1 Samuel 6:1-11

The Philistines Return the Ark

6:1 When the ark of the Lord had been in the land ¹  of the Philistines for seven months, ²  6:2 the Philistines called the priests and the omen readers, saying, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Advise us as to how we should send it back to its place.”

6:3 They replied, “If you are going to send the ark of ³  the God of Israel back, don’t send it away empty. Be sure to return it with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why his hand is not removed from you.” 6:4 They inquired, “What is the guilt offering that we should send to him?”

They replied, “The Philistine leaders number five. So send five gold sores and five gold mice, for it is the same plague that has afflicted both you and your leaders. 6:5 You should make images of the sores and images of the mice ⁴  that are destroying the land. You should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his grip on you, your gods, and your land. ⁵  6:6 Why harden your hearts like the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? ⁶  When God ⁷  treated them harshly, didn’t the Egyptians send the Israelites on their way? ⁸  6:7 So now go and make a new cart. Get two cows that have calves and that have never had a yoke placed on them. Harness the cows to the cart and take their calves from them back to their stalls. 6:8 Then take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart, and put in a chest beside it the gold objects you are sending to him as a guilt offering. You should then send it on its way. 6:9 But keep an eye on it. If it should go up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has brought this great calamity on us. But if that is not the case, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; rather, it just happened to us by accident.”

6:10 So the men did as instructed. ⁹  They took two cows that had calves and harnessed them to a cart; they also removed their calves to their stalls. 6:11 They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, along with the chest, the gold mice, and the images of the sores.

[6:1]  ¹ tn Heb “field.”

[6:1]  ² tc The LXX adds “and their land swarmed with mice.”

[6:3]  ³ tc The LXX and a Qumran ms add “the covenant of the Lord.”

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “your mice.” A Qumran ms has simply “the mice.”

[6:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.”

[6:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “like Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their heart.”

[6:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they sent them away and they went.”

[6:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the men did so.”