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¹ And the Ark of YHWH is in the field of the Philistines [for] seven months,² and the Philistines call for priests and for diviners, saying, "What do we do to the Ark of YHWH? Let us know with what we send it to its place."³ And they say, "If you are sending the Ark of the God of Israel away, you do not send it away empty; for you certainly send back a guilt-offering to Him; then you are healed, and it has been known to you why His hand does not turn aside from you."⁴ And they say, "What [is] the guilt-offering which we send back to Him?" And they say, "The number of the princes of the Philistines—five golden lumps, and five golden muroids—for one plague [is] to you all, and to your princes,⁵ and you have made images of your lumps, and images of your muroids that are corrupting the land, and have given glory to the God of Israel; it may be [that] He lightens His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land;⁶ and why do you harden your heart as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart? Do they not—when He has rolled Himself on them—send them away, and they go?⁷ And now, take and make one new cart, and two suckling cows, on which a yoke has not gone up, and you have bound the cows in the cart, and caused their young ones to turn back from after them to the house,⁸ and you have taken the Ark of YHWH, and put it on the cart, and the vessels of gold which you have returned to Him—a guilt-offering—you put in a coffer on its side, and have sent it away, and it has gone;⁹ and you have seen if it goes up the way of its own border, to Beth-Shemesh—He has done this great evil to us; and if not, then we have known that His hand has not come against us; it has been an accident to us."

¹⁰ And the men do so, and take two suckling cows, and bind them in the cart, and they shut up their young ones in the house;¹¹ and they place the Ark of YHWH on the cart, and the coffer, and the golden muroids, and the images of their lumps.¹² And the cows go straight in the way, on the way to Beth-Shemesh, they have gone in one highway, going and lowing, and have not turned aside right or left; and the princes of the Philistines are going after them to the border of Beth-Shemesh.¹³ And the Beth-Shemeshites are reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley, and they lift up their eyes, and see the Ark, and rejoice to see [it].¹⁴ And the cart has come into the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite, and stands there, and there [is] a great stone, and they cleave the wood of the cart, and they have caused the cows to ascend [as] a burnt-offering to YHWH.¹⁵ And the Levites have taken down the Ark of YHWH, and the coffer which [is] with it, in which [are] the vessels of gold, and place [them] on the great stone; and the men of Beth-Shemesh have caused burnt-offerings to ascend and sacrifice sacrifices in that day to YHWH;¹⁶ and the five princes of the Philistines have seen [it], and return [to] Ekron, on that day.¹⁷ And these [are] the golden lumps which the Philistines have sent back—a guilt-offering to YHWH: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron;¹⁸ and the golden muroids—the number of all the cities of the Philistines, for the five princes, from the fortified city even to a village of the open place, and to the great stone [[or great meadow]] on which they placed the Ark of YHWH—[are] in the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite to this day.

¹⁹ And He strikes among the men of Beth-Shemesh, for they looked into the Ark of YHWH, indeed, He strikes seventy men [out] of fifty thousand men [[or fifty thousand and seventy men]] among the people; and the people mourn, because YHWH struck among the people [with] a great striking.²⁰ And the men of Beth-Shemesh say, "Who is able to stand before YHWH, this holy God? And to whom does He go up from us?"²¹ And they send messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath-Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have sent back the Ark of YHWH; come down, take it up with you."