1Yahweh’s ark was in the country of the Philistines seven months. 2The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with Yahweh’s ark? Show us how we should send it to its place.”
3They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, don’t send it empty; but by all means return a trespass offering to him. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.”
4Then they said, “What should the trespass offering be which we shall return to him?”
They said, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, for the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. 5Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his hand from you, from your gods, and from your land. 6Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t they let the people go, and they departed?
7“Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart and two milk cows on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them; 8and take Yahweh’s ark and lay it on the cart. Put the jewels of gold, which you return him for a trespass offering, in a box by its side; and send it away, that it may go. 9Behold, if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us. It was a chance that happened to us.”
10The men did so, and took two milk cows and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 11They put Yahweh’s ark on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. 12The cows took the straight way by the way to Beth Shemesh. They went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn’t turn away to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh. 13The people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. 14The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone. Then they split the wood of the cart and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to Yahweh. 15The Levites took down Yahweh’s ark and the box that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to Yahweh. 16When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. 17These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; 18and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages, even to the great stone on which they set down Yahweh’s ark. That stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh. 19He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into Yahweh’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter. 20The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?”
21They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back Yahweh’s ark. Come down and bring it up to yourselves.”
1 Sam 6:21 Kiryat Yearim (today Abu Gosh) has a long reputation for beguiling or charming enemies into pacts of peace. Kiryat Yearim (typically identified as Deir el-‘Azar above Abu Gosh) is one of the four Gibeionite cites that made a pact with Joshua (Josh 9:17) and served as a border town between Judah and Benjamin (Josh 15:9,60; 18:28). Kiryath-Yearim has a number of former names such as Baalah, Kiyat-baal, and Baale of Judah (Josh 15:9; 18:14; 2 Sam 6:2; 1 Chr 13:6) and is identified as modern Deir el-‘Azar.
Kiryat Yearim also figured prominently in the story of the Ark of the Covenant. Israel received the Ark after the Philistine sent it up the Sorek valley by Beth-Shemesh (1 Sam 6), and after the plague there, it was taken up to Kiriath-Yearim for 20 years (1 Sam 7:1). The exact location of the Ark in Kiryat Yearim is given as the house of Abinadav son of Eleazar on the hill (2 Sam 6:3). The modern Arabic term for the tel (Deir el-Azar) may be connected to Elezar. The Ark seems to fall out of use (maybe because Mizpah and Gibeah are more prominent) as Saul “paid not regard to it” (1 Chr 13:3). Psalm 132:6 assumes it is quite unknown until “found in the region of Yaar.” (But compare 1 Sam 14:18.) David hoped to move the ark to from Kiryat-Yearim to the city of David, but he was afraid of it after Ahio son of Abinadav drove the cart that carried the Ark (rather than the Kohathites priests, see 1 Chr 15) and his brother Uzzah touched the Ark and died at the threshing-floor of Nachon (2 Sam 6:6). Due to this, David took the Ark aside into the house of Obed-edom from Gath (2 Sam 6:10; from Gath) for three months (2 Sam 6:11; 1 Chr 15:24), until David finally brought the Ark to the City of David in Jerusalem in a manner that followed the Torah (1 Chr 15-16).
While plowing in 1905, a farmer discovered a semi-circular wall on the summit of Deir el-‘Azar which turned out to remnants of a fifth-century Byzantine church. Many objects from this era can be seen around the new Church built on the summit in the early 1900s by Sister Josephine Rumebe. This church with its towering statue of Mary belongs to the French Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, who call it Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant: associating Mary containing Yeshua with the Ark containing the Ten Commandments.