1 Samuel 6

All 21 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1The ark of the LORD remained in Philistine territory for 7 months.
2. 2The Philistines summoned their priests and diviners and asked, "What should we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to where it belongs."
3. 3They answered, "If you're going to send back the ark of the God of Israel, don't send it back empty. You must include a guilt offering for him. Then you'll be healed, and you'll understand why his hand hasn't lifted from you."
4. 4The Philistines asked, "What kind of guilt offering should we send?" They replied, "5 golden tumors and 5 golden mice — one for each of the Philistine rulers — because the same plague has struck all of you and your rulers alike."
5. 5Make models of your tumors and models of the mice that are destroying your land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you, your gods, and your land.
6. 6Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he worked wonders among them, did they not let the people go? And they left.
7. 7Now therefore, make a new cart and take two nursing cows that have never been yoked. Tie the cows to the cart and bring their calves home from them.
8. 8"Then place the ark of the LORD on the cart. Put the gold objects you're sending as a guilt offering in a box beside it, and send it on its way."
9. 9Watch and see. If it goes up toward its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then he has brought this great evil upon us. But if it does not, we will know that it was not his hand that struck us. It happened to us by chance.
10. 10So the men did exactly that. They took 2 nursing cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves at home.
11. 11They placed the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the box containing the golden mice and the golden tumors.
12. 12The cows headed straight down the road toward Beth-shemesh, mooing as they went but never veering to the right or the left. The Philistine lords followed them all the way to the border of Beth-shemesh.
13. 13The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed.
14. 14The cart rolled into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped beside a large stone. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the 2 cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
15. 15The Levites lifted the ark of the LORD off the cart, along with the box that held the gold objects, and set them on the large stone. That same day, the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to the LORD.
16. 16After the 5 Philistine rulers watched all of this, they returned to Ekron that same day.
17. 17These are the golden tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron.
18. 18The golden mice matched the number of all the Philistine cities belonging to the 5 lords, including both fortified cities and country villages, as far as the great stone of Abel where they set down the ark of the LORD. That stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.
19. 19But God struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He killed 50,070 men, and the people mourned deeply because the LORD had struck them with such a devastating blow.
20. 20The men of Beth-shemesh cried out, "Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? Where can we send the ark so it's no longer with us?"
21. 21So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim with this message: "The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it to your city."