6 The Ark of the LORD remained in the territory of the Philistines seven months.a 2Then the Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and asked, “What shall we do about the Ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it off to its own place.” 3They answered, “If you are going to send the Ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it away without anything; you must also pay an indemnity to Him. Then you will be healed, and b-He will make Himself known to you; otherwise His hand will not turn away from you.”-b 4They asked, “What is the indemnity that we should pay to Him?” They answered, “Five golden hemorrhoids and five golden mice, corresponding to the number of lords of the Phil-istines; for the same plague struck all of youc and your lords. 5You shall make figures of your hemorrhoids and of the mice that are ravaging your land; thus you shall honor the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lighten the weight of His hand upon you and your gods and your land. 6Don’t harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts. As you know, when He made a mockery of them, they had to let Israelc go, and they departed. 7Therefore, get a new cart ready and two milch cows that have not borne a yoke; harness the cows to the cart, but take back indoors the calves that follow them. 8Take the Ark of the LORD and place it on the cart; and put next to it in a chest the gold objects you are paying Him as indemnity. Send it off, and let it go its own way. 9Then watch: If it goes up the road to Beth-shemesh, to His own territory, it was He who has inflicted this great harm on us. But if not, we shall know that it was not His hand that struck us; it just happened to us by chance.”
10The men did so. They took two milch cows and harnessed them to the cart, and shut up their calves indoors. 11They placed the Ark of the LORD on the cart together with the chest, the golden mice, and the figures of their hemorrhoids. 12The cows went straight ahead along the road to Beth-shemesh. They went along a single highroad, lowing as they went, and turning off neither to the right nor to the left; and the lords of the Philistines walked behind them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
13The people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. They looked up and saw the Ark, and they rejoiced d-when they saw [it].-d 14The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and it stopped there. They split up the wood of the cart and presented the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. A large stone was there; 15and the Levites took down the Ark of the LORD and the chest beside it containing the gold objects and placed them on the large stone. Then the men of Beth-shemesh presented burnt offerings and other sacrifices to the LORD that day. 16The five lords of the Philistines saw this and returned the same day to Ekron.
17The following were the golden hemorrhoids that the Philistines paid as an indemnity to the LORD: For Ashdod, one; for Gaza, one; for Ash-kelon, one; for Gath, one; for Ekron, one. 18eAs for the golden mice, their number accorded with all the Philistine towns that belonged to the five lords—both fortified towns and unwalled f-villages, as far as-f the great stoneg on which the Ark of the LORD was set down, to this day, in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
7 19[The LORD] struck at the men of Beth-shemesh because h-they looked into the Ark of the LORD; He struck down seventy men among the people [and] fifty thousand men.-h The people mourned, for He had inflicted a great slaughter upon the population. 20And the men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in attendance on the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?” 21They sent messengers to the inhab-itants of Kiriath-jearim to say, “The Philistines have sent back the Ark of the LORD. Come down and take it into your keeping.” 1The men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the Ark of the LORD and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill; and they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the Ark of the LORD.
2A long time elapsed from the day that the Ark was housed in Kiriath-jearim, twenty years in all; and all the House of Israel a-yearned after-a the LORD. 3And Samuel said to all the House of Israel, “If you mean to return to the LORD with all your heart, you must remove the alien gods and the Ashtaroth from your midst and direct your heart to the LORD and serve Him alone. Then He will deliver you from the hands of the Philistines.” 4And the Israelites removed the Baalim and Ashtaroth and they served the LORD alone.
5Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” 6They assembled at Mizpah, and they drew water and poured it out before the LORD; they fasted that day, and there they confessed that they had sinned against the LORD. And Samuel acted as chieftain of the Israelites at Mizpah.
7When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had assembled at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines marched out against Israel. Hearing of this, the Israelites were terrified of the Philistines 8and they implored Samuel, “Do not neglect us and do not refrain from crying out to the LORD our God to save us from the hands of the Philistines.” 9Thereupon Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD; and Samuel cried out to the LORD in behalf of Israel, and the LORD responded to him. 10For as Samuel was presenting the burnt of-fering and the Philistines advanced to attack Israel, the LORD thundered mightily against the Philistines that day. He threw them into confusion, and they were routed by Israel. 11The men of Israel sallied out of Miz-pah and pursued the Philistines, striking them down to a point below Beth-car.
12Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen,b and named it Eben-ezer:c “For up to now,” he said, “the LORD has helped us.” 13The Philistines were humbled and did not invade the territory of Israel again; and the hand of the LORD was set against the Philistines as long as Samuel lived. 14The towns which the Philistines had taken from Israel, from Ekron to Gath, were restored to Israel; Israel recovered all her territory from the Philistines. There was also peace between Israel and the Amorites.
15Samuel judged Israel as long as he lived. 16Each year he made the rounds of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and acted as judge over Israel at all those places. 17Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there too he would judge Israel. He built an altar there to the LORD.
8 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons judges over Israel. 2The name of his first-born son was Joel, and his second son’s name was Abijah; they sat as judges in Beer-sheba. 3But his sons did not follow in his ways; they were bent on gain, they accepted bribes, and they subverted justice.
4All the elders of Israel assembled and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5and they said to him, “You have grown old, and your sons have not followed your ways. Therefore appoint a king for us, to govern us like all other nations.” 6Samuel was displeased that they said “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the LORD, 7and the LORD replied to Samuel, “Heed the demand of the people in everything they say to you. For it is not you that they have rejected; it is Me they have rejected as their king. 8Like everything else they have done ever since I brought them out of Egypt to this day—forsaking Me and worshiping other gods—so they are doing to you. 9Heed their demand; but warn them solemnly, and tell them about the practices of any king who will rule over them.”
10Samuel reported all the words of the LORD to the people, who were asking him for a
