| 1 | And the ark of Jehovah is in the field of the Philistines seven months, |
| 2 | and the Philistines call for priests and for diviners, saying, `What do we do to the ark of Jehovah? let us know wherewith we send it to its place?` |
| 3 | And they say, `If ye are sending away the ark of the God of Israel, ye do not send it away empty; for ye do certainly send back to Him a guilt-offering; then ye are healed, and it hath been known to you why His hand doth not turn aside from you.` |
| 4 | And they say, `What [is] the guilt-offering which we send back to Him?` and they say, `The number of the princes of the Philistines -- five golden emerods, and five golden mice -- for one plague [is] to you all, and to your princes, |
| 5 | and ye have made images of your emerods, and images of your mice that are corrupting the land, and have given honour to the God of Israel; it may be He doth lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land; |
| 6 | and why do ye harden your heart as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart? do they not -- when He hath rolled Himself upon them -- send them away, and they go? |
| 7 | `And now, take and make one new cart, and two suckling kine, on which a yoke hath not gone up, and ye have bound the kine in the cart, and caused their young ones to turn back from after them to the house, |
| 8 | and ye have taken the ark of Jehovah, and put it on the cart, and the vessels of gold which ye have returned to Him -- a guilt-offering -- ye put in a coffer on its side, and have sent it away, and it hath gone; |
| 9 | and ye have seen, if the way of its own border it goeth up to Beth-Shemesh -- He hath done to us this great evil; and if not, then we have known that His hand hath not come against us; an accident it hath been to us.` |
| 10 | And the men do so, and take two suckling kine, and bind them in the cart, and their young ones they have shut up in the house; |
| 11 | and they place the ark of Jehovah upon the cart, and the coffer, and the golden mice, and the images of their emerods. |
| 12 | And the kine go straight in the way, on the way to Beth-Shemesh, in one highway they have gone, going and lowing, and have not turned aside right or left; and the princes of the Philistines are going after them unto the border of Beth-Shemesh. |
| 13 | And the Beth-Shemeshites are reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley, and they lift up their eyes, and see the ark, and rejoice to see [it]. |
| 14 | And the cart hath come in unto the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite, and standeth there, and there [is] a great stone, and they cleave the wood of the cart, and the kine they have caused to ascend -- a burnt-offering to Jehovah. |
| 15 | And the Levites have taken down the ark of Jehovah, and the coffer which [is] with it, in which [are] the vessels of gold, and place [them] on the great stone; and the men of Beth-Shemesh have caused to ascend burnt-offerings and sacrifice sacrifices in that day to Jehovah; |
| 16 | and the five princes of the Philistines have seen [it], and turn back [to] Ekron, on that day. |
| 17 | And these [are] the golden emerods which the Philistines have sent back -- a guilt-offering to Jehovah: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; |
| 18 | and the golden mice -- the number of all the cities of the Philistines -- for the five princes, from the fenced city even unto the hamlet of the villages, even unto the great meadow on which they placed the ark of Jehovah -- [are] unto this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite. |
| 19 | And He smiteth among the men of Beth-Shemesh, for they looked into the ark of Jehovah, yea, He smiteth among the people seventy men -- fifty chief men; and the people mourn, because Jehovah smote among the people -- a great smiting. |
| 20 | And the men of Beth-Shemesh say, `Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God? and unto whom doth He go up from us?` |
| 21 | And they send messengers unto the inhabitants of Kirjath-Jearim, saying, `The Philistines have sent back the ark of Jehovah; come down, take it up unto you.` |
