1. After the sacred chest had been in Philistia for seven months,
2. the Philistines called in their priests and fortune-tellers, and asked, “What should we do with this sacred chest? Tell us how to send it back where it belongs!”
3. “Don't send it back without a gift,” the priests and fortune-tellers answered. “Send along something to Israel's God to make up for taking the chest in the first place. Then you will be healed, and you will find out why the Lord was causing you so much trouble.”
4. “What should we send?” the Philistines asked.The priests and fortune-tellers answered:There are five Philistine rulers, and they all have the same disease that you have.
5. So make five gold models of the sores and five gold models of the rats that are wiping out your crops. If you honour the God of Israel with this gift, perhaps he will stop causing trouble for you and your gods and your crops.
6. Don't be like the Egyptians and their king. They were stubborn, but when Israel's God had finished with them, they had to let Israel go.
14-15. The cows left the road and pulled the cart into a field that belonged to Joshua from Beth-Shemesh, and they stopped beside a huge rock. Some men from the tribe of Levi were there. So they took the chest off the cart and placed it on the rock, and then they did the same thing with the bag of gold rats and sores. A few other people chopped up the cart and made a fire. They killed the cows and burnt them as sacrifices to the Lord. After that, they offered more sacrifices.