The ark travels through Philistine cities
United Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: cc66402921d778ec · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Before Saul · Seven months in Philistine territory
The ark is taken to Ashdod, Gath and Ekron. Dagon’s image falls and the Philistine communities suffer. After seven months, they send the ark on a cart to Beth-shemesh, where rejoicing is followed by judgment.
The narrative depicts the LORD acting without an Israelite army. The people of Beth-shemesh then ask Kiriath-jearim to receive the ark. This card covers several cities, not a single gathering or the journey of all Israel.
Primary Scripture
5:1 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,
5:2 carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.
5:3 When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
5:4 But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained.
5:5 That is why, to this day, the priests of Dagon and all who enter the temple of Dagon in Ashdod do not step on the threshold.
5:6 Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.
5:7 And when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon our god Dagon.”
5:8 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” “It must be moved to Gath,” they replied. So they carried away the ark of the God of Israel.
5:9 But after they had moved the ark to Gath, the LORD’s hand was also against that city, throwing it into great confusion and afflicting the men of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.
5:10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron, but as it arrived, the Ekronites cried out, “They have brought us the ark of the God of Israel in order to kill us and our people!”
5:11 Then the Ekronites called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!” For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was very heavy upon it.
5:12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
6:1 When the ark of the LORD had been in the land of the Philistines seven months,
6:2 the Philistines summoned the priests and diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how to send it back to its place.”
6:3 They replied, “If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means return it to Him with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why His hand has not been lifted from you.”
6:4 “What guilt offering should we send back to Him?” asked the Philistines. “Five gold tumors and five gold rats,” they said, “according to the number of rulers of the Philistines, since the same plague has struck both you and your rulers.
6:5 Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land.
6:6 Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?
6:7 Now, therefore, prepare one new cart with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.
6:8 Take the ark of the LORD, set it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to Him as a guilt offering. Then send the ark on its way,
6:9 but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”
6:10 So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.
6:11 Then they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold rats and the images of the tumors.
6:12 And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.
6:13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed at the sight.
6:14 The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
6:15 And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold objects, and they placed them on the large rock. That day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.
6:16 And when the five rulers of the Philistines saw this, they returned to Ekron that same day.
6:17 As a guilt offering to the LORD, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
6:18 The number of gold rats also corresponded to the number of Philistine cities belonging to the five rulers—the fortified cities and their outlying villages. And the large rock on which they placed the ark of the LORD stands to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
6:19 But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.
6:20 The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom should the ark go up from here?”
6:21 So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up with you.”
Related Scripture
The following chapter describes the ark’s reception at Kiriath-jearim.
Location evidence
Tel Ashdod, Tell es-Safi (Gath), Tel Miqne (Ekron) and Tel Beth-shemesh are established city identifications. The active marker is the return destination, not an identified field or road.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [34.974744, 31.750621]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Ashdod: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [34.6578, 31.7572]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Ashdod (CC BY 4.0)
Gath: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [34.84694, 31.69972]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Gath (CC BY 4.0)
Ekron: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [34.851944, 31.7775]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Ekron (CC BY 4.0)
Beth-shemesh: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [34.974744, 31.750621]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Beth-shemesh (CC BY 4.0)
OpenBible.info: Beth-shemesh (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
What do both Philistine and Israelite responses reveal about treating God as controllable?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/united-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm