The Ark Among the Philistines

When the Philistines had taken the ark of the Hebrews captive, as I said a little earlier, they carried it to the city of Ashdod and set it beside their own god, who was called Dagon, as part of their spoils. But when they went into his temple the next morning to worship their god, they found him paying the same worship to the ark: he lay flat on the ground, having fallen from the pedestal he had stood on. So they lifted him up and set him on his pedestal again, very troubled at what had happened. And as they kept coming to Dagon and finding him still lying flat, in the posture of one bowing down to the ark, they were thrown into great distress and confusion. At length God sent a very deadly disease on the city and countryside of Ashdod. They died of dysentery, a grievous illness that brought death on them very suddenly: before the soul could be gently loosed from the body, as it is in an easy death, they brought up and vomited their entrails, eaten away and utterly corrupted by the disease. As for the crops of their country, a great multitude of mice came up out of the ground and ravaged them, sparing neither the plants nor the fruit. While the people of Ashdod were suffering these misfortunes and could not bear up under them, they realized that they were suffering because of the ark, and that their victory, and their capture of the ark, had not turned out for their good. So they sent to the people of Ashkelon and asked them to take the ark among them. The people of Ashkelon did not mind the request, and granted them the favor. But once they had the ark, they fell into the same miserable state, for the ark carried the disasters the people of Ashdod had suffered along with it to whoever received it from them. The people of Ashkelon in turn sent it away from themselves to others. Nor did it stay among those others, for they were pursued by the same disasters and kept sending it on to the neighboring cities. In this way the ark went the rounds of the five cities of the Philistines, as if it were exacting these disasters as a tribute owed it for coming among them. [a]

Those who had suffered these miseries were worn out by them, and those who heard of them had learned not to let the ark in, since it cost so dear a tribute. At last they looked for some device or way to be rid of it. The rulers of the five cities, Gath, Ekron, Ashkelon, Gaza and Ashdod, met together to consider what should be done. Their first thought was to send the ark back to its own people, granting that God had avenged its cause, that their miseries had come along with it, and that these had been sent on their cities on its account and together with it. Some, however, said they should not do this, nor let themselves be deceived into blaming the ark for their miseries, because it could not have such power and force over them; had God cared so much for it, it would never have been handed over into the hands of men. They urged the others to keep calm and bear patiently what had happened, and to suppose that its only cause was nature, which at certain turns of time produces such changes in the bodies of men, in the earth, in plants, and in everything that grows out of the earth. But the advice that won out over both of these was that of certain men who were believed to have distinguished themselves in former times by their understanding and good sense, and who in the present situation seemed to speak more to the point than all the rest. These men said it was right neither to send the ark away nor to keep it, but to dedicate five golden images, one for each city, as a thank offering to God, because he had cared for their preservation and kept them alive when their lives were about to be taken by diseases they could not withstand. They also wanted them to make five golden mice like the ones that had devoured and ruined their country, put them in a box, and lay them on the ark; to make a new cart for it, and to yoke milk cows to it, but to shut up their calves and keep them away from them, so that the calves would not follow and hinder their mothers, and so that the mothers would want all the more to come back to their calves. Then they were to drive these milk cows, carrying the ark, to a place where three roads met, leave it there, and let the cows take whichever road they pleased. If the cows took the road to the Hebrews and went up into their country, they should conclude that the ark was the cause of their misfortunes. “But if they turn onto another road,” they said, “we will go after it, and conclude that it has no such power in it.” [e]

So they judged that these men had spoken well, and they at once confirmed the decision by doing what was advised. When they had done everything described above, they brought the cart to a place where three roads met, left it there, and went away. But the cows took the right road, as if someone were driving them, while the rulers of the Philistines followed behind, wanting to know where they would stop and to whom they would go. There was a village of the tribe of Judah called Beth-shemesh, and it was to that village the cows went. Though a broad, good plain lay before them to go on through, they went no farther, but stopped the cart there. It was a welcome sight to the people of the village, and they were very glad. It was summer, and all the inhabitants were in the fields bringing in their harvest. As soon as they saw the ark, they left off the work of their hands for joy and ran to the cart. They took down the ark, and the container that held the images and the mice, and set them on a rock that was in the plain. Then they offered a splendid sacrifice to God and feasted, and they offered the cart and the cows as a burnt offering. When the rulers of the Philistines saw this, they went back home.

But now the wrath of God overtook them and struck dead seventy people of the village of Beth-shemesh who, though they were not priests and so not worthy to touch the ark, had come near it. The people of the village wept for those who had suffered this, and mourned them as was natural over so great a misfortune sent from God, each one mourning his own relative. Since they admitted they were unworthy to have the ark stay with them, they sent to the public council of the Israelites and told them the Philistines had given the ark back. When the council learned this, they brought it away to Kiriath-jearim, a city near Beth-shemesh. In this city lived a man named Abinadab, a Levite by birth, who was highly praised for his righteous and devout way of life. So they brought the ark to his house, as a place fit for God himself to dwell in, since a righteous man lived there. His sons also served in the divine worship at the ark and were its chief caretakers for twenty years; for that many years it remained in Kiriath-jearim, after only four months with the Philistines. [i]