¹The ark of Yahweh was in the field of the Philistines seven months.

²And the Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of Yahweh? Make known to us with what we should send it to its place."

³And they said, "If you are sending away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send away it empty; for you must surely return a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and it will be made known to you why his hand does not turn aside from you."

⁴And they said, "What is the guilt offering that we should return to him?" And they said, "The number of the lords of the Philistines: five tumors of gold and five mice of gold; for one plague is on all of them and on your lords."

⁵"You will make images of your tumors and images of your mice, which are ruining the land, and you will give weightiness to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you, and from upon your gods, and from upon your land."

⁶And why will you make your heart heavy, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh made their hearts heavy? Was it not when he dealt severely with them that they sent them away, and they went?

⁷And now, take and make one new cart, and two nursing heifers on which no yoke has come up; and you shall yoke the heifers to the cart, and return their young from behind them to the house.

⁸And you shall take the ark of Yahweh and set it on the cart, and the articles of gold which you are returning to him as a guilt offering you shall put in the box at its side; and you shall send it off, and it will go.

⁹And you shall see: if it goes up by the way of its own boundary to Beth-shemesh, it is he who has done this great evil to us; but if not, then we shall know that it was not his hand that touched us; it happened to us by chance.

¹⁰And the men did so: they took two nursing heifers and yoked them to the cart, and shut up their young in the house.

¹¹And they put the ark of Yahweh on the cart, and the box, and the gold mice, and the images of their tumors.

¹²And the heifers went straight on the road, along the road to Beth-shemesh; they went along one highway, going and lowing, and did not turn aside to the right or the left; and the lords of the Philistines were going after them as far as the boundary of Beth-shemesh.

¹³And Beth-shemesh was reaping the wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.

¹⁴And the cart came to the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite and stood there; and there was a great stone. And they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the heifers as a burnt offering to Yahweh.

¹⁵And the Levites took down the ark of Yahweh and the box that was with it, in which were the gold articles, and set them on the great stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered up burnt offerings and slaughtered sacrifices on that day to Yahweh.

¹⁶And the five lords of the Philistines saw it and returned to Ekron on that day.

¹⁷And these are the gold tumors which the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one.

¹⁸And the gold mice were the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, from the walled city to the village of the hamlet-dwellers; and to the great Abel, on which they set down the ark of Yahweh; it is there until this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite.

¹⁹And he struck down among the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Yahweh; he struck down among the people seventy men, fifty thousand men; and the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great blow.

²⁰And the men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? And to whom will he go up from us?"

²¹And they sent messengers to those who dwell in Kiriath-jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of Yahweh; come down, bring it up to you."