1 Samuel 6:4

4. Five golden emerods, and five golden mice Perhaps these Philistine soothsayers had heard the history of the brazen serpent, (Numbers 21:4-9,) and therefore supposed that the wrath of Israel’s God might be appeased by talismans. At all events, it was a common custom among the heathen nations of antiquity to make use of such talismanic offerings as a preservative against evil. Apollonius of Tyana is said to have made a brazen scorpion and set it on a pillar in the city of Antioch. whereupon the scorpions of that country all vanished. See many examples given in Kitto’s “Daily Bible Illustrations.” Had the ark remained in their own country, these talismans would, of course, have been set up in their midst; but when the ark was sent away, they deemed it most proper to send them along with it into its own land. The annexed cut is a picture of a Greek votive tablet in the British Museum. It is thought to present the lower part of the face of a woman who, healed of an affection of the nose or mouth, had caused this tablet to be placed in the temple of some god in token of her gratitude for her healing.

According to the number of the lords One golden mouse and one golden boil for each of the five confederate cities, and golden mice for other cities besides these. See 1 Samuel 6:17-18.