1st Shamu'AL (1 Samuel) — 6

The Philistines Return the Ark

1 The Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH remained in Philistine territory seven months in all. 

2 Then the Philistines called in their priests and diviners and asked them, “What should we do about the Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH? Tell us how to return it to its own country.”

3 “Send the Ark of the 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH of Yashar'AL back with a gift,” they were told. “Send a guilt offering so the plague will stop. Then, if you are healed, you will know it was the hand of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH that caused the plague.”

4 “What sort of guilt offering should we send?” they asked. And they were told, “Since the plague has struck both you and your five rulers, make five gold tumors and five gold rats, just like those that have ravaged your land. 

5 Make these things to show honor to the 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH of Yashar'AL. Perhaps then He will stop afflicting you, your idols, and your land. 

6 Do not be stubborn and rebellious as Phar'uh and the Mitzraym were. By the time 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH was finished with them, they were eager to let Yashar'AL go.

7 “Now build a new cart, and find two cows that have just given birth to calves. Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen. 

8 Put the Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH on the cart, and beside it place a chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors you are sending as a guilt offering. Then let the cows go wherever they want. 

9 If they cross the border of our land and go to Bath-shamash, we will know it was  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH who brought this great disaster upon us. If they do not, we will know it was not His hand that caused the plague, it came simply by chance.”

10 So these instructions were carried out, two cows were hitched to the cart, and their newborn calves were shut up in a pen. 

11 Then the Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors were placed on the cart. 

12 And sure enough, without veering off in other directions, the cows went straight along the road toward Bath-shamash, lowing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them as far as the border of Bath-shamash.

13 The people of Bath-shamash were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they were overjoyed! 

14 The cart came into the field of a man named Husha and stopped beside a large rock. So the people broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows and sacrificed them to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH as a burnt offering. 

15 Several men of the tribe of Lauym lifted the Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors from the cart and placed them on the large rock. Many sacrifices and burnt offerings were offered to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH that day by the people of Bath-shamash. 

16 The five Philistine rulers watched all this and then returned to Akrun that same day.

17 The five gold tumors sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH were gifts from the rulers of Ashdud, Gaza, Ashkalun, Gath, and Akrun. 

18 The five gold rats represented the five Philistine towns and their surrounding villages, which were controlled by the five rulers. The large rock at Bath-shamash, where they set the Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, still stands in the field of Husha as a witness to what happened there.

The Ark Moved to Kiriath-Yaarim 

19 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH killed seventy men from Bath-shamash because they looked into the Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. And the people mourned greatly because of what  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH had done. 

20 “Who is able to stand in the presence of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, this Qadash  𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH? they cried out. “Where can we send the Ark from here?”

21 So they sent messengers to the people at Kiriath-Yaarim and told them, “The Philistines have returned the Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. Come here and get it!”