| Chapter
5 |
| 1 | And the
Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. |
| 2 | When the Philistines took
the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by
Dagon. |
| 3 | And when they of
Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the
earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place
again. |
| 4 | And 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 the 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. |
| 5 | Therefore
neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on
the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. |
|
6 | But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of
Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the
coasts thereof. |
| 7 | And
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. |
| 8 | They sent
therefore and gathered all the lords 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 Gath. And they carried the ark
of the God of Israel about thither. |
|
9 | And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of
the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the
men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret
parts. |
| 10 | Therefore they
sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to
Ekron, 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. |
|
11 | So they sent and gathered together all the lords
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; the hand of God was very
heavy there. |
| 12 | And the
men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went
up to heaven. |
