1 Samuel 6
6
Gold Tumors and Rats
1-2After the Chest of God had been among the Philistine people for seven months, the Philistine leaders called together their religious professionals, the priests, and experts on the supernatural for consultation: “How can we get rid of this Chest of God, get it off our hands without making things worse? Tell us!”
3They said, “If you’re going to send the Chest of the God of Israel back, don’t just dump it on them. Pay compensation. Then you will be healed. After you’re in the clear again, God will let up on you. Why wouldn’t he?”
4-6“And what exactly would make for adequate compensation?”
“Five gold tumors and five gold rats,” they said, “to match the number of Philistine leaders. Since all of you—leaders and people—suffered the same plague, make replicas of the tumors and rats that are devastating the country and present them as an offering to the glory of the God of Israel. Then maybe he’ll ease up and not be so hard on you and your gods, and on your country. Why be stubborn like the Egyptians and Pharaoh? God didn’t quit pounding on them until they let the people go. Only then did he let up.
7-9“So here’s what you do: Take a brand-new oxcart and two cows that have never been in harness. Hitch the cows to the oxcart and send their calves back to the barn. Put the Chest of God on the cart. Secure the gold replicas of the tumors and rats that you are offering as compensation in a sack and set them next to the Chest. Then send it off. But keep your eyes on it. If it heads straight back home to where it came from, toward Beth Shemesh, it is clear that this catastrophe is a divine judgment, but if not, we’ll know that God had nothing to do with it—it was just an accident.”
10-12So that’s what they did: They hitched two cows to the cart, put their calves in the barn, and placed the Chest of God and the sack of gold rats and tumors on the cart. The cows headed straight for home, down the road to Beth Shemesh, straying neither right nor left, mooing all the way. The Philistine leaders followed them to the outskirts of Beth Shemesh.
13-15The people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. They looked up and saw the Chest. Elated, they ran to meet it. The cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth Shemeshite, and stopped there beside a huge boulder. The harvesters tore the cart to pieces, then chopped up the wood and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to God. The Levites took charge of the Chest of God and the sack containing the gold offerings, placing them on the boulder. Offering the sacrifices, everyone in Beth Shemesh worshiped God most heartily that day.
16When the five Philistine leaders saw what they came to see, they returned the same day to Ekron.
17-18The five gold replicas of the tumors were offered by the Philistines in compensation for the cities of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. The five gold rats matched the number of Philistine towns, both large and small, ruled by the five leaders. The big boulder on which they placed the Chest of God is still there in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, a landmark.
If You Are Serious About Coming Back to God
19-20God struck some of the men of Beth Shemesh who, out of curiosity, irreverently peeked into the Chest of God. Seventy died. The whole town was in mourning, reeling under the hard blow from God, and questioning, “Who can stand before God, this holy God? And who can we get to take this Chest off our hands?”
21They sent emissaries to Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the Chest of God. Come down and get it.”
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1 Samuel 6: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
1 Kings 6
6
1Now the ark of God was in the land of the Philistines seven months.
2And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying: What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we are to send it back to its place? And they said:
3If you send back the ark of the God of Israel, send it not away empty; but render unto him what you owe for sin. And then you shall be healed: and you shall know why his hand departeth not from you.
4They answered: What is it we ought to render unto him for sin? And they answered:
5According to the number of the provinces of the Philistines you shall make five golden emerods, and five golden mice; for the same plague hath been upon you all, and upon your lords. And you shall make the likeness of your emerods, and the likeness of the mice that have destroyed the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel, to see if he will take off his hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land.
6Why do you harden your hearts, as Egypt and Pharao hardened their hearts? Did not he, after he was struck, then let them go, and they departed?
7Now therefore take and make a new cart. And two kine that have calved, on which there hath come no yoke, tie to the cart; and shut up their calves at home.
8And you shall take the ark of the Lord, and lay it on the cart. And the vessels of gold, which you have paid him for sin, you shall put into a little box, at the side thereof. And send it away that it may go.
9And you shall look: and if it go up by the way of his own coasts towards Bethsames, then he hath done us this great evil. But if not, we shall know that it is not his hand hath touched us, but it hath happened by chance.
10They did therefore in this manner: and taking two kine, that had suckling calves, they yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
11And they laid the ark of God upon the cart, and the little box that had in it the golden mice and the likeness of the emerods.
12And the kine took the straight way that leadeth to Bethsames; and they went along the way, lowing as they wen; and turned not aside neither to the right hand nor to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them as far as the borders of Bethsames.
13Now the Bethsamites were reaping wheat in the valley: and lifting up their eyes they saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
14And the cart came into the field of Josue a Bethsamite, and stood there. And there was a great stone; and they cut in pieces the wood of the cart, and laid the kine upon it, a holocaust to the Lord.
15And the Levites took down the ark of God, and the little box that was at the side of it, wherein were the vessels of gold; and they put them upon the great stone. The men also of Bethsames offered holocausts and sacrificed victims that day to the Lord.
16And the five princes of the Philistines saw: and they returned to Accaron the same day.
17And these are the golden emerods, which the Philistines returned for sin to the Lord: For Azotus one, for Gaza one, for Ascalon one, for Geth one, for Accaron one:
18And the golden mice according to the number of the cities of the Philistines, of the five provinces, from the fenced city to the village that was without wall, and to the great Abel (the stone) whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, which was till that day in the field of Josue the Bethsamite.
19But he slew of the men of Bethsames, because they had seen the ark of the Lord; and he slew of the people seventy men, and fifty thousand of the common people. And the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten the people with a great slaughter.
20And the men of Bethsames said: Who shall be able to stand before the Lord this holy God? And to whom shall he go up from us?
21And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Cariathiarim, saying: The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord. Come ye down and fetch it up to you.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.