1 Samuel 5
5
1And the Philistines have taken the ark of God, and bring it in from Eben-Ezer to Ashdod,
2and the Philistines take the ark of God and bring it into the house of Dagon, and set it near Dagon.
3And the Ashdodites rise early on the morrow, and lo, Dagon is fallen on its face to the earth, before the ark of Jehovah; and they take Dagon, and put it back to its place.
4And they rise early in the morning on the morrow, and lo, Dagon is fallen on its face to the earth, before the ark of Jehovah, and the head of Dagon, and the two palms of its hands are cut off at the threshold, only the fishy part hath been left to him;
5therefore the priests of Dagon, and all those coming into the house of Dagon, tread not on the threshold of Dagon, in Ashdod, till this day.
6And the hand of Jehovah is heavy on the Ashdodites, and He maketh them desolate, and smiteth them with emerods, Ashdod and its borders.
7And the men of Ashdod see that [it is] so, and have said, ‘The ark of the God of Israel doth not abide with us, for hard hath been His hand upon us, and upon Dagon our god.’
8And they send and gather all the princes of the Philistines unto them, and say, ‘What do we do to the ark of the God of Israel?’ and they say, ‘To Gath let the ark of the God of Israel be brought round;’ and they bring round the ark of the God of Israel;
9and it cometh to pass after they have brought it round, that the hand of Jehovah is against the city — a very great destruction; and He smiteth the men of the city, from small even unto great; and break forth on them do emerods.
10And they send the ark of God to Ekron, and it cometh to pass, at the coming in of the ark of God to Ekron, that the Ekronites cry out, saying, ‘They have brought round unto us the ark of the God of Israel, to put us to death — and our people.’
11And they send and gather all the princes of the Philistines, and say, ‘Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and it turneth back to its place, and it doth not put us to death — and our people;’ for there hath been a deadly destruction throughout all the city, very heavy hath the hand of God been there,
12and the men who have not died have been smitten with emerods, and the cry of the city goeth up into the heavens.
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1 Samuel 5: YLT98
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maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society
1 Samuel 5
5
Threatened with Mass Death
1-2Once the Philistines had seized the Chest of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod, brought it into the shrine of Dagon, and placed it alongside the idol of Dagon.
3-5Next morning when the citizens of Ashdod got up, they were shocked to find Dagon toppled from his place, flat on his face before the Chest of God. They picked him up and put him back where he belonged. First thing the next morning they found him again, toppled and flat on his face before the Chest of God. Dagon’s head and arms were broken off, strewn across the entrance. Only his torso was in one piece. (That’s why even today, the priests of Dagon and visitors to the Dagon shrine in Ashdod avoid stepping on the threshold.)
6 God was hard on the citizens of Ashdod. He devastated them by hitting them with tumors. This happened in both the town and the surrounding neighborhoods. He let loose rats among them. Jumping from ships there, rats swarmed all over the city! And everyone was deathly afraid.
7-8When the leaders of Ashdod saw what was going on, they decided, “The chest of the god of Israel has got to go. We can’t handle this, and neither can our god Dagon.” They called together all the Philistine leaders and put it to them: “How can we get rid of the chest of the god of Israel?”
The leaders agreed: “Move it to Gath.” So they moved the Chest of the God of Israel to Gath.
9But as soon as they moved it there, God came down hard on that city, too. It was mass hysteria! He hit them with tumors. Tumors broke out on everyone in town, young and old.
10-12So they sent the Chest of God on to Ekron, but as the Chest was being brought into town, the people shouted in protest, “You’ll kill us all by bringing in this Chest of the God of Israel!” They called the Philistine leaders together and demanded, “Get it out of here, this Chest of the God of Israel. Send it back where it came from. We’re threatened with mass death!” For everyone was scared to death when the Chest of God showed up. God was already coming down very hard on the place. Those who didn’t die were hit with tumors. All over the city cries of pain and lament filled the air.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.