1 Samuel 5
About 1 SamuelWritten by AI
1 Samuel is history told as story. It carries Israel from the last of the judges to the first of its kings, through three lives that overlap: Samuel the prophet, Saul the king the people asked for, and David the shepherd God chose. The book does not name its author. Jewish tradition credits Samuel with the early parts and the prophets Nathan and Gad with the rest; many scholars think the books of Samuel were drawn together from older sources some time later. 1 and 2 Samuel were first one book.
The big movement is from a nation with no king to a nation with the wrong kind of king, and then toward a king after God's own heart. Saul starts well and unravels. David rises slowly, often on the run, and refuses to grab the throne.
Watch for reversals: the barren woman sings, the proud fall, the youngest son is anointed. Watch, too, for the steady theme that God looks deeper than appearances: “the LORD sees the heart.”
Before you read 1 Samuel 5Written by AI
The Philistines place the captured ark in the temple of their god Dagon. Twice Dagon is found fallen on his face before it. Wherever the ark goes, from city to city, the people are struck with tumors and panic. Notice that Israel has lost the battle, but the LORD has not lost anything.
The Ark Afflicts the Philistines
After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod, carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.
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.
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. 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.
Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors. 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.”
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.
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.
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!”
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. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.