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1 Samuel 6:1-21 — The Ark Returned to Israel

1Sam.6.1-21

¹The ark of the LORD was in the territory of the Philistines for seven months. ²Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.” ³They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but be sure to return to him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand has not turned away from you.” ⁴They said, “What is the guilt offering that we should return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, corresponding to the number of the rulers of the Philistines, because the same plague has struck all of you and your rulers.” ⁵So make images of your tumors and images of your mice that are ruining the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and your gods and your land. ⁶Why should you harden your hearts as Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? Was it not after he dealt harshly with them that they let them go, and they departed? ⁷Now then, take and prepare one new cart and two cows that are nursing calves and have never borne a yoke. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away from them and bring them home. ⁸Then take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart, and put the gold items that you are returning to him as a guilt offering in a chest beside it. Then send it away, and let it go. ⁹And watch: if it goes up by the road to its own border, to Beth-shemesh, then it is the LORD who has done this great harm to us. But if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance." ¹⁰The men did so. They took two nursing cows and hitched them to the cart, and they shut up their calves at home. ¹¹They placed the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest and the golden mice and the images of their tumors. ¹²And the cows went straight on the road toward Beth-shemesh, keeping to one highway, lowing as they went. They did not turn aside to the right or to the left, and the rulers of the Philistines followed after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh. ¹³Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley. When they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. ¹⁴The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite and stopped there, where there was a large stone. Then they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. ¹⁵And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the chest that was with it, in which were the gold items, and they set them on the large stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the LORD. ¹⁶When the five rulers of the Philistines saw this, they returned to Ekron that same day. ¹⁷These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron. ¹⁸The golden mice also corresponded to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five rulers, from fortified city to unwalled village, and as far as the great Abel , on which they set the ark of the LORD, which remains to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite. ¹⁹And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck seventy men, fifty thousand men among the people, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow. ²⁰Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall it go up from us?” ²¹So 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 yourselves.”

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4/11/2026

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