8. and take the Lord’s ark, and lay it on the cart. Put the jewels of gold, which you return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by its side; and send it away, that it may go.
9. Behold; if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us. It was a chance that happened to us.”
10. The men did so, and took two milk cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
11. They put the Lord’s ark on the cart, and the coffer with the golden mice and the images of their tumors.
12. The cows took the straight way by the way to Beth Shemesh. They went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn’t turn away to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.
13. The people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
14. The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone. Then they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to the Lord.
15. The Levites took down the Lord’s ark, and the box that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to the Lord.
16. When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.
17. These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering to the Lord: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;