Antiquities Book 6, Chapter 1
The Destruction That Came Upon The Philistines, And Upon Their Land, By The Wrath Of Go On Account Of Their Having Carried The Ark Away Captive; And After What Manner They Sent It Back To The Hebrews.
1. When the Philistines had taken the ark of the Hebrews captive, as I
said a little before, they carried it to the city of Ashdod, and put it
by their own god, who was called Dagon, 1 as one of their spoils; but
when they went into his temple the next morning to worship their god,
they found him paying the same worship to the ark, for he lay along, as
having fallen down from the basis whereon he had stood: so they took him
up, and set him on his basis again, and were much troubled at what had
happened; and as they frequently came to Dagon and found him still lying
along, in a posture of adoration to the ark, they were in very great
distress and confusion. At length God sent a very destructive disease
upon the city and country of Ashdod, for they died of the dysentery or
flux, a sore distemper, that brought death upon them very suddenly; for
before the soul could, as usual in easy deaths, be well loosed from the
body, they brought up their entrails, and vomited up what they had
eaten, and what was entirely corrupted by the disease. And as to the
fruits of their country, a great multitude of mice arose out of the
earth and hurt them, and spared neither the plants nor the fruits. Now
while the people of Ashdod were under these misfortunes, and were not
able to support themselves under their calamities, they perceived that
they suffered thus because of the ark, and that the victory they had
gotten, and their having taken the ark captive, had not happened for
their good; they therefore sent to the people of Askelon, and desired
that they would receive the ark among them. This desire of the people of
Ashdod was not disagreeable to those of Askelon, so they granted them
that favor. But when they had gotten the ark, they were in the same
miserable condition; for the ark carried along with it the disasters
that the people of Ashdod had suffered, to those who received it from
them. Those of Askelon also sent it away from themselves to others: nor
did it stay among those others neither; for since they were pursued by
the same disasters, they still sent it to the neighboring cities; so
that the ark went round, after this manner, to the five cities of the
Philistines, as though it exacted these disasters as a tribute to be
paid it for its coming among them.
2. When those that had experienced these miseries were tired out with
them, and when those that heard of them were taught thereby not to admit
the ark among them, since they paid so dear a tribute for it, at length
they sought for some contrivance and method how they might get free from
it: so the governors of the five cities, Gath, and Ekron, and Askelon,
as also of Gaza, and Ashdod, met together, and considered what was fit
to be done; and at first they thought proper to send the ark back to its
own people, as allowing that God had avenged its cause; that the
miseries they had undergone came along with it, and that these were sent
on their cities upon its account, and together with it. However, there
were those that said they should not do so, nor suffer themselves to be
deluded, as ascribing the cause of their miseries to it, because it
could not have such power and force upon them; for, had God had such a
regard to it, it would not have been delivered into the hands of men. So
they exhorted them to be quiet, and to take patiently what had befallen
them, and to suppose there was no other cause of it but nature, which,
at certain revolutions of time, produces such mutations in the bodies of
men, in the earth, in plants, and in all things that grow out of the
earth. But the counsel that prevailed over those already described, was
that of certain men, who were believed to have distinguished themselves
in former times for their understanding and prudence, and who, in their
present circumstances, seemed above all the rest to speak properly.
These men said it was not right either to send the ark away, or to
retain it, but to dedicate five golden images, one for every city, as a
thank-offering to God, on account of his having taken care of their
preservation, and having kept them alive when their lives were likely to
be taken away by such distempers as they were not able to bear up
against. They also would have them make five golden mice like to those
that devoured and destroyed their country 2 to put them in a bag, and
lay them upon the ark; to make them a new cart also for it, and to yoke
milch kine to it 3 but to shut up their calves, and keep them from them,
lest, by following after them, they should prove a hinderance to their
dams, and that the dams might return the faster out of a desire of those
calves; then to drive these milch kine that carried the ark, and leave
it at a place where three ways met, and So leave it to the kine to go
along which of those ways they pleased; that in case they went the way
to the Hebrews, and ascended to their country, they should suppose that
the ark was the cause of their misfortunes; but if they turned into
another road, they said, "We will pursue after it, and conclude that it
has no such force in it."
