The Spoils of War

A careful study of Ps. 78:60–64 together with Jer. 7:12; 26:6, 9 indicates that God permitted the Philistines not only to discomfit the people of Israel at Ebenezer but probably also to pursue them northeast to Shiloh. The Philistines left part of their army to guard the prize they had taken from Israel, for it was from the camp of Israel (1 Sam. 5:1) that they started their return journey to the cities of the plain.” The victorious Philistines took the ark back to the city of Ashdod and placed it in the temple of Dagon, their principal deity.

Entering the temple the next morning, “they beheld a sight which filled them with consternation. Dagon had fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of Jehovah. The priests reverently lifted the idol and restored it to its place. But the next morning they found it, strangely mutilated, again lying upon the earth before the ark. The upper part of this idol was like that of a man, and the lower part was in the likeness of a fish. Now every part that resembled the human form had been cut off, and only the body of the fish remained. Priests and people were horror-struck; they looked upon this mysterious event as an evil omen, foreboding destruction to themselves and their idols before the God of the Hebrews. They now removed the ark from their temple and placed it in a building by itself.” Their remedy for the disaster was to be short lived.

Now a plague of painful, tumorlike swellings fell upon the people of Ashdod.

“Remembering the plagues that were inflicted upon Egypt by the God of Israel, the people attributed their afflictions to the presence of the ark among them. It was decided to convey it to Gath. But the plague followed close upon its removal, and the men of that city sent it to Ekron.” “Wherever iniquity is cherished, there, swift and unerring, the divine judgments will follow.”