Putting the Ark of the Lord God by Their idol |
1 Samuel 5:1-12 The Book of 1 Samuel [in Smaller Chunks] |
The Philistines took the Ark of God & bought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. [They put] the Ark of God into the house of Dagon & set it by Dagon. [Exodus 23:24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but you shall [totally] overthrow them & [totally] break down their images.] |
When [those] of Ashdod arose early the [next day, they saw] Dagon [had] fallen upon [its] face to the [ground] before the Ark of the Lord. They took Dagon & set [it back in its] place again. |
When they rose early the [next] morning, [they saw,] Dagon [had] fallen to the ground before the Ark of the Lord & the head & both the palms of [its] hands of Dagon were cut off & [were lying] upon the threshold. |
Only the [torso] of Dagon was left. Therefore, neither the priests nor anyone [who comes] into Dagon’s house, [will walk] on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. |
But the hand of the Lord was heavy on [those] of Ashdod & He destroyed them & [struck] them with [tumors] & even [from] Ashdod to [their surrounding] coasts. |
When the men of Ashdod saw it was so, they said, The Ark of the God of Israel shall not [stay] with us, for His hand is [heavy] upon us & upon Dagon, our god. |
Therefore, they gathered the Philistine lords & said to them, What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel? They answered, Let the Ark of God be carried to Gath & they carried the Ark of the God of Israel [there.] |
[Afterwards] the hand of the Lord was against the city [of Gath] with a [large amount of] destruction & He [struck] the men of the city, both [powerless & powerful] with [tumors] in their [private places.] |
Therefore, they sent the Ark of God to Ekron & when the Ark of God came to Enron, the Ekronites cried out saying, They have brought the Ark of the God of Israel to us, to [kill] us & our people. |
So, they gathered together all the lords of the Philistines & said, Send away the Ark of the God of Israel & let it go to [its] own place again, [so] it [doesn’t kill] us & our people: for there was deadly destruction throughout the city. |
The hand of [the Lord] God was heavy there. The men [who hadn’t] died, were [struck] with [tumors] & the cry of the city went up to heaven. |