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ULT 1SA Chapter 6

6 And the Box of Yahweh was in the field of the Philistines seven months. 2 And the Philistines called to the priests and to the ones who practice divination, saying, “What should we do for the Box of Yahweh? Make known to us with what we should send it away to its place.” 3 And they said, “If you are about to send away the Box of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but surely return to him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand has not turned aside from you.” 4 And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we should return to him?” And they said, “Five tumors of gold and five mice of gold, from the number of the rulers of the Philistines, for one plague was for all of them and for your rulers. 5 And you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice, the ones destroying the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from on you and from on your gods and from on your land. 6 And why do you make heavy your heart, just as the Egyptians and Pharaoh made their heart heavy? When he dealt severely with them, did they not send them away and they went? 7 So now, take and make one new cart with two nursing cows on which a yoke has not gone up. And tie the cows to the cart and return their sons from behind them to the house. 8 And take the Box of Yahweh and put it into the cart, and set the objects of gold that you are returning to him as a guilt offering in the box by its side. And send it away and it will go. 9 And look; if it goes up the way of its own territory, Beth Shemesh, he has done this great evil to us. But if not, then we will know that his hand did not strike us. It happened to us by chance.”

10 And the men did thus, and they took two nursing cows, and tied them to the cart. But they shut up their sons in the house. 11 And they set the Box of Yahweh into the cart with the box and the mice of gold and the images of their tumors. 12 And the cows went straight in the way, on the road of Beth Shemesh. They went in one highway, going and lowing, and they did not turn aside right or left. And the rulers of the Philistines were going after them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh. 13 Now Beth Shemesh was reaping the harvest of wheat in the valley. And they lifted up their eyes and saw the Box, and they rejoiced to see it. 14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Bethshemite and stood there, and a large stone was there. And they split the wood pieces of the cart, and offered up the cows as a burnt up offering to Yahweh.

15 And the Levites brought down the Box of Yahweh and the box that was with it, in which was the objects of gold, and they set them on the large stone. And the men of Beth Shemesh offered up burnt up offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to Yahweh. 16 And the five rulers of the Philistines saw and returned to Ekron on that day.

17 And these are the tumors of gold which the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to Yahweh: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron. 18 And the mice of gold were from the number of all the cities of the Philistines of the five rulers, from the cities of fortification and as far as the villages of the open country, and as far as the great Abel on which they rested the Box of Yahweh. It is in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite until this day. 19 And he struck among the men of Beth Shemesh because they had looked in the Box of Yahweh. And he struck 50,070 men among the people. And the people mourned because Yahweh had stricken a great blow among the people.[fn] 20 And the men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the face of Yahweh, this holy God? And to whom will he go up from on us?” 21 And they sent messengers to those dwelling in Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the Box of Yahweh; come down and bring it up to you.”

Instead of 50,070 men, a few later copies and modern versions have, 70 men.

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