1 Samuel 5

Chapter 5

Capture of the Ark Provokes God

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.

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

⁴But when they arose early the next morning, behold, ^aDagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. 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 the Lord was heavy on the Ashdodites, and ^bHe ravaged them and smote them with ^ctumors, both Ashdod and its territories.

⁷When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they 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.

⁹After they had brought it around, ^athe hand of the Lord was against the city with very great confusion; and He smote 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 kill us and ²our people.”

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 kill ¹us and ²our people.” For there was a deadly confusion throughout the city; ^bthe hand of God was very heavy there.

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