1 Samuel 5:6-6:9

Legacy Standard Bible

⁶ Now ^(A)the hand of Yahweh was glorious against the Ashdodites, and ^(B)He made them desolate and struck them with ^(C)tumors, both Ashdod and its territories. ⁷ Thus the men of Ashdod saw that it was so and said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god.” ⁸ So they sent and ^(D)gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they said, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” And they brought the ark of the God of Israel around. ⁹ Now it happened after they had brought it around, that ^(E)the hand of Yahweh was against the city with very great confusion; and He struck the men of the city, both young and old, so that ^(F)tumors broke out on them. ¹⁰ So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And as the ark of God came to Ekron the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel around to ^[a]us, to put ^[b]us and ^[c]our people to death.” ¹¹ They ^(G)sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, so that it will not put ^[d]us and ^[e]our people to death.” For there was a deadly confusion throughout the city; ^(H)the hand of God was very glorious there. ¹² Now the men who did not die were struck with tumors and ^(I)the cry of the city went up to heaven.

The Ark Returned to Israel

6 Now the ark of Yahweh had been in the ^[f]fields of the Philistines seven months. ² And ^(J)the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of Yahweh? Make us know ^[g]how we shall send it to its place.” ³ So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, ^(K)do not send it empty; but you shall surely ^(L)return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not turned away from you.” ⁴ Then they said, “What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?” And they said, “Five golden ^(M)tumors and five golden mice ^(N)according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on all of ^[h]you and on your lords. ⁵ So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that bring the land to ruin, and ^(O)you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps ^(P)He will ease His hand from you, ^(Q)your gods, and your land. ⁶ Why then do you ^[i]harden your hearts ^(R)as the Egyptians and Pharaoh ^[j]hardened their hearts? When He had abused them, ^(S)did they not allow ^[k]the people to go, and they went? ⁷ So now, take and ^(T)make a new cart and two milch cows on which there ^(U)has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. ⁸ And take the ark of Yahweh and place it on the cart; and put ^(V)the articles of gold which you return to Him as ^(W)a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. ⁹ See, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to ^(X)Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then ^(Y)we will know that it was not His hand that smote us; it happened to us by chance.”