3. So they determined that these men spake well; and they immediately
confirmed their opinion by doing accordingly. And when they had done as
has been already described, they brought the cart to a place where three
ways met, and left it there and went their ways; but the kine went the
right way, and as if some persons had driven them, while the rulers of
the Philistines followed after them, as desirous to know where they
would stand still, and to whom they would go. Now there was a certain
village of the tribe of Judah, the name of which was Bethshemesh, and to
that village did the kine go; and though there was a great and good
plain before them to proceed in, they went no farther, but stopped the
cart there. This was a sight to those of that village, and they were
very glad; for it being then summer-time, and all the inhabitants being
then in the fields gathering in their fruits, they left off the labors
of their hands for joy, as soon as they saw the ark, and ran to the
cart, and taking the ark down, and the vessel that had the images in it,
and the mice, they set them upon a certain rock which was in the plain;
and when they had offered a splendid sacrifice to God, and feasted, they
offered the cart and the kine as a burnt-offering: and when the lords of
the Philistines saw this, they returned back.
4. But now it was that the wrath of God overtook them, and struck
seventy persons of the village of Bethshemesh dead, who, not being
priests, and so not worthy to touch the ark, had approached to it. 4
Those of that village wept for these that had thus suffered, and made
such a lamentation as was naturally to be expected on so great a
misfortune that was sent from God; and every one mourned for his own
relation. And since they acknowledged themselves unworthy of the ark's
abode with them, they sent to the public senate of the Israelites, and
informed them that the ark was restored by the Philistines; which when
they knew, they brought it away to Kirjathjearim, a city in the
neighborhood of Bethshemesh. In this city lived one Abinadab, by birth a
Levite, and who was greatly commended for his righteous and religious
course of life; so they brought the ark to his house, as to a place fit
for God himself to abide in, since therein did inhabit a righteous man.
His sons also ministered to the Divine service at the ark, and were the
principal curators of it for twenty years; for so many years it
continued in Kirjathjearim, having been but four months with the
Philistines.
said a little before, they carried it to the city of Ashdod, and put it
by their own god, who was called Dagon, 1 as one of their spoils; but
when they went into his temple the next morning to worship their god,
they found him paying the same worship to the ark, for he lay along, as
having fallen down from the basis whereon he had stood: so they took him
up, and set him on his basis again, and were much troubled at what had
happened; and as they frequently came to Dagon and found him still lying
along, in a posture of adoration to the ark, they were in very great
distress and confusion. At length God sent a very destructive disease
upon the city and country of Ashdod, for they died of the dysentery or
flux, a sore distemper, that brought death upon them very suddenly; for
before the soul could, as usual in easy deaths, be well loosed from the
body, they brought up their entrails, and vomited up what they had
eaten, and what was entirely corrupted by the disease. And as to the
fruits of their country, a great multitude of mice arose out of the
earth and hurt them, and spared neither the plants nor the fruits. Now
while the people of Ashdod were under these misfortunes, and were not
able to support themselves under their calamities, they perceived that
they suffered thus because of the ark, and that the victory they had
gotten, and their having taken the ark captive, had not happened for
their good; they therefore sent to the people of Askelon, and desired
that they would receive the ark among them. This desire of the people of
Ashdod was not disagreeable to those of Askelon, so they granted them
that favor. But when they had gotten the ark, they were in the same
miserable condition; for the ark carried along with it the disasters
that the people of Ashdod had suffered, to those who received it from
them. Those of Askelon also sent it away from themselves to others: nor
did it stay among those others neither; for since they were pursued by
the same disasters, they still sent it to the neighboring cities; so
that the ark went round, after this manner, to the five cities of the
Philistines, as though it exacted these disasters as a tribute to be
paid it for its coming among them.
