Dual Panel1When the Ark of the LORD had been in their territory for seven months,
2the Philistines summoned the priests and soothsayers and asked, “What shall we do with the Ark of the LORD? Tell us how we ought to send it back to its own place.”
3Their answer was, “If you send the Ark of the God of Israel back, do not let it go empty, but send it back with an offering by way of compensation; if you are then healed you will know why his hand had not been lifted from you.”
4When they were asked, “What should we send to him?” they answered, “Send five tumours modelled in gold and five gold rats, one for each of the Philistine lords, for the same plague afflicted all of you and your lords.
5Make models of your tumours and of the rats which are ravaging the land, and give honour to the God of Israel; perhaps he will relax the pressure of his hand on you, your god, and your land.
6Why be stubborn like Pharaoh and the Egyptians? Remember how this God made sport of them until they let Israel go.
7“Now make ready a new wagon with two milch cows which have never been yoked; harness the cows to the wagon, but take their calves away and keep them in their stall.
8Fetch the Ark of the LORD and put it on the wagon, place beside it in a casket the gold offerings that you are sending to him, and let it go where it will.
9Watch: if it goes up towards its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then it was the LORD who has inflicted this great injury on us; but if not, then we shall know that it was not his hand that struck us, but that we have been the victims of chance.”
10They did this: they took two milch cows and harnessed them to a wagon, meanwhile shutting up their calves in the stall;
11they placed the Ark of the LORD on the wagon together with the casket containing the gold rats, and the models of their tumours.
12The cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh; they kept to the road, lowing as they went and turning neither right nor left, while the Philistine lords followed them as far as the territory of Beth-shemesh.
13The people of Beth-shemesh, busy harvesting their wheat in the valley, looked up and saw the Ark, and they rejoiced at the sight.
14The wagon came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and halted there, close by a great stone. The people chopped up the wood of the wagon and offered the cows as a whole-offering to the LORD.
15The Levites who lifted down the Ark of the LORD and the casket containing the gold offerings laid them on the great stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered whole-offerings and shared-offerings that day to the LORD.
16The five lords of the Philistines watched all this, and returned to Ekron the same day.
17These golden tumours which the Philistines sent back as an offering to the LORD were for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, one for each city.
18The gold rats were for all the towns of the Philistines governed by the five lords, both fortified towns and open settlements. The great stone where they deposited the Ark of the LORD stands witness on the farm of Joshua of Beth-shemesh to this day.
19But the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the rest of the men of Beth-shemesh when they welcomed the Ark of the LORD, and he struck down seventy of them. The people mourned because the LORD had struck them so heavy a blow,
20and the men of Beth-shemesh said, “No one is safe in the presence of the LORD, this holy God. To whom can we send the Ark, to be rid of him?”
21So they sent this message to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim: “The Philistines have returned the Ark of the LORD; come down and take charge of it.”