1 Samuel 5

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.