1 Samuel 5

5And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from ^aEben-ezer unto ^bAshdod. ²When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of ^cDagon, and set it by Dagon. ³And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was ^dfallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. ⁴And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and ^ethe head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only ^||the stump of Dagon was left to him. ⁵Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the ^fthreshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. ⁶But ^gthe hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he ^hdestroyed them, and smote them with ⁱemerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. ⁷And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god. ⁸They sent therefore and gathered all the ^jlords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto ^kGath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. ⁹And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, ^lthe hand of the Lord was against the city ^mwith a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. ¹⁰Therefore they sent the ark of God to ⁿEkron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to ⁿEkron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to ^†us, to slay us and our people. ¹¹So they sent and gathered together all the ^jlords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay ^†us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; ^othe hand of God was very heavy there. ¹²And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.