it up to you.