CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub]. Common English Bible
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and asked, "What should we do with the chest of Israel's God?" The people of Gath said, "Let the chest of Israel's God be moved to us." So they moved the chest of Israel's God to Gath.i 9But once they moved it, the LORD's hand came against the city, causing a huge panic. God struck the city's inhabitants, both young and old, and tumors broke out on them.
10Then they sent God's chest to Ekron, but as soon as God's chest entered Ekron, the inhabitants cried out, "Why have you moved the chest of Israel's God to us? In order to kill us and our people?"j
11So they summoned all the Philistine rulers to a meeting and said, "Send the chest of Israel's God away! Let it go back to its own home so it doesn't kill us and our people," because there was a deadly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. 12The people who didn't die were struck with tumors, and the screams of the city went all the way up to heaven.
God's chest is returned
1Samuel 6The LORD's chest was in Philistine territory for seven months. 2The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners. "What should we do with the LORD's chest?" they asked. "Tell us how we should send it back to its own home."
3They replied, "If you are returning the chest of Israel's God, don't send it back empty, but be sure to return a guilt offering to him.k Then you will be healed, and it will become clear to you why God's hand hasn't left you alone."
4"What compensation offering should we return to him?" they asked.
The priests and diviners replied: "Five gold tumorsl and five gold mice,m matching the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague came on all of you and your rulers. 5You must make images of your tumors and the mice that have devastated the land. Honor Israel's God. Perhaps he will lighten the weight of his hand on you, your gods, and your land. 6Why be stubborn like the Egyptians and Pharaoh? After God had dealt harshly with them, didn't they send the Israelites on their way?7So get a new cart ready along with two nursing cows that have never been yoked before. Harness the cows to the cart, but take any of their calves that are following back home. 8Next, take the LORD's chest and put it in the cart. Set the gold items that you are giving God as a compensation offering in a box next to the chest. Then send it on its way. 9Then watch what happens: If the cart goes up the road to its own territory toward Beth-shemesh, then Israel's God has brought this great disaster on us. If the cart goes another way, then we'll know that it wasn't God's hand that struck us. It happened to us randomly."
10The rulersn did just that. They took two nursing cows and harnessed them to the cart, penning their calves up at home. 11They put the LORD's chest on the cart along with the box containing the gold mice and the images of their tumors.o 12The cows went straight ahead, following the road to Beth-shemesh. They kept to one route, mooing as they went, without turning right or left. The Philistine rulers followed them as far as the territory of Beth-shemesh.
13Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the chest, they were overjoyed at the sight. 14The cart entered the field belonging to Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped right by a large stone. They chopped up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as an entirely burned offering to the LORD. 15The Levites unloaded the LORD's chest and the box that was with it that contained all the gold items, and they set them on the large stone. That very day the people of Beth-shemesh offered entirely burned offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD. 16When the five Philistine rulers witnessed this, they went straight back to Ekron.
17These are the gold tumors that the Philistines returned as a compensation offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron. 18The gold mice matched the number of Philistine cities belonging to the five rulers, from fortified cities to country villages. And the large stonep they set the LORD's chest on is a witness even now in the field that belongs to Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
19But God struck down some of the people from Beth-shemesh because they looked into the LORD's chest. God struck seventy people,q and the community grieved because the LORD had struck them so severely. 20The people of Beth-shemesh said, "Who can stand before the LORD, this holy God? Where can he go that is away from us here?"21They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim. "The Philistines returned the LORD's chest!" they said. "Come down and take it back with you."
1Samuel 7So the people of Kiriath-jearim came and took the LORD's chest. They brought it to Abinadab's house, which was on the hill. Then they dedicated Eleazar, Abinadab's son, to care for the LORD's chest.
Samuel leads Israel
2Now a long time passed--a total of twenty years--after the chest came to stay in Kiriath-jearim, and the whole house of Israel yearned forr the LORD.
3Then Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are turning to the LORD with all your heart, then get rid of all the foreign gods and the Astartes you have. Set your heart on the LORD! Worship him only! Then he will deliver you from the Philistines' power."4So the Israelites got rid of the Baals and the Astartes and worshipped the LORD only.
5Next Samuel said, "Assemble all Israel at Mizpah. I will pray to the LORD for you."
6So they assembled at Mizpah, and they drew water and poured it out in the LORD's presence. They fasted that same day and confessed, "We have sinned against the LORD." Samuel served as judge of the Israelites at Mizpah.
7When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had assembled at Mizpah, the Philistine rulers went up to attack Israel. When the Israelites learned of this, they were afraid of the Philistines. 8The Israelites said to Samuel, "Please don't stop praying to the LORD our God for us, so God will save us from the Philistines' power!"9So Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as an entirely burned offering to the LORD. Samuel cried out in prayer to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him.
10While Samuel was offering the entirely burned offering, the Philistines advanced to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered against the Philistines with a great blast on that very day, throwing the Philistines into such a panic that they were defeated by Israel. 11The Israelite soldiers came out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines. They struck them down until they reached a place just below Beth-car. 12Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah.s He named it Ebenezer,t explaining, "The LORD helped us to this very point."
13So the Philistines were defeated, and they stopped coming into Israelite territory. The LORD's hand was against the Philistines throughout Samuel's life. 14The towns the Philistines had captured from Israel, from Ekron to Gath, were returned to Israel. Israel also recovered the territory around those two cities from the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
15Samuel served as Israel's judge his whole life. 16Each year he traveled between Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, serving as Israel's judge in each of those locations. 17Then he would return to Ramah because that's where his home was. In Ramah too he served as Israel's judge, and that is also where he built an altar to the LORD.
Israel demands a king
1Samuel 8Now when Samuel got old, he appointed his sons to serve as Israel's judges. 2The name of his oldest son was Joel; the name of the second was Abijah. They served as judges in Beer-sheba. 3But Samuel's sons didn't follow in his footsteps. They tried to turn a profit, they accepted bribes, and they perverted justice.
4So all the Israelite elders got together and went to Samuel at Ramah. 5They said to him, "Listen. You are old now, and