“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.”
The Philistine priests came up with this plan to send the Ark of the Lord back to the land of Israel. It was a plan designed to prove whether or not the plagues that had befallen Philistia were indeed the judgement of God or not. The Ark of God was placed on a cart (along with golden idols for good measure I suppose). The cart was to be pulled across the border to Israel by two cows. But not just any two cows. These two cows were chosen for the job because they had just calved a few days earlier, and because neither of them had ever been under a yoke. In other words, nothing short of a divine miracle would do.
What a sight it must have been to see these two beasts pull away on their own— away from their calves —up the long road to Israel.
