6:1So the ark of the Lord was in the region of the Philistines for seven months. 6:2And the Philistines called the priests and diviners, saying: "What shall we do about the ark of the Lord? 6:2Show us how we may send it back to its place." 6:2They said: "If you are sending back the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but what you owe, pay back to him for sin, and then you will be healed: and you will know why his hand does not depart from you." 6:4They said: "What is it that we ought to pay back to him for the offence?"
6:4And they answered: "According to the number of the provinces of the Philistines you shall make five golden rumps, and five golden mice: because there has been one plague for all of you, and for your lords. 6:5And you shall make likenesses of your rumps, and likenesses of the mice, which have destroyed the land: and you shall give glory to the God of Israel, if perhaps he may lift his hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land. 6:6Why do you make your hearts heavy, just as Egypt and Pharaoh made their heart heavy? 6:6Was it not after he had been struck that he then sent them away, and they went off?
6:7Now therefore take and make one new cart: and two cows that have calved, on which a yoke has not been placed, yoke to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 6:8And you shall take the ark of the Lord, and place it on the cart, and the golden vessels which you have paid to him for the offence, you shall place in a little box at its side: and send it away so that it may go. 6:9And you shall look: and if indeed it goes up by the way of its own borders towards Beth-shemesh, he himself has done us this great evil: but if not, not at all: we shall know that by no means has his hand touched us, but it has happened by chance."
6:10So they did in this manner: and taking two cows which were suckling calves, they yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 6:11And they placed the ark of God upon the cart, and the little box which held the golden mice and the likenesses of the rumps. 6:12And the cows were going straight ahead along the way which leads to Beth-shemesh, and they were stepping along one road, going on and lowing: and they were not turning aside either to the right or to the left: and the lords of the Philistines too were following as far as the boundaries of Beth-shemesh. 6:13Now the men of Beth-shemesh were reaping wheat in the valley: and lifting up their eyes, they saw the ark, and rejoiced when they had seen it.
6:14And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and stood there. 6:14Now there was a great stone there, and they cut up the wood of the cart, and they placed the cows upon it as a burnt-offering to the Lord. 6:15And the Levites took down the ark of God, and the little box which was beside it, in which were the golden vessels, and placed them upon the great stone. 6:15And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed victims on that day to the Lord. 6:16And the five lords of the Philistines saw, and returned into Ekron on that day. 6:17And these are the golden rumps which the Philistines paid back for the offence, to the Lord: Ashdod one, Gaza one, Ashkelon one, Gath one, Ekron one: and golden mice according to the number of the cities of the Philistines, of the five provinces, from the walled city as far as the village which was without a wall, and as far as Abel the Great, upon which they placed the ark of the Lord, which was until that day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.
6:19And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had seen the ark of the Lord: and he struck of the people seventy men, and fifty thousand of the common folk. 6:19And the people mourned, because the Lord had struck the common folk with a great plague. 6:20And the men of Beth-shemesh said: "Who will be able to stand in the sight of the Lord, this holy God? 6:20And to whom will he go up from us?" 6:21And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying: "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord: come down, and bring it back to yourselves."