CHAPTER 5
When the people of Ashdod
got up early
the next morning,
there
was Dagon,
fallen
on his face
before
the ark
of the LORD.
So they took
Dagon
and returned
him
to his place.
But when they got up early
the next
morning,
there
was Dagon,
fallen
on his face
before
the ark
of the LORD,
with his head
and
his hands
broken off
and lying on
the threshold.
Only
the torso
remained.
That is why,
to
this
day,
the priests
of Dagon
and everyone
who enters
the temple
of Dagon
in Ashdod
do not
step
on
the threshold.
Now the hand
of the LORD
was heavy
on
the people of Ashdod
and its vicinity,
ravaging them
and afflicting
them
with tumors.
And when the men
of Ashdod
saw
what was happening,
they said,
“The ark
of the God
of Israel
must not
stay
here with us,
because
His hand
is heavy
upon us
and upon
our god
Dagon.”
So they called together
all
the rulers
of the Philistines
and asked,
“What
shall we do
with the ark
of the God of
Israel?”
“It
must be moved
to Gath,”
they replied.
So they carried away
the ark
of the God
of Israel.
But after
they had moved
the ark to Gath,
the LORD’s
hand
was also
against that city,
throwing it into great confusion
and afflicting
the men
of the city,
both young
and
old,
with an outbreak
of tumors.
So they sent
the ark
of God
to Ekron,
but as it
arrived,
the Ekronites
cried out,
“They have brought
us
the ark
of the God
of Israel
in order to kill us
and
our people!”
Then the Ekronites assembled
all
the rulers
of the Philistines
and said,
“Send away
the ark
of the God
of Israel.
It must return
to its place,
so that it will not
kill
us
and our people!”
For
a deadly
confusion
had pervaded
the city;
the hand
of God
was heavy
upon it.