1After seven months the Philistines take counsel how to send back the ark. 10They bring it on a new cart with an offering unto Beth-shemesh. 19The Beth-shemites are smitten for looking into the ark. 21They send to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim to fetch it.
1 And 1the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
2 And the Philistines called for 1the priests and the 2diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.
3 And they said, If ye 1send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a 2trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it 3shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.
4 Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden 1mice, 2according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for 3one plague was on ayou all, and on your lords.
5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your 1mice that mar the land; and ye shall 2give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will 3lighten his hand from off you, and from 4off 5your gods, and from off your land.
6 Wherefore then do ye 1harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought awonderfully among them, did they not let bthe people go, and they departed?
7 Now therefore make a 1new cart, and take two milch kine, 2on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them:
8 And take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go.
9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth-shemesh, then ahe hath 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.
10 ¶ And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home:
11 And they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods.
12 And the kine took the straight way to the way of 1Beth-shemesh, and went along the 2highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 And they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: 1and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and 1offered the kine a burnt offering unto the Lord.
15 And the 1Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord.
16 And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to 1Ekron the same day.
17 And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the Lord; for 1Ashdod one, for 2Gaza one, for 3Askelon one, for 4Gath one, for Ekron one;
18 And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of 1country villages, even unto the agreat stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord: which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Beth-shemite.
19 ¶ And he 1smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
20 And the men of Beth-shemesh said, 1Who is able to stand before this 2holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
21 ¶ And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of 1Kirjath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.
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