1 For seven months the ark of the LORD was in Philistine territory.
2 The Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and said, "What should we do with the ark of the LORD? Let us know what we should send along with it to its place."
3 They said, "If you send the ark of Israel's God away, do not send it off empty-handed; by all means return a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and it will become clear to you why his hand does not leave you alone."
4 They asked, "What guilt offering should we return to him?" They said, "Five gold tumors and five gold mice, matching the number of the lords of the Philistines, since one plague struck all of you and your lords.
5 Make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that are destroying the land, and give glory to Israel's God. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you, your gods and your land.
6 Why harden your hearts the way Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had made sport of them, did they not let the people go, and they went?
7 So now, get a new cart ready, and two cows that have calves and have never borne a yoke. Harness the cows to the cart, and take their calves away from them back home.
8 Take the ark of the LORD and set it on the cart, and put the gold objects you are returning to him as a guilt offering in a chest beside it. Then send it off on its way.
9 And watch: if it heads up the road to its own territory, to Beth-shemesh, it is he who has brought this great disaster on us. If not, we will know that his hand did not touch us; it was something that just happened to us."
10 The men did this. They took two cows with calves, harnessed them to the cart, and penned up their calves at home.
11 They set the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest holding the gold mice and the likenesses of their tumors.
12 The cows went straight ahead on the road to Beth-shemesh, keeping to the one highway, lowing as they went, turning neither right nor left. The lords of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. They looked up and saw the ark, and they were glad at the sight.
14 The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood still there, where there was a large stone. They chopped up the wood of the cart and offered the cows up as a burnt offering to the LORD.
15 The Levites had lifted down the ark of the LORD and the chest with it that held the gold objects, and placed them on the large stone. That day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices to the LORD.
16 The five lords of the Philistines watched, and then went back to Ekron that same day.
17 These are the gold tumors the Philistines returned to the LORD as a guilt offering: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one.
18 The gold mice matched the number of all the Philistine cities belonging to the five lords, from fortified city to country village, as far as the great Abel on which they set the ark of the LORD; it is still there to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.
19 He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh for looking into the ark of the LORD; he struck down among the people seventy men, fifty thousand men. The people went into mourning because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow.
20 The men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who can stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom will he go up from us?"
21 They sent messengers to those living in Kiriath-jearim to say, "The Philistines have sent back the ark of the LORD. Come down and bring it up to your place."