Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageHere is what you must do: get a new cart ready, and two nursing cows that have never worn a yoke. Hitch them to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up at home.'
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GNow then, take and prepare one new cart and two nursing cows on which no yoke has ever rested. Hitch the cows to the cart and bring their calves back home, away from them.'
KJV
King James VersionNow therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them:
BSB
Berean Standard BibleNow, therefore, prepare one new cart with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.
Footnotes
*Parot alot* literally means 'suckling cows' — cows still nursing their calves. The test is precisely engineered: nursing mothers separated from their calves would naturally turn back toward them, not plod forward. If they proceed toward Beth-Shemesh despite their instinct, it can only be divine compulsion. The 'new cart' and 'never-yoked' animals also echo ritual purity logic: what is consecrated to YHWH must be unblemished by prior use (cf. Num. 19:2; Deut. 21:3 — the red heifer and the broken-necked heifer, both similarly 'never worked'). FOG Message draws out the logic of the test; FOG preserves its stark factuality.
