³ They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift;^(A) by all means send a guilt offering^(B) to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand^(C) has not been lifted from you.”

⁸ Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way,

¹⁷ These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord—one each^(A) for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron.

¹⁸ And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers—the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.