16. The five Philistine rulers saw everything that happened. On that same day they returned to Ekron.
17. The Philistines sent gold models of growths as a guilt offering to the Lord. There was one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron.
18. They also sent five gold models of rats. There was one for each of the Philistine towns that belonged to the five rulers. Each of those towns had high walls around it. The towns also had country villages around them. The Levites set the ark of the Lord on a large rock. To this very day the rock gives witness to what happened there. It's in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
19. But some of the people of Beth Shemesh looked into the ark of the Lord. So he struck them down. He put 70 of them to death. The rest of the people were filled with sorrow. That's because the Lord had killed so many of them.
20. The people of Beth Shemesh said, "The Lord is a holy God. Who can stand in front of him? Where can the ark go up to from here?"