Shmuel I - Chapter 6

1. And the Ark of the Lord was in the field of the Philistines seven months.

2. And the Philistines called the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do to the Ark of the Lord? Let us know in what (manner) we shall send it to its place."

3. And they said, "If you send the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but you shall send back with it a guilt-offering. Then you will be cured, and it will be known to you, why His hand would not turn away from you.

4. And they said, "What is the guilt-offering which we shall send back to Him?" And they said, "The number of the lords of the Philistines: five hemorrhoids of gold and five mice of gold, for there is one plague for all of them and for your lords.

5. And you shall make the images of your hemorrhoids and the images of your mice who destroy the land, and you shall give honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps He will lighten His hand from upon you, and from upon your god, and from upon your land.

6. And why should you make your heart heavy as the Egyptians and Pharaoh made their hearts heavy? Will it not be, just as He mocked them, and they sent them away, and they departed?

7. And now take (wood) and make one new cart, and (take) two milch cows, upon which no yoke has (ever) come, and you shall hitch the cows to the cart, and return their young home from behind them.

8. And you shall take the Ark of the Lord, and you shall place it on the cart, and the golden objects which you have sent back to Him as a guilt-offering, you shall place in the box at its side, and you shall send it away, and it will go.

9. And you will see, if it goes up on the way to its own boundary, to Beth-shemesh, He wrought upon us this great evil, and if not, then we shall know that it was not His hand which touched us; it was an accident which befell us.

10. And the men did so, and they took two milch cows, and hitched them to the cart, and their young they shut up in the house.

11. And they placed the Ark of the Lord on the cart, and (also) the box, and the golden mice, and the images of their hemorrhoids.

12. And the cows went straight in the road on the way to Beth-shemesh, on one highway, lowing as they went, and they turned neither to the right nor to the left. And the lords of the Philistines were going along after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.

13. Now (the inhabitants of) Beth-shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the Ark, and they rejoiced to see (it).

14. And the cart had come to the field of Joshua, the Beth-shemeshite, and stood there, and there was a huge stone. And they split the wood, and the cows, they offered up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

15. And the Levites took down the Ark of the Lord, and the box which was with it, wherein were the golden objects, and they placed them on the huge stone, and the men of Beth-shemesh offered up burnt offerings and slaughtered sacrifices on that day, to the Lord.

16. And the five lords of the Philistines had seen, and they returned to Ekron on that day.

17. And these were the golden hemorrhoids which the Philistines had sent back (as) a guilt-offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, (and) one for Ekron.

18. And the golden mice were according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines, which belonged to the five lords, from fortified city to open village and even to the great stone upon which they had placed the Ark of the Lord, (which is) until this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite.

19. And He smote of the people of Beth-shemesh, for they had gazed upon the Ark of the Lord, and He smote of the people seventy men, fifty thousand men, and the people mourned, for the Lord had struck a great blow upon the people.

20. And the men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who will be able to stand before (the Ark of) the Lord, this holy God? and to whom will it go up from upon us?"

21. And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, "The Philistines have returned the Ark of the Lord. Come down, and take it up to you."