The ark of Yahweh was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
The methods employed by diviners included: (1) shaking the arrows; (2) consulting the teraphim; and (3) looking at the liver  (Ezekiel 21:21).  For further comment on `shaking the arrows,' see our commentary on Ezekiel, pp. 215,216.  In this third method, the entrails of some animal were poured out, and the arrangements of different portions were supposed to provide some kind of information to the observers!  Willis tells us that other methods included watching the movement of clouds, the flight of birds and the disposition of the stars.[1]  There was also, evidently, some ancient version of the modern superstition of being able to read the future by the disposition of the tea leaves in a cup of tea.  Joseph's silver cup which was used for divining  (Genesis 44:4) was probably utilized for that type of reading the future.