1 Samuel 6

The Ark Comes Back

1 The Ark of the Lord stayed in Philistine territory for seven months.

2 The Philistines called their priests and fortune-tellers and said, “What we supposed to do with this Ark, How we send it back without dying?”

3 They said, “Do not just send it back empty. Send it with a guilt offering too. Maybe God will chill out and stop crushing you all.”

4 The Philistines asked, “What kinda guilt offering we supposed to give?” They said, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, one for each of the Philistine rulers, because the plagues hit all of you.”

5 “Make models of your tumors and rats that has been wrecking the land. Show honor to Israel’s God. Maybe He will stop smashing you and your gods and your land.”

6 “Do not be stubborn like Egypt and Pharaoh were. You all see what happened to them when they did not listen, it got ugly till they let the people go.”

The Plan to Return the Ark

7 They said, “Here is the move, make a new cart. Take two cows that just had calves and never been yoked. Hitch them up to the cart, but keep their calves back at home.”

8 “Put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, and in a box next to it, put the gold tumors and rats as your guilt offering. Then just let it roll.”

9 “If the cart heads straight to Beth-shemesh, then we know it was God who wrecked us. But if not, it was just bad luck.”

They Follow Through

10 So they got two cows, hitched them up, and locked their calves away.

11 They loaded the Ark of the Lord and the box with the gold rats and tumors onto the cart.

12 The cows headed straight toward Beth-shemesh, staying on the road, low-key mooing the whole way, but they did not turn left or right. The Philistine rulers followed them all the way to the edge of Beth-shemesh.

Beth-shemesh Celebrates

13 The people of Beth-shemesh were out in the fields harvesting wheat. When they saw the Ark coming, they lost it, cheering, praising God.

14 The cart pulled into a field that belonged to a dude named Joshua. It stopped by a big rock. They chopped up the cart for firewood and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord.

15 The Levites took the Ark of the Lord and the box with the gold stuff out the cart and put them on the big rock. That day the people of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Lord.

16 The five Philistine rulers watched everything and then went back to Ekron the same day.

The Guilt Offering Explained

17 Here is the guilt offering: one gold tumor each from Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.

18 And the gold rats matched the number of Philistine towns, walled cities and villages. They put all this on that big rock where the Ark had stopped, that rock still there at Joshua’s field in Beth-shemesh.

Some Folks Disrespected the Ark

19 But some men from Beth-shemesh got too curious and looked inside the Ark, and God struck down 70 of them (some translations say 50,070). The people mourned hard because the Lord hit them heavy.

20 They said, “Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God, Where can we send the Ark now?”

21 They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines sent the Ark back! Come get it!”