The Philistines place the ark in the temple of Dagon, whose statue falls on its face. The people of each city that holds the ark suffer a plague, and they decide to send it away.
1 And the Philistines took the ark of God , and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod .
2 When the Philistines took the ark of God , they brought it into the house of Dagon , and set it by Dagon .
3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow , behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD . And they took Dagon , and set him in his place again .
4 And when they arose early on the morrow morning , behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD ; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold ; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
5 Therefore neither the priests of Dagon , nor any that come into Dagon's house , tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day .
6 But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod , and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods , even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said , The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god .
8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said , What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel ? And they answered , Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath . And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.
9 And it was so, that, after they had carried it about , the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction : and he smote the men of the city , both small and great , and they had emerods in their secret parts .
10 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron . And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron , that the Ekronites cried out , saying , They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people .
11 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines , and said , Send away the ark of the God of Israel , and let it go again to his own place , that it slay us not, and our people : for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city ; the hand of God was very heavy there.
12 And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods : and the cry of the city went up to heaven .