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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://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 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></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="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">ESV</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"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/1_samuel/6.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">The Ark Returned to Israel</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>The ark of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> was in the country of the Philistines seven months. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>And take the ark of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.”</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>And they put the ark of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>And the Levites took down the ark of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. He struck seventy men of them,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Most Hebrew manuscripts struck of the people seventy men, fifty thousand men">a</a></sup></span> and the people mourned because the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> had struck the people with a great blow. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. Come down and take it up to you.”</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">19</span> Most Hebrew manuscripts <i><span class="catch-word">struck</span> of the people seventy men, fifty thousand men</i><br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. 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