¹And the ark of the Lord was in the Philistines' country for seven months. ²Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, and they said, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us in what way we should send it to its place.” ³And they said, “If you send the ark of the God of Israel back, do not send it back empty, but certainly return a guilt-offering to him, then you will be healed, and it will be made known to you why his hand would not depart from you.” ⁴And they said, “What is the guilt-offering which we should render to him?” And they said, “As the number of barons of the Philistines is: five golden haemorrhoids and five golden mice, for there is one plague on them all, including your barons. ⁵And you shall make images of your haemorrhoids and images of your mice which infested the land, and you shall give honour to the God of Israel so that maybe he will relax his grip on you and on your god and on your land. ⁶Why should you harden your heart in the way Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their heart? When he dealt forcefully with them, did they not let them go, and they departed? ⁷So now, make one new wagon, and take two dairy cows on which no yoke has been put, and you will attach the cows to the wagon and have their calves remain at home, leaving them behind. ⁸And you will take the ark of the Lord, and you will put it on the wagon, and you will put the golden items, which you are giving to him in return as a guilt-offering, in a box alongside it, and you will send it, and it will be dispatched. ⁹And you will see whether it goes up by the way of his border to Beth-Shemesh, because then it was him who did this great evil to us, but if not, then we will know that it was not his hand which struck us, and that it was a coincidence that happened to us.” ¹⁰And the men did this, and they took two dairy cows, and they attached them to the wagon, and they confined their calves at home. ¹¹And they put the ark of the Lord and the box and the golden mice and the images of their tumours on the wagon. ¹²And the cows went straight down the road, on the road to Beth-Shemesh, and they went on the one highway, lowing as they went, and they did not turn to the right or left, while the barons of the Philistines followed them up to the border of Beth-Shemesh. ¹³And at Beth-Shemesh they were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and they rejoiced at seeing it. ¹⁴And the wagon came to the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite, and it stopped there, where there is a large stone, and they chopped up the wood of the wagon and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹⁵Then the Levites brought the ark of the Lord down, and the box which was with it, in which were the golden items, and they put them on the large stone. And the men of Beth-Shemesh offered burnt offerings and offered sacrifices to the Lord on that day. ¹⁶And the five barons of the Philistines saw it and went back to Ekron on that day. ¹⁷And these are the golden tumours which the Philistines returned as a guilt-offering to the Lord: for Ashdod, one; for Gaza, one; for Ashkelon, one; for Gath, one; for Ekron, one. ¹⁸And the golden mice were in number according to all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five barons, from fortified city to unwalled village, including the great meadow above which they placed the ark of the Lord, a place as it is up to this day, in the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite. ¹⁹Then he struck down the men of Beth-Shemesh, because they looked in the ark of the Lord, and among the people he struck down seventy men, and fifty thousand men. And the people mourned, for the Lord had inflicted a severe blow on the people. ²⁰And the men of Beth-Shemesh said, “Who can stand before this holy Lord God, and to whom will it go up away from us?” ²¹And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jearim and said, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and bring it up to where you are.”