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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 CEV</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="../">CEV</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">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_1"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.1" class="v9_6_1">1</span>After the sacred chest had been in Philistia for seven months,<a href="#fn" id="link_1Sam.6.1!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span><span class="v9_6_2"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.2" class="v9_6_2">2</span>the Philistines called in their priests and fortunetellers, and asked, “What should we do with this sacred chest? Tell us how to send it back where it belongs!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_3"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.3" class="v9_6_3">3</span>“Don't send it back without a gift,” the priests and fortunetellers answered. “Send along something to Israel's God to make up for taking the chest in the first place. Then you will be healed, and you will find out why the <span class="nd">Lord</span> was causing you so much trouble.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_4"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.4" class="v9_6_4">4</span>“What should we send?” the Philistines asked.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_4">The priests and fortunetellers answered:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v9_6_4">There are five Philistine rulers, and they all have the same disease that you have. </span><span class="v9_6_5"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.5" class="v9_6_5">5</span>So make five gold models of the sores and five gold models of the rats that are wiping out your crops. If you honor the God of Israel with this gift, maybe he will stop causing trouble for you and your gods and your crops. </span><span class="v9_6_6"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.6" class="v9_6_6">6</span>Don't be like the Egyptians and their king. They were stubborn, but when Israel's God was finished with them, they had to let Israel go.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v9_6_7"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.7" class="v9_6_7">7</span>Get a new cart and two cows that have young calves and that have never pulled a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take the calves back to their barn. </span><span class="v9_6_8"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.8" class="v9_6_8">8</span>Then put the chest on the cart. Put the gold rats and sores into a bag and put it on the cart next to the chest. Then send it on its way.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v9_6_9"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.9" class="v9_6_9">9</span>Watch to see if the chest goes on up the road to the Israelite town of Beth-Shemesh. If it goes back to its own country, you will know that it was the <span class="nd">Lord</span> who made us suffer so badly. But if the chest doesn't go back to its own country, then the <span class="nd">Lord</span> had nothing to do with the disease that hit us—it was simply bad luck.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_10"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.10" class="v9_6_10">10</span>The Philistines followed their advice. They hitched up the two cows to the cart, but they kept their calves in a barn. </span><span class="v9_6_11"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.11" class="v9_6_11">11</span>Then they put the chest on the cart, along with the bag that had the gold rats and sores in it.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_12"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.12" class="v9_6_12">12</span>The cows went straight up the road toward Beth-Shemesh, mooing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them until they got close to 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 harvesting their wheat<a href="#fn" id="link_1Sam.6.13!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> in the valley. When they looked up and saw the chest, they were so happy that they stopped working and started celebrating.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_14"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.14-1Sam.6.15" class="v9_6_14">14-15</span>The cows left the road and pulled the cart into a field that belonged to Joshua from Beth-Shemesh, and they stopped beside a huge rock. Some men from the tribe of Levi were there. So they took the chest off the cart and placed it on the rock, and then they did the same thing with the bag of gold rats and sores. A few other people chopped up the cart and made a fire. They killed the cows and burned them as sacrifices to the <span class="nd">Lord</span>. After that, they offered more sacrifices.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_16"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.16" class="v9_6_16">16</span>When the five rulers of the Philistines saw what had happened, they 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>That is how the Philistines sent gifts to the <span class="nd">Lord</span> to make up for taking the sacred chest. They sent five gold sores, one each for their towns 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 one gold rat for each walled town and for every village that the five Philistine rulers controlled. The huge stone<a href="#fn" id="link_1Sam.6.18!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> where the Levites set the chest is still there in Joshua's field as a reminder of what happened.</span></p><h3 class="s1">The Sacred Chest Is Sent to Kiriath-Jearim</h3><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_19"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.19" class="v9_6_19">19</span>Some of the men of Beth-Shemesh looked inside the sacred chest, and the <span class="nd">Lord</span> God killed 70<a href="#fn" id="link_1Sam.6.19!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> of them. This made the people of Beth-Shemesh very sad, </span><span class="v9_6_20"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.20" class="v9_6_20">20</span>and they started saying, “No other God is like the <span class="nd">Lord</span>! Who can go near him and stay alive? We'll have to send the chest away from here. But where can we send it?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v9_6_21"><span class="reftext" id="1Sam.6.21" class="v9_6_21">21</span>They sent messengers to tell the people of Kiriath-Jearim, “The Philistines have sent back the sacred chest. Why don't you take it and keep it there with you?”</span></p> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">6.1 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">months: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">One ancient translation adds “and rats were everywhere” or “and rats ate the crops.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">6.13 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">wheat: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The wheat harvest took place in May and June.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">6.18 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">stone: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">A few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts “meadow” or “stream.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">6.19 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">70: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">A few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts “70 men, 50,000 men.”</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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