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The stay of the Ark of the Covenant in the land of the Philistines. 1 Samuel 5:1. The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod. Ashdod, Gath (1 Kings 5:8), Ashkelon (1 Kings 5:10), Gaza, Ekron (1 Kings 6:17) are Philistine cities located west of Jerusalem and Hebron. 1 Samuel 5:2. And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the church of Dagon, and set it up next to Dagon. Dagon is a pagan deity of the Philistines, with the head and arms of a man, and the body of a fish. For the pagans, Dagon was the exponent and patron of fertility. (You can read more about this in M. Palmov’s essay “Idolatry among the Ancient Jews.” St. Petersburg, 1897, pp. 285–292.) 1 Samuel 5:6. And the hand of the Lord became heavy upon the people of Azoth, and He smote them and punished them with painful growths in Azoth and in its environs [and within the country mice multiplied, and there was great despair in the city]. “And the hand of the Lord was heavy” over the Philistines (cf. 1 Samuel 5:7,9,11): the terrible signs that accompanied the stay of the Ark of the Covenant in the land of the Philistines were supposed to show the latter the inappropriateness of dedicating the Ark to pagan idols, the greatness and power of the God of Israel and the complete insignificance of their own deities, powerless to help not only others, but also themselves ( 1 Samuel 6:5-6). “And the Lord struck them (the Philistines) and punished them with painful growths”: “Seventy interpreters,” notes the blessed one. Theodoret, - translated: “they were slain on their seats”; Akila - “had gangrene”; Josephus shows that they suffered from diarrhea. “Let no one recognize these instructions as disagreement, for diarrhea was followed by a disease of the seats - frequent eruptions inflamed (the Slavic translation says: “and boil with them on the seats”) the erupting parts; over time, the inflammation turned into gangrene” (interpretation on 1 Samuel, question 10). You might be interested in: