1 Samuel 6:1-8 ▼

1 And the Ark of YHWH is in the field of the Philistines [for] seven months,

2 and the Philistines call for priests and for diviners, saying, “What do we do to the Ark of YHWH? Let us know with what we send it to its place.”

3 And they say, “If you are sending the Ark of the God of Israel away, you do not send it away empty; for you certainly send back a guilt-offering to Him; then you are healed, and it has been known to you why His hand does 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 lumps, and five golden muroids—for one plague [is] to you all, and to your princes,

5 and you have made images of your lumps, and images of your muroids that are corrupting the land, and have given glory to the God of Israel; it may be [that] He lightens His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land;

6 and why do you harden your heart as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart? Do they not—when He has rolled Himself on them—send them away, and they go?

7 And now, take and make one new cart, and two suckling cows, on which a yoke has not gone up, and you have bound the cows in the cart, and caused their young ones to turn back from after them to the house,

8 and you have taken the Ark of YHWH, and put it on the cart, and the vessels of gold which you have returned to Him—a guilt-offering—you put in a coffer on its side, and have sent it away, and it has gone;