¹After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ²They brought it into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside Dagon. ³Early the next day the people of Ashdod saw that Dagon had fallen forward on the ground in front of the Lord’s ark. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. ⁴But the next morning they saw that Dagon had ⸤again⸥ fallen forward on the ground in front of the Lord’s ark. Dagon’s head and his two hands were cut off ⸤and were lying⸥ on the temple’s threshold. The rest of Dagon’s body was intact.^a⁵This is why the priests of Dagon and everyone else who comes into Dagon’s temple in Ashdod still don’t step on the temple’s threshold.

⁶The Lord dealt harshly with the people of Ashdod. He destroyed them by striking the people in the vicinity of Ashdod with tumors. ⁷When the people of Ashdod realized what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay with us, because their God is dealing harshly with us and our god Dagon.” ⁸The people of Ashdod called together all the Philistine rulers. “What should we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” they asked.

“The ark of the God of Israel must be taken to Gath,” the rulers said.^bSo the people took the ark of the God of Israel there.

⁹But after they had moved it,^cthe Lord threw the city into a great panic: He struck all the important and unimportant people in the city, and they were covered with tumors. ¹⁰So the people of Gath sent the ark of God to Ekron. But when the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They brought the ark of the God of Israel here to kill us.” ¹¹They called together all the Philistine rulers. “Send the ark of the God of Israel away,” they said. “Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us or our people.” There was a fear of death throughout the city, where God dealt ⸤with them⸥ very harshly. ¹²The people who didn’t die were struck with tumors. So the cry of the city went up to heaven.

6TH CHAPTER

The Ark Is Returned to Israel

¹The ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months ²when the Philistines called for priests and people skilled in explaining omens. The Philistines asked, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how to return it to its ⸤proper⸥ place.”

³The priests answered, “If you’re returning the ark of the God of Israel, don’t send it away empty, but by all means return it to its ⸤proper⸥ place with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will know why he would not turn his anger away from you.”

⁴The Philistines asked, “What kind of guilt offering should we give him?”

The priests answered, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice for the ⸤five⸥ Philistine rulers because all of you and your rulers suffer from the same plague. ⁵Make models of your tumors and your mice which are destroying the country, and give glory to the God of Israel. Maybe he will no longer be so hard on you, your gods, and your country. ⁶Why should you be as stubborn as the Egyptians and their Pharaoh were? After he toyed with the Egyptians, didn’t they send the Israelites on their way? ⁷Now get a new cart ready for two dairy cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart. Take their calves away, and leave them in their stall. ⁸Take the ark of the Lord, and put it on the cart. Put the gold objects which you’re giving him as a guilt offering in a box beside the ark. Send the cart on its way, ⁹but then watch where it goes. If it goes up the road to its own country toward Beth Shemesh, then this disaster is the Lord’s doing. But if not, we’ll know it wasn’t his hand that struck us, but what happened to us was an accident.”

¹⁰The people did this. They took two dairy cows, hitched them to a cart, and shut the calves in the stall. ¹¹They put the ark of the Lord and the box containing the gold mice and the models of their hemorrhoids on the cart. ¹²The cows went straight up the road to Beth Shemesh. Continually mooing, they stayed on the road and didn’t turn right or left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth Shemesh.

¹³The people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed. ¹⁴The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh and stopped there by a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹⁵(The Levites had already taken down ⸤from the cart⸥ the ark of the Lord and the box which contained the gold objects and put them on the large rock.) The people of Beth Shemesh presented burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Lord that day. ¹⁶After the five rulers of the Philistines saw this, they went back to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷The gold hemorrhoids which the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord were for the cities of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. ¹⁸And the number of gold mice was the same as the number of Philistine cities belonging to the five rulers, including walled cities and farm villages. The large rock on which they put the ark of the Lord is a witness.It is still there today in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

¹⁹God struck down some of the people from Beth Shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the Lord. He struck down 70 people.^bThe people mourned because the Lord struck them with such a great blow. ²⁰The people of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to which people will he go when he leaves us?” ²¹They sent messengers to the people living at Kiriath Jearim to say, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord. Come and take it back with you.”

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Footnotes

a 5:4 Greek; Masoretic Text “Only Dagon was left.”
b 5:8 Dead Sea Scrolls, Greek read “The citizens of Gath said, ‘Let the ark of God be brought to us.
c 5:9 Dead Sea Scrolls add “to Gath.”
b 6:19 “70 people” is found in a few Hebrew manuscripts and the writings of the ancient Jewish historian Josephus. Masoretic Text and Greek read “50,070 people.”