⁸ Take the ark of the Lord, place it on the cart, and put the gold objects that you’re sending Him as a restitution offering in a box^(A) beside the ark.^(B) Send it off and let it go its way.

⁹ Then watch: If it goes up the road to its homeland toward Beth-shemesh,^(A) it is the Lord who has made this terrible trouble for us. However, if it doesn’t, we will know that it was not His hand that punished^(B) us—it was just something that happened to us by chance.”