The Ark Returned to Israel
After seven months of affliction, the Philistines ask how to return the ark, and their advisers tell them to send it with a guilt offering that honors the God of Israel. They are warned not to harden their hearts as Egypt once did.
W1hen the ark of the LORD had been in the land of the Philistines seven months, 2the Philistines summoned the priests and diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how to send it back to its place.” 3They replied, “If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means return it to Him with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why His hand has not been lifted from you.” 4“What guilt offering should we send back to Him?” asked the Philistines. 5“Five gold tumors and five gold rats,” they said, “according to the number of rulers of the Philistines, since the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land. 6Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?
The Philistines prepare a new cart, place the ark and gold offerings on it, and use nursing cows as a test of whether the disaster comes from the LORD. The cows go straight toward Beth-shemesh, confirming the judgment is no accident.
7Now, therefore, prepare one new cart with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. 8Take the ark of the LORD, set it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to Him as a guilt offering. 9Then send the ark on its way, but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.” 10So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves. 11Then they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold rats and the images of the tumors. 12And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.
Beth-shemesh sees the ark and rejoices, then receives it with burnt offerings and sacrifices to the LORD. The returned gold objects mark the Philistine cities and rulers who have acknowledged His hand.
13Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed at the sight. 14The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. 15And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold objects, and they placed them on the large rock. That day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD. 16And when the five rulers of the Philistines saw this, they returned to Ekron that same day. 17As a guilt offering to the LORD, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. 18The number of gold rats also corresponded to the number of Philistine cities belonging to the five rulers — the fortified cities and their outlying villages. And the large rock on which they placed the ark of the LORD stands to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
Joy gives way to grief when God strikes the people of Beth-shemesh for looking inside the ark. Their question about who can stand before this holy God leads them to send for Kiriath-jearim to take the ark away.
19But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter. 20The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom should the ark go up from here?” 21So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up with you.”