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.
1 Samuel Trivia:
The First Book of Samuel
CHAPTER 5
5:1-5
The Philistines took the ark to Ashdod, and set it next to the god 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.
The next morning Dagon had fallen on his face in front of the ark of the Lord.
Then they stood him back up 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.
The same thing happened the next night, only this time his head and hands were cut off, leaving him as only a stump.
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.
After that, no one has ever entered the house of Dagon unto this day.
5:6-12
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.
After the Philistines moved the ark to Ashdod, God destroyed the inhabitants by smiting them with hemorrhoids. [1]
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.
The surviving citizens of Ashdod said,
Get the ark out of here.
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.
They gathered all the Philistines together and said to them,
What shall we do with the ark?
They answered,
Let's take it to Gath.
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.
So they carried the ark to Gath.
Then God smote the people of Gath "both small and great" with hemorrhoids 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.
So they sent the ark to Ekron, and the people of Ekron cried out, saying,
Oh no! They've brought the ark to us, to kill 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.
So they gathered all the Philistines together again and said to them,
Let's send the ark back to the Israelites.
Because God had caused a deadly destruction throughout the city.
12 And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
Those who survived God's killings were smitten with hemorrhoids.
And the cry of the city went up to heaven.
Notes
- He destroyed them, and smote them with emerods. (v.6)
Emerods are hemorrhoids the King James Version.
What the Bible says about hemorrhoids
Strange Flesh: Hemorrhoids in their secret parts
DWB: 61. God smote them with hemorrhoids in their secret parts
- Dwindling in Unbelief
- Five Golden Hemorrhoids
(1 Samuel 5:5, 6, 9, 11-12)
- The Bible's Guide to Torture (5:6)
- Top 50 Bible stories for kids (5:6-12)
- The Top Ten Biblical Plagues (5:9)
- God's 59th Killing: The Lord smote them with hemorrhoids in their secret parts (5:6-12)
- The Bible's Guide to Torture (5:6)
- The N T Wrong Blog
- Aren Maeir's Philistine Penis in Full Colour (1 Samuel 5:5, 6, 9, 11-12)
- Slate Blogs the Bible by David Plotz
- A Bizarre Incident With the Ark of the Covenant.
- Christian Response
- Annotated Skeptic's Annotated Bible
- A great sacrifice unto Dagon their God (1 Sam 5)
- SAB Author Answered