King James Version › 1 Samuel › 6

1 Samuel

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1 And the ark of the LORD was in the coun­try of the Philistines sev­en months. 2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the di­vin­ers, say­ing, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us where­with we shall send it to his place. 3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Is­rael, send it not emp­ty; but in any wise re­turn him a tres­pass of­fer­ing: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not re­moved from you. 4 Then said they, What shall be the tres­pass of­fer­ing which we shall re­turn to him? They an­swered, Five gold­en emerods, and five gold­en mice, ac­cord­ing to the num­ber of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. 5 Where­fore ye shall make im­ages of your emerods, and im­ages of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glo­ry unto the God of Is­rael: per­ad­ven­ture he will light­en his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. 6 Where­fore then do ye hard­en your hearts, as the Egyp­tians and Pharaoh hard­ened their hearts? when he had wrought won­der­ful­ly among them, did they not let the peo­ple go, and they de­part­ed? 7 Now there­fore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: 8 And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jew­els of gold, which ye re­turn him for a tres­pass of­fer­ing, in a cof­fer by the side there­of; and send it away, that it may go. 9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that hap­pened to us. 10 And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home: 11 And they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the cof­fer with the mice of gold and the im­ages of their emerods. 12 And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the high­way, low­ing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went af­ter them unto the bor­der of Bethshemesh. 13 And they of Bethshemesh were reap­ing their wheat har­vest in the val­ley: and they lift­ed up their eyes, and saw the ark, and re­joiced to see it. 14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and of­fered the kine a burnt of­fer­ing unto the LORD. 15 And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the cof­fer that was with it, where­in the jew­els of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh of­fered burnt of­fer­ings and sac­ri­ficed sac­ri­fices the same day unto the LORD. 16 And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they re­turned to Ekron the same day. 17 And these are the gold­en emerods which the Philistines re­turned for a tres­pass of­fer­ing unto the LORD; for Ash­dod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; 18 And the gold­en mice, ac­cord­ing to the num­ber of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of coun­try vil­lages, even unto the great ­s­tone of Abel, where­on they set down the ark of the LORD: which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite. 19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, be­cause they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the peo­ple fifty thou­sand and three­score and ten men: and the peo­ple lament­ed, be­cause the LORD had smit­ten many of the peo­ple with a great slaugh­ter. 20 And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand be­fore this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us? 21 And they sent mes­sen­gers to the in­hab­i­tants of Kir­jath­jearim, say­ing, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.