¹¹ But Amaziah would not heed. Therefore Jehoash king of Israel went out; so he and Amaziah king of Judah faced one another at ^(A)Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah.

³⁸ Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath, and Beth Shemesh: nineteen cities with their villages.

²⁰ But Amaziah would not heed, for ^(A)it came from God, that He might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they ^(B)sought the gods of Edom.

¹⁶ So it was, as he talked with him, that the king said to him, “Have we made you the king’s counselor? Cease! Why should you be killed?”

Then the prophet ceased, and said, “I know that God has ^(A)determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not heeded my advice.”

⁹ And watch: if it goes up the road to its own territory, to ^(A)Beth Shemesh, then He has done ^[a]us this great evil. But if not, then ^(B)we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us—it happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰ Then the men did so; they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. ¹¹ And they set the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors. ¹² Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beth Shemesh, and went along the ^(C)highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.

¹³ Now the people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their ^(D)wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. ¹⁴ Then the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there; a large stone was there. So they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹⁵ The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the chest that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone. Then the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices the same day to the Lord. ¹⁶ So when ^(E)the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

^17 (F)These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned as a trespass offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for ^(G)Gath, one for Ekron; ¹⁸ and the golden rats, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and country villages, even as far as the large stone of Abel on which they set the ark of the Lord, which stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

¹⁹ Then ^(H)He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. ^[b]He ^(I)struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter.

^16 (A)Ain with its common-land, ^(B)Juttah with its common-land, and ^(C)Beth Shemesh with its common-land: nine cities from those two tribes;

¹⁰ Then the border ^[a]turned westward from Baalah to Mount Seir, passed along to the side of Mount Jearim on the north (which is Chesalon), went down to Beth Shemesh, and passed on to ^(A)Timnah.