The Ark in Philistia

5 After the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they took it from the battleground at Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod. ² They carried the Ark of God into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside an idol of Dagon. ³ But when the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord! So they took Dagon and put him in his place again. ⁴ But the next morning the same thing happened—Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact. ⁵ That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor anyone who enters the temple of Dagon in Ashdod will step on its threshold.

⁶ Then the Lord’s heavy hand struck the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with a plague of tumors.^{[a] 7} When the people realized what was happening, they cried out, “We can’t keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer! He is against us! We will all be destroyed along with Dagon, our god.” ⁸ So they called together the rulers of the Philistine towns and asked, “What should we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?”

The rulers discussed it and replied, “Move it to the town of Gath.” So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel to Gath. ⁹ But when the Ark arrived at Gath, the Lord’s heavy hand fell on its men, young and old; he struck them with a plague of tumors, and there was a great panic.

¹⁰ So they sent the Ark of God to the town of Ekron, but when the people of Ekron saw it coming they cried out, “They are bringing the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us, too!” ¹¹ The people summoned the Philistine rulers again and begged them, “Please send the Ark of the God of Israel back to its own country, or it^[b] will kill us all.” For the deadly plague from God had already begun, and great fear was sweeping across the town. ¹² Those who didn’t die were afflicted with tumors; and the cry from the town rose to heaven.

The Philistines Return the Ark

6 The Ark of the Lord remained in Philistine territory seven months in all. ² Then the Philistines called in their priests and diviners and asked them, “What should we do about the Ark of the Lord? Tell us how to return it to its own country.”

³ “Send the Ark of the God of Israel back with a gift,” they were told. “Send a guilt offering so the plague will stop. Then, if you are healed, you will know it was his hand that caused the plague.”

⁴ “What sort of guilt offering should we send?” they asked.

And they were told, “Since the plague has struck both you and your five rulers, make five gold tumors and five gold rats, just like those that have ravaged your land. ⁵ Make these things to show honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps then he will stop afflicting you, your gods, and your land. ⁶ Don’t be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. By the time God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go.

⁷ “Now build a new cart, and find two cows that have just given birth to calves. Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen. ⁸ Put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, and beside it place a chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors you are sending as a guilt offering. Then let the cows go wherever they want. ⁹ If they cross the border of our land and go to Beth-shemesh, we will know it was the Lord who brought this great disaster upon us. If they don’t, we will know it was not his hand that caused the plague. It came simply by chance.”

¹⁰ So these instructions were carried out. Two cows were hitched to the cart, and their newborn calves were shut up in a pen. ¹¹ Then the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors were placed on the cart. ¹² And sure enough, without veering off in other directions, the cows went straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.

¹³ The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they were overjoyed! ¹⁴ The cart came into the field of a man named Joshua and stopped beside a large rock. So the people broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows and sacrificed them to the Lord as a burnt offering. ¹⁵ Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors from the cart and placed them on the large rock. Many sacrifices and burnt offerings were offered to the Lord that day by the people of Beth-shemesh. ¹⁶ The five Philistine rulers watched all this and then returned to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷ The five gold tumors sent by the Philistines as a guilt offering to the Lord were gifts from the rulers of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. ¹⁸ The five gold rats represented the five Philistine towns and their surrounding villages, which were controlled by the five rulers. The large rock^[c] at Beth-shemesh, where they set the Ark of the Lord, still stands in the field of Joshua as a witness to what happened there.

The Ark Moved to Kiriath-Jearim

¹⁹ But the Lord killed seventy men^[d] from Beth-shemesh because they looked into the Ark of the Lord. And the people mourned greatly because of what the Lord had done. ²⁰ “Who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God?” they cried out. “Where can we send the Ark from here?”

²¹ So they sent messengers to the people at Kiriath-jearim and told them, “The Philistines have returned the Ark of the Lord. Come here and get it!”

Israel Requests a King

8 As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. ² Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. ³ But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.

⁴ Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. ⁵ “Look,” they told him, “you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.”

⁶ Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. ⁷ “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. ⁸ Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. ⁹ Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.”

Samuel Warns against a Kingdom

¹⁰ So Samuel passed on the Lord’s warning to the people who were asking him for a king. ¹¹ “This is how a king will reign over you,” Samuel said. “The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. ¹² Some will be generals and captains in his army,^[a] some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. ¹³ The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. ¹⁴ He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own officials. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants. ¹⁶ He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle^[b] and donkeys for his own use. ¹⁷ He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. ¹⁸ When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the Lord will not help you.”

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. ²⁰ “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.”

²¹ So Samuel repeated to the Lord what the people had said, ²² and the Lord replied, “Do as they say, and give them a king.” Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home.