1 Samuel 6:8-10

Expanded Bible

⁸ Put the Ark of the Lord [4:3] on the cart and the gold ·models [likenesses; objects] you are sending him for the ·penalty [guilt] offering in a ·box [chest] beside the Ark. Then send the cart ·straight on its way [to go its own way]. ⁹ Watch the cart. If it goes toward Beth Shemesh [^Ca town on the border with Philistia about 24 miles west of Jerusalem] in ·Israel’s own land [its own territory], [then] the Lord has ·given us this great sickness [brought this great disaster/harm on us]. But if it doesn’t, we will know that ·Israel’s God has not punished us [it was not God’s hand that struck us]. It just happened by chance.”

¹⁰ ·The Philistines did what the priests and magicians said [^LThe men did so]. They took two cows that had just had calves and hitched them to the cart, but they kept their calves ·at home [in a pen].