The article studies the rather unusual mention of “mice” among the tribute of the Philistines in the story of the return of the Ark told in 1 Samuel 5-6. Based on a comparison between the main textual witnesses, it is argued that the mention of mice is the result of a series successive reinterpretations, in which three stages, at least, can be identified. Originally, the mention of mice appears to reflect a scribal gloss, whose function was to give a concrete shape to the images of “tumors” brought by the Philistines as a tribute to Yhwh in 1 Samuel 6. Later, the mention of images of mice was interpreted as comprising a distinct tribute, which in turn gave rise to the tradition of a plague of mice devastating the Philistine territory, such as it is told in the main Greek witnesses to 1 Samuel 5. At the end of this process, the mice have become agents of sorts for the Israelite god Yhwh, which brings him in connection with Apollo Smintheus. The “mice” of 1 Sam 5-6 are, therefore, a complex textual object, whose analysis requires combining a philological approach with elements from the history of religions.