1 Samuel 5–6

CHAPTER 5

Yahweh’s Hand Against the Philistines

¹Now the Philistines took the ark of God and ^abrought it from Ebenezer to ^bAshdod.

²Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to ^athe house of Dagon and set it by Dagon.

³Then the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, and behold, ^aDagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh. So they took Dagon and ^bset him in his place again.

⁴But they arose early the next morning, and behold, ^aDagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh. And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; ¹only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.

⁵Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor all who enter Dagon’s house ^atread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

⁶Now ^athe hand of Yahweh was glorious against the Ashdodites, and ^bHe made them desolate and struck them with ^ctumors, both Ashdod and its territories.

⁷Thus the men of Ashdod saw that it was so and said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god.”

⁸So they sent and ^agathered all the lords of the Philistines to them and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they said, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” And they brought the ark of the God of Israel around.

⁹Now it happened after they had brought it around, that ^athe hand of Yahweh was against the city with very great confusion; and He struck the men of the city, both young and old, so that ^btumors broke out on them.

¹⁰So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And as the ark of God came to Ekron the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel around to ¹us, to put ²us and ³our people to death.”

¹¹They ^asent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, so that it will not put ¹us and ²our people to death.” For there was a deadly confusion throughout the city; ^bthe hand of God was very glorious there.

¹²Now the men who did not die were struck with tumors and ^athe cry of the city went up to heaven.

CHAPTER 6

The Ark Returned to Israel

¹Now the ark of Yahweh had been in the ¹fields of the Philistines seven months.

²And ^athe Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of Yahweh? Make us know ¹how we shall send it to its place.”

³So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, ^ado not send it empty; but you shall surely ^breturn to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not turned away from you.”

⁴Then they said, “What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?” And they said, “Five golden ^atumors and five golden mice ^baccording to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on all of ¹you and on your lords.

⁵“So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that bring the land to ruin, and ^ayou shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps ^bHe will ease His hand from you, ^cyour gods, and your land.

⁶“Why then do you ¹harden your hearts ^aas the Egyptians and Pharaoh ²hardened their hearts? When He had abused them, ^bdid they not allow ³the people to go, and they went?

⁷“So now, take and ^amake a new cart and two milch cows on which there ^bhas never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them.

⁸“And take the ark of Yahweh and place it on the cart; and put ^athe articles of gold which you return to Him as ^ba guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go.

⁹“See, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to ^aBeth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then ^bwe will know that it was not His hand that smote us; it happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰Then the men did so and took two milch cows and hitched them to the cart and shut up their calves at home.

¹¹And they put the ark of Yahweh on the cart, as well as the box with the golden mice and the likenesses of their tumors.

¹²And the cows took the straight way in the ¹direction of ^aBeth-shemesh; they went along ^bthe highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

¹³Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark and were glad to see it.

¹⁴And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there, and a large stone was there; and they split the wood of the cart and ^aoffered the cows as a burnt offering to Yahweh.

^15aAnd the Levites took down the ark of Yahweh and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to Yahweh.

¹⁶So the ^afive lords of the Philistines saw it and returned to Ekron that day.

^17aNow these are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a guilt offering to Yahweh: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron;

¹⁸and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, ^aboth of fortified cities and of country villages. ^bThe large ¹stone on which they set the ark of Yahweh is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

^19aThen He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of Yahweh. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.

²⁰And the men of Beth-shemesh said, “^aWho is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?”

²¹So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of ^aKiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of Yahweh; come down and take it up to you.”