2. When those that had experienced these miseries were tired out with
them, and when those that heard of them were taught thereby not to admit
the ark among them, since they paid so dear a tribute for it, at length
they sought for some contrivance and method how they might get free from
it: so the governors of the five cities, Gath, and Ekron, and Askelon,
as also of Gaza, and Ashdod, met together, and considered what was fit
to be done; and at first they thought proper to send the ark back to its
own people, as allowing that God had avenged its cause; that the
miseries they had undergone came along with it, and that these were sent
on their cities upon its account, and together with it. However, there
were those that said they should not do so, nor suffer themselves to be
deluded, as ascribing the cause of their miseries to it, because it
could not have such power and force upon them; for, had God had such a
regard to it, it would not have been delivered into the hands of men. So
they exhorted them to be quiet, and to take patiently what had befallen
them, and to suppose there was no other cause of it but nature, which,
at certain revolutions of time, produces such mutations in the bodies of
men, in the earth, in plants, and in all things that grow out of the
earth. But the counsel that prevailed over those already described, was
that of certain men, who were believed to have distinguished themselves
in former times for their understanding and prudence, and who, in their
present circumstances, seemed above all the rest to speak properly.
These men said it was not right either to send the ark away, or to
retain it, but to dedicate five golden images, one for every city, as a
thank-offering to God, on account of his having taken care of their
preservation, and having kept them alive when their lives were likely to
be taken away by such distempers as they were not able to bear up
against. They also would have them make five golden mice like to those
that devoured and destroyed their country 2 to put them in a bag, and
lay them upon the ark; to make them a new cart also for it, and to yoke
milch kine to it 3 but to shut up their calves, and keep them from them,
lest, by following after them, they should prove a hinderance to their
dams, and that the dams might return the faster out of a desire of those
calves; then to drive these milch kine that carried the ark, and leave
it at a place where three ways met, and So leave it to the kine to go
along which of those ways they pleased; that in case they went the way
to the Hebrews, and ascended to their country, they should suppose that
the ark was the cause of their misfortunes; but if they turned into
another road, they said, "We will pursue after it, and conclude that it
has no such force in it."
3. So they determined that these men spake well; and they immediately
confirmed their opinion by doing accordingly. And when they had done as
has been already described, they brought the cart to a place where three
ways met, and left it there and went their ways; but the kine went the
right way, and as if some persons had driven them, while the rulers of
the Philistines followed after them, as desirous to know where they
would stand still, and to whom they would go. Now there was a certain
village of the tribe of Judah, the name of which was Bethshemesh, and to
that village did the kine go; and though there was a great and good
plain before them to proceed in, they went no farther, but stopped the
cart there. This was a sight to those of that village, and they were
very glad; for it being then summer-time, and all the inhabitants being
then in the fields gathering in their fruits, they left off the labors
of their hands for joy, as soon as they saw the ark, and ran to the
cart, and taking the ark down, and the vessel that had the images in it,
and the mice, they set them upon a certain rock which was in the plain;
and when they had offered a splendid sacrifice to God, and feasted, they
offered the cart and the kine as a burnt-offering: and when the lords of
the Philistines saw this, they returned back.
4. But now it was that the wrath of God overtook them, and struck
seventy persons of the village of Bethshemesh dead, who, not being
priests, and so not worthy to touch the ark, had approached to it. 4
Those of that village wept for these that had thus suffered, and made
such a lamentation as was naturally to be expected on so great a
misfortune that was sent from God; and every one mourned for his own
relation. And since they acknowledged themselves unworthy of the ark's
abode with them, they sent to the public senate of the Israelites, and
informed them that the ark was restored by the Philistines; which when
they knew, they brought it away to Kirjathjearim, a city in the
neighborhood of Bethshemesh. In this city lived one Abinadab, by birth a
Levite, and who was greatly commended for his righteous and religious
course of life; so they brought the ark to his house, as to a place fit
for God himself to abide in, since therein did inhabit a righteous man.
His sons also ministered to the Divine service at the ark, and were the
principal curators of it for twenty years; for so many years it
continued in Kirjathjearim, having been but four months with the
Philistines.