1 Samuel 6
6:1And the ark of the lord was in the field of the Philistines seven months.
6:2And the Philistines called the priests, and the clairvoyants, and their enchanters, saying, What should we do with the ark of the lord? Make known to us by what means we shall send it unto its place!
6:3And they said, If you yourselves send the ark of the covenant of the lord God of Israel, do not send it out empty! but by delivering it up, you give it back for the torment! and then you shall be healed, and it shall be atoned unto you, if should you not remove his hand from you?
6:4And they say, What thing for the torment shall we give for it? And they said,
6:5According to the number of the satrapies of the Philistines -- five buttocks of gold, for the fault in you, and your rulers, and to the people. And five golden mice, a representation of your mice, of the ones corrupting the land. And you shall give to the lord God glory, so that he should lighten his hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land.
6:6And why do you oppress your hearts as Egypt and Pharaoh oppressed their hearts? Was it not when he mocked them, that they sent them, and they went forth?
6:7And now, take and make one new wagon, and two oxen having given birth for the first time, without the offspring, upon which a yoke was not placed upon! And team up the oxen on the wagon, and their offspring lead away from behind them to the house!
6:8And you shall take the ark of the lord, and you shall put it upon the wagon; and the items of gold, deliver it for the torment! And you shall put in place a chest on part of it, and you shall send it, and it shall go forth.
6:9And you shall see if into the way of their border it shall go -- according to Beth-shemesh, if he did to us this great evil. And if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that touched us, but that this was a coincidence to us.
6:10And the Philistines did so. And they took two oxen, having given birth for the first time. And they teamed them up to the wagon, and their offspring they shut up at the house.
6:11And they put the ark of the lord upon the wagon, and the place chest, and the mice of gold, and the images of their buttocks.
6:12And the oxen straightened out in the journey on the way to Beth-Shemesh, in a road in its going, and they labored, and they turned not aside right nor left; and the satraps of the Philistines went after them unto the borders of Beth-shemesh.
6:13And the ones in Beth-shemesh were harvesting the harvest of wheat in the valley. And they lifted their eyes, and they beheld the ark of the lord, and they were rejoiced to meet it.
6:14And the wagon entered into the field of Joshua, the one in Beth-shemesh, and it stood there by a great stone. And they split the wood of the wagon, and the oxen they offered for a whole burnt-offering to the lord.
6:15And the Levites brought the ark of the lord, and the place chest with it, and the items of gold, and put them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered whole burnt-offerings, and they sacrificed sacrifices to the lord in that day.
6:16And the five satraps of the Philistines saw, and they returned to Ekron in that day.
6:17And these are the gold buttocks which the Philistines gave back for the torment to the lord -- for Ashdod one, Gaza one, Ashkelon one, Gath one, Ekron one.
6:18And gold mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines, of the five satraps, from the city being solidly fortified, and unto the town of the Perezzite, and unto the great stone of which they placed upon it the ark of the covenant of the lord until this day in the field of Joshua, of the one of Beth-shemesh.
6:19And he struck the men of Beth-shemesh, for they beheld the ark of the lord. And he struck among them seventy men, and fifty thousand men of the people. And the people mourned because the lord struck among the people an exceedingly great calamity.
6:20And they said, the men, the ones from Beth-shemesh, Who shall be able to stand before the lord, this holy God? And to whom shall the ark of the lord ascend of us?
6:21And they sent messengers to the ones dwelling in Kirjath-jearim, saying, The Philistines returned the ark of the lord, and you go down and lead it up unto you!