1 Samuel 6:9-19

9But watch: if it goes up by the way of its own territory to 1Beth-shemesh, then He has done this great evil to us. But if not, then 2we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”

10Then the men did so: they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut in their calves at home. 11And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the saddlebag with the gold mice and the likenesses of their tumors. 12Now the cows went straight in the 3direction of 4Beth-shemesh; they went on 5the same road, bellowing as they went, and did not turn off to the right or to the left. And the governors of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

13Now the people of Beth-shemesh were gathering in their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced at seeing it. 14And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stopped there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and 6offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15And 7the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the saddlebag that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord. 16When the 8five governors of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.

17Now 9these are the gold tumors which the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron; 18and the gold mice, corresponding to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five governors, 10both of fortified cities and of country villages. 11The large 12stone on which they placed the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

1913Now He fatally struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck 50,070 men among the people, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter.