1 Samuel 6:1-21, NLT
1 Samuel 6
The Philistines Return the Ark
1The Ark of the Lord remained in Philistine territory seven months in all.
3“Send the Ark of the God of Israel back with a gift,” they were told. “Send a guilt offering so the plague will stop. Then, if you are healed, you will know it was his hand that caused the plague.”
4“What sort of guilt offering should we send?” they asked.
And they were told, “Since the plague has struck both you and your five rulers, make five gold tumors and five gold rats, just like those that have ravaged your land.
7“Now build a new cart, and find two cows that have just given birth to calves. Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen.
10So these instructions were carried out. Two cows were hitched to the cart, and their newborn calves were shut up in a pen.
13The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they were overjoyed!
17The five gold tumors sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to the Lord were gifts from the rulers of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
The Ark Moved to Kiriath-Jearim
19But the Lord killed seventy men*6:19 As in a few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts read 70 men, 50,000 men. Perhaps the text should be understood to read the Lord killed 70 men and 50 oxen. from Beth-shemesh because they looked into the Ark of the Lord. And the people mourned greatly because of what the Lord had done.
21So they sent messengers to the people at Kiriath-jearim and told them, “The Philistines have returned the Ark of the Lord. Come here and get it!”