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The Blue Letter Bible

1 Samuel 6 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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The Philistines Return the Ark

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:1

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:1 - The Ark of the LORD remained in Philistine territory seven months in all.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:2

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:2 - Then the Philistines called in their priests and diviners and asked them, “What should we do about the Ark of the LORD? Tell us how to return it to its own country.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:3

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:3 - “Send the Ark of the God of Israel back with a gift,” they were told. “Send a guilt offering so the plague will stop. Then, if you are healed, you will know it was his hand that caused the plague.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:4

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:4 - “What sort of guilt offering should we send?” they asked.
And they were told, “Since the plague has struck both you and your five rulers, make five gold tumors and five gold rats, just like those that have ravaged your land.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:5

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:5 - Make these things to show honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps then he will stop afflicting you, your gods, and your land.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:6

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:6 - Don’t be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. By the time God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:7

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:7 - “Now build a new cart, and find two cows that have just given birth to calves. Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:8

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:8 - Put the Ark of the LORD on the cart, and beside it place a chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors you are sending as a guilt offering. Then let the cows go wherever they want.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:9

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:9 - If they cross the border of our land and go to Beth-shemesh, we will know it was the LORD who brought this great disaster upon us. If they don’t, we will know it was not his hand that caused the plague. It came simply by chance.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:10

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:10 - So these instructions were carried out. Two cows were hitched to the cart, and their newborn calves were shut up in a pen.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:11

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:11 - Then the Ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors were placed on the cart.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:12

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:12 - And sure enough, without veering off in other directions, the cows went straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:13

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:13 - The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they were overjoyed!

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:14

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:14 - The cart came into the field of a man named Joshua and stopped beside a large rock. So the people broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows and sacrificed them to the LORD as a burnt offering.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:15

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:15 - Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted the Ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors from the cart and placed them on the large rock. Many sacrifices and burnt offerings were offered to the LORD that day by the people of Beth-shemesh.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:16

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:16 - The five Philistine rulers watched all this and then returned to Ekron that same day.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:17

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:17 - The five gold tumors sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to the LORD were gifts from the rulers of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:18

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:18 - The five gold rats represented the five Philistine towns and their surrounding villages, which were controlled by the five rulers. The large rock at Beth-shemesh, where they set the Ark of the LORD, still stands in the field of Joshua as a witness to what happened there.
The Ark Moved to Kiriath-Jearim

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:19

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:19 - But the LORD killed seventy men[fn] from Beth-shemesh because they looked into the Ark of the LORD. And the people mourned greatly because of what the LORD had done.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:20

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:20 - “Who is able to stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God?” they cried out. “Where can we send the Ark from here?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 6:21

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 6:21 - So they sent messengers to the people at Kiriath-jearim and told them, “The Philistines have returned the Ark of the LORD. Come here and get it!”
See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NLT Footnotes
As in a few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts read 70 men, 50,000 men. Perhaps the text should be understood to read the LORD killed 70 men and 50 oxen.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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1 Samuel Chapter 6 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras