¹So the Philistines captured the ark of God, and they brought it from Eben-Ezer to Ashdod. ²And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon, and they set it up next to Dagon. ³But when the Ashdodites got up early next day, what they saw was that Dagon had fallen face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon and restored him to his position. ⁴Then they got up early on the next day and saw that Dagon had fallen face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord, and Dagon's head and the two palms of his hands had been cut off at the threshold – only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. ⁵For this reason the priests of Dagon and all those who come to the house of Dagon have not been treading on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod up to this day. ⁶And the hand of the Lord became very heavy on the Ashdodites, and he devastated them, and he struck them – the people of Ashdod and its outskirts – with haemorrhoids. ⁷And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was like that, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel will not stay with us, for his hand has been harsh on us and on Dagon our god.” ⁸So they sent word, and they had all the barons of the Philistines gather with them, and they asked, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they said, “The ark of the God of Israel shall be transferred to Gath.” And they transferred the ark of the God of Israel. ⁹Then it came to pass, after they had transferred it, that the hand of the Lord came on the city with very great turmoil, and he struck the men of the city, both great and small, and haemorrhoids broke out on them. ¹⁰Then they sent the ark of God to Ekron, and it came to pass when the ark of God arrived at Ekron that the Ekronites shouted out and said, “They have transferred the ark of the God of Israel to me to kill me and my people.” ¹¹And they sent word, and they had all the barons of the Philistines gather, and they said, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away, and have it return to its place, so that it does not kill me and my people”, for there was a deadly turmoil in the whole of the city – the hand of God was very heavy there. ¹²And the men who did not die were struck with haemorrhoids, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.