⁸ Put the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord on the cart. And put the gold models in a box beside the Ark of the Covenant. They are your penalty offerings for God to forgive your sins. Send the cart straight on its way. ⁹ Watch the cart. It may go toward Beth Shemesh in Israel’s own land. If so, the Lord has given us this great sickness. But it may not go toward Beth Shemesh. Then we will know that Israel’s God has not punished us. We will know that our sickness just happened by chance.”

¹⁰ The Philistines did what the priests and magicians said. They took two cows that had just had calves. They hitched them to the cart. But they kept their calves at home.