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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>1 Samuel 6 GNT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/1_samuel/6.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/1_samuel/6-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">GNT</a> > 1 Samuel 6</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../1_samuel/5.htm" title="1 Samuel 5">◄</a> 1 Samuel 6 <a href="../1_samuel/7.htm" title="1 Samuel 7">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Good News Translation</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s">The Return of the Covenant Box</h3><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_1"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.1" class="v9_6_1">1</span>After the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s Covenant Box had been in Philistia for seven months, </span><span class="v9_6_2"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.2" class="v9_6_2">2</span>the people called the priests and the magicians and asked, “What shall we do with the Covenant Box of the <span class="nd">Lord</span>? If we send it back where it belongs, what shall we send with it?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_3"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.3" class="v9_6_3">3</span>They answered, “If you return the Covenant Box of the God of Israel, you must, of course, send with it a gift to him to pay for your sin. The Covenant Box must not go back without a gift. In this way you will be healed, and you will find out why he has kept on punishing you.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_4"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.4" class="v9_6_4">4</span>“What gift shall we send him?” the people asked.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_4">They answered, “Five gold models of tumors and five gold mice, one of each for each Philistine king. The same plague was sent on all of you and on the five kings. </span><span class="v9_6_5"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.5" class="v9_6_5">5</span>You must make these models of the tumors and of the mice that are ravaging your country, and you must give honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will stop punishing you, your gods, and your land. </span><span class="v9_6_6"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.6" class="v9_6_6">6</span>Why should you be stubborn, as the king of Egypt and the Egyptians were? Don't forget how God made fools of them until they let the Israelites leave Egypt. </span><span class="v9_6_7"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.7" class="v9_6_7">7</span>So prepare a new wagon and two cows that have never been yoked; hitch them to the wagon and drive their calves back to the barn. </span><span class="v9_6_8"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.8" class="v9_6_8">8</span>Take the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s Covenant Box, put it on the wagon, and place in a box beside it the gold models that you are sending to him as a gift to pay for your sins. Start the wagon on its way and let it go by itself. </span><span class="v9_6_9"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.9" class="v9_6_9">9</span>Then watch it go; if it goes toward the town of Beth Shemesh, this means that it is the God of the Israelites who has sent this terrible disaster on us. But if it doesn't, then we will know that he did not send the plague; it was only a matter of chance.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_10"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.10" class="v9_6_10">10</span>They did what they were told: they took two cows and hitched them to the wagon, and shut the calves in the barn. </span><span class="v9_6_11"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.11" class="v9_6_11">11</span>They put the Covenant Box in the wagon, together with the box containing the gold models of the mice and of the tumors. </span><span class="v9_6_12"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.12" class="v9_6_12">12</span>The cows started off on the road to Beth Shemesh and headed straight toward it, without turning off the road. They were mooing as they went. The five Philistine kings followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_13"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.13" class="v9_6_13">13</span>The people of Beth Shemesh were reaping wheat in the valley, when suddenly they looked up and saw the Covenant Box. They were overjoyed at the sight. </span><span class="v9_6_14"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.14" class="v9_6_14">14</span>The wagon came to a field belonging to a man named Joshua, who lived in Beth Shemesh, and it stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the wooden wagon and killed the cows and burned them as a burnt sacrifice to the <span class="nd">Lord</span>. </span><span class="v9_6_15"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.15" class="v9_6_15">15</span>The Levites lifted off the Covenant Box of the <span class="nd">Lord</span> and the box with the gold models in it, and placed them on the large rock. Then the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt sacrifices and other sacrifices to the <span class="nd">Lord</span>. </span><span class="v9_6_16"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.16" class="v9_6_16">16</span>The five Philistine kings watched them do this and then went back to Ekron that same day.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_17"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.17" class="v9_6_17">17</span>The Philistines sent the five gold tumors to the <span class="nd">Lord</span> as a gift to pay for their sins, one each for the cities of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. </span><span class="v9_6_18"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.18" class="v9_6_18">18</span>They also sent gold mice, one for each of the cities ruled by the five Philistine kings, both the fortified towns and the villages without walls. The large rock in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, on which they placed the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s Covenant Box, is still there as a witness to what happened.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_19"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.19" class="v9_6_19">19</span>The <span class="nd">Lord</span> killed seventy of the men of Beth Shemesh because they looked inside the Covenant Box. And the people mourned because the <span class="nd">Lord</span> had caused such a great slaughter among them.</span></p><h3 class="s">The Covenant Box at Kiriath Jearim</h3><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_20"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.20" class="v9_6_20">20</span>So the men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who can stand before the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, this holy God? Where can we send him to get him away from us?” </span><span class="v9_6_21"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.21" class="v9_6_21">21</span>They sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim to say, “The Philistines have returned the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s Covenant Box. Come down and get it.”</span></p></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.</span></p> <p class="yiv9003199930MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">Bible text from the Good News Translation (GNT) is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by American Bible Society, 101 North Independence Mall East, Floor 8, Philadelphia, PA 19106-2155 (<a href="http://www.americanbible.org">www.americanbible.org</a>). Learn more at <a href="http://www.gnt.bible">www.gnt.bible</a> . 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