1 Samuel 6:1-9

1Now the ark of the Lord had been in the territory of the Philistines for seven months. 2And 1the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What are we to do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us 2how we may send it to its place.” 3And they said, “If you are going to send the ark of the God of Israel away, 3do not send it empty; but you shall certainly 4return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be revealed to you why His hand does not leave you.” 4Then they said, “What is to be the guilt offering that we shall return to Him?” And they said, “Five gold 5tumors and five gold mice 6corresponding to the number of the governors of the Philistines, since one plague was on all of 7you and on your governors. 5So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that are ruining the land, and 8you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps 9He will lighten His hand from you, 10your gods, and your land. 6Why then do you harden your hearts 11as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, 12did they not let 13the people go, and they left? 7Now then, take and 14prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there 15has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves back home, away from them. 8Then take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart; and put 16the articles of gold which you return to Him as 17a guilt offering in a saddlebag by its side. Then send it away that it may go. 9But watch: if it goes up by the way of its own territory to 18Beth-shemesh, then He has done this great evil to us. But if not, then 19we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”