5:1Now the Philistines took the ark of God, and carried it away from the Stone of Help into Ashdod. 5:2And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside Dagon. 5:3And when the men of Ashdod had risen at dawn the next day, look, Dagon was lying face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord: and they took Dagon, and restored him to his place. 5:4And again, rising in the morning on the next day, they found Dagon lying upon his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord: but the head of Dagon, and the two palms of his hands, had been cut off upon the threshold: and Dagon, only a trunk, had remained in his place.
5:5For this reason the priests of Dagon, and all who enter his temple, do not tread upon the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, until the present day. 5:6And the hand of the Lord was made heavy upon the men of Ashdod, and he destroyed them: and he struck Ashdod and its borders in the more secret part of the buttocks. 5:6And the villages and fields in the middle of that region boiled up, and mice were born, and there came about a confusion of great death in the city. 5:7And the men of Ashdod, seeing a plague of this kind, said: "Let the ark of the God of Israel not stay with us: since his hand is hard upon us, and upon Dagon our god."
5:8And sending, they gathered all the lords of the Philistines to themselves, and said: "What shall we do about the ark of the God of Israel?" 5:8And the men of Gath answered: "Let the ark of the God of Israel be led around." 5:8And they led around the ark of the God of Israel. 5:9And as they were leading it around, the hand of the Lord came upon each of the cities with a slaughter great beyond measure: and he struck the men of every city, from small even to greater, and their protruding entrails were rotting. 5:9And the men of Gath took counsel, and made for themselves seats of skin.
5:10So they sent the ark of God into Ekron. 5:10And when the ark of God had come into Ekron, the men of Ekron cried out, saying: "They have brought to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people." 5:11So they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines: who said: "Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its place, and let it not kill us with our people." 5:12For there came about a terror of death in each of the cities, and the hand of God was very heavy indeed. 5:12The men also who had not died were being struck in the more secret part of the buttocks: and the wailing of every city was going up to heaven.