Samuel replied, “If that is the case, ¹  then what is this sound of sheep in my ears and the sound of cattle that I hear?”

“Does the wild donkey ¹  bray ²  when it is near grass? ³  Or ⁴  does the ox low near its fodder? ⁵ 

Then the cows went directly on the road to Beth Shemesh. They went along, mooing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left. The leaders of the Philistines were walking along behind them all the way to the border of Beth Shemesh.

I said, ¹  “I will weep and mourn ²  for the grasslands on the mountains, ³  I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness because they are so scorched no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there. Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields have fled and are gone.”