And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven
months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners,
saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? tell us wherewith we
shall send it to his place. And they said, If ye send away the ark of the
God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass
offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his
hand is not removed from you. Then said they, What shall be the trespass
offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden
emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of
the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice
that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel:
peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your
gods, and from off your land. Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as
the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought
wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they
departed? Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on
which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring
their calves home from them: and take the ark of the Lord, and lay it
upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a
trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away,
that it may go. And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to
Beth-shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we
shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that
happened to us.
And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart,
and shut up their calves at home: and they laid the ark of the Lord upon
the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their
emerods. And the kine took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh,
and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to
the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went
after them, unto the border of Beth-shemesh. And they of Beth-shemesh
were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their
eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. And the cart came into the
field of Joshua, a Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great
stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt
offering unto the Lord.
And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the coffer that was
with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great
stone: and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed
sacrifices the same day unto the Lord.--1 Samuel vi, 1-5.