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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 NIV</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="../">NIV</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">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/1_samuel/6.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">The Ark Returned to Israel</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>When the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span> had been in Philistine territory seven months, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span>? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?”</p><p class="reg">They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from 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 do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>“Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>Take the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span> and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the <span class="name">Lord</span> has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>They placed the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span> on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.</p> <p class="reg"><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 harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the <span class="name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>The Levites took down the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span>, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the <span class="name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the <span class="name">Lord</span>—one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers—the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span> is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="A few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint 50,070">a</a></sup></span> of them to death because they looked into the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span>. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the <span class="name">Lord</span> had dealt them. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the <span class="name">Lord</span>, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/6-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the <span class="name">Lord</span>. Come down and take it up to your town.”</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">19</span> <span class="footnotebot">A few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint <i>50,070</i></span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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