1 Kings 5
5
1And the Philistines took the ark of God, and carried it from the Stone of Help into Azotus.
2And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the temple of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
3And when the Azotians arose early the next day, behold Dagon lay upon his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him again in his place.
4And the next day again, when they rose in the morning, they found Dagon lying upon his face on the earth before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon, and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold:
5And only the stump of Dagon remained in its place. For this cause neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that go into the temple tread on the threshold of Dagon in Azotus unto this day.
6And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the Azotians, and he destroyed them, and afflicted Azotus and the coasts thereof with emerods. And in the villages and fields in the midst of that country, there came forth a multitude of mice; and there was the confusion of a great mortality in the city.
7And the men of Azotus seeing this kind of plague said: The ark of the God of Israel shall not stay with us; for his hand is heavy upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
8And sending, they gathered together all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said: What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And the Gethrites answered: Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about.
9And while they were carrying it about, the hand of the Lord came upon every city with an exceeding great slaughter. And he smote the men of every city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. And the Gethrites consulted together, and made themselves seats of skins.
10Therefore they sent the ark of God into Accaron. And when the ark of God was come into Accaron, the Accaronites cried out, saying: They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.
11They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines: and they said: Send away the ark of the God of Israel; and let it return into its own place, and not kill us and our people.
12For there was the fear of death in every city; and the hand of God was exceeding heavy. The men also that did not die were afflicted with the emerods: and the cry of every city went up to heaven.
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1 Kings 5: DRC1752
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
1 Samuel 5
5
The Covenant Box among the Philistines
1After the Philistines captured the Covenant Box, they carried it from Ebenezer to their city of Ashdod, 2took it into the temple of their god Dagon, and set it up beside his statue. 3Early next morning the people of Ashdod saw that the statue of Dagon had fallen face downwards on the ground in front of the LORD's Covenant Box. So they lifted it up and put it back in its place. 4Early the following morning they saw that the statue had again fallen down in front of the Covenant Box. This time its head and both its arms were broken off and were lying in the doorway; only the body was left. 5(That is why even today the priests of Dagon and all his worshippers in Ashdod step over that place and do not walk on it.)
6The LORD punished the people of Ashdod severely and terrified them. He punished them and the people in the surrounding territory by causing them to have tumours.#5.6 tumours: The association of tumours with an abundance of mice suggests that this was a case of bubonic plague (see 6.5). 7When they saw what was happening, they said, “The God of Israel is punishing us and our god Dagon. We can't let the Covenant Box stay here any longer.” 8So they sent messengers and called together all five of the Philistine kings and asked them, “What shall we do with the Covenant Box of the God of Israel?”
“Take it over to Gath,” they answered; so they took it to Gath, another Philistine city. 9But after it arrived there, the LORD punished that city too and caused a great panic. He punished them with tumours which developed in all the people of the city, young and old alike. 10So they sent the Covenant Box to Ekron, another Philistine city; but when it arrived there, the people cried out, “They have brought the Covenant Box of the God of Israel here, in order to kill us all!” 11So again they sent for all the Philistine kings and said, “Send the Covenant Box of Israel back to its own place, so that it won't kill us and our families.” There was panic throughout the city because God was punishing them so severely. 12Even those who did not die developed tumours and the people cried out to their gods for help.
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.