Then they said, "What shall be the trespass-offering which we shall return to him?" They said, "Five golden tumors, and five golden mice, [according to] the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
"Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh?"  (1 Samuel 6:6).  This indicates that the knowledge of God's deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt was well known all over the world.  Who could have missed it?  Egypt was the most powerful nation on earth at that time. As Smith stated it, "The question for the Philistines was simply this: would they restore the ark on the warning of one plague or would they hold out for ten plagues,"[7] and then send it back!