1 Samuel 5

1 The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 The Philistines took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Dagon, and stood it beside Dagon.

3 The people of Ashdod got up early and went into the house of Dagon and looked — and there was Dagon, fallen face down before the ark of God. So they lifted Dagon up and set him back in his place. And the hand of the Lord lay heavy on the people of Ashdod; he tormented them and struck them with sores, both Ashdod and the country around it. [a]

4 And when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon again, fallen face down before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; and Dagon’s head and both palms of his hands were cut off, each of them lying on the threshold in front, and both his wrists had fallen at the doorway. Only Dagon’s trunk was left. [b] 5 That is why the priests of Dagon, and everyone who goes into the house of Dagon, do not tread on the step of Dagon’s house in Ashdod to this day: they step over it.

6 Then the hand of the Lord lay heavy on Ashdod. He brought it on them, and it broke out on them as far as their ships, and mice sprang up in the middle of their country, and a great deadly confusion came over the city. [c] 7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel will not stay with us, for his hand is hard on us and on Dagon our god.”

8 So they sent and gathered the rulers of the Philistines to them, and said, “What are we to do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And the Gittites said, “Let the ark of God come over to us.” And the ark of God went over to Gath.

9 And after it had gone over, the hand of the Lord came on that city — a very great panic. He struck the men of the city, from the least to the greatest, and struck them with sores; and the Gittites made themselves models of the sores. [d] 10 So they sent the ark of God away to Ashkelon. And when the ark of God came into Ashkelon, the people of Ashkelon cried out, “Why have you brought the ark of the God of Israel around to us, to kill us and our people?” [e]

11 And they sent and gathered the rulers of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away, and let it go back to its own place, so that it does not kill us and our people.” For a deadly confusion, very heavy, had come over the whole city when the ark of the God of Israel came in there, 12 and those who lived and did not die were struck with sores; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.