The Ark Returned to Israel

6 Now the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. ² And the Philistines ^(A)called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it to its place.”

³ So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it ^(B)empty; but by all means return it to Him with ^(C)a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.”

⁴ Then they said, “What is the trespass offering which we shall return to Him?”

They answered, ^(D)“Five golden tumors and five golden rats, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of ^[a]you and on your lords. ⁵ Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ^(E)ravage the land, and you shall ^(F)give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will ^(G)lighten^[b] His hand from you, from ^(H)your gods, and from your land. ⁶ Why then do you harden your hearts ^(I)as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He did mighty things among them, ^(J)did they not let the people go, that they might depart? ⁷ Now therefore, make ^(K)a new cart, take two milk cows ^(L)which have never been yoked, and hitch the cows to the cart; and take their calves home, away from them. ⁸ Then take the ark of the Lord and set it on the cart; and put ^(M)the articles of gold which you are returning to Him as a trespass offering in a chest by its side. Then send it away, and let it go. ⁹ And watch: if it goes up the road to its own territory, to ^(N)Beth Shemesh, then He has done ^[c]us this great evil. But if not, then ^(O)we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us—it happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰ Then the men did so; they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. ¹¹ And they set the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors.

⁵ So ^(A)David gathered all Israel together, from ^(B)Shihor in Egypt to as far as the entrance of Hamath, to bring the ark of God ^(C)from Kirjath Jearim. ⁶ And David and all Israel went up to ^(D)Baalah,^[a] to Kirjath Jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God the Lord, ^(E)who dwells between the cherubim, where His name is proclaimed. ⁷ So they ^[b]carried the ark of God ^(F)on a new cart ^(G)from the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. ⁸ Then ^(H)David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with ^[c]singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets.

^4 (A)But David had brought up the ark of God from Kirjath Jearim to the place David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem.