1 Samuel 6:7

A new cart. Literally, the first part of v. 7 reads, “Now, take you, and make you one new cart, and two milch cattle.” Both verbs deal with both objects. It does not mean that the Philistines were to manufacture a new cart; emphasis is on the fact that it was to be new — never yet used. Similarly the cattle were to be untrained and unbroken to the yoke, a token of never having been put to secular use. This was a mark of reverence. In His triumphal entry to Jerusalem, Christ sat upon a colt “whereon never man sat” (Mark 11:2).

Bring their calves. By separating the calves from their mothers, the diviners hoped to determine, to the satisfaction of all concerned, whether or not the plague was brought by Jehovah. If the God of the Israelites wanted His ark returned, He would have to make the cows do an unnatural thing — leave their calves voluntarily. God was willing to be put to the test by sincerely inquiring minds.