1 Samuel 5:6-8

Amplified Bible

⁶Then the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He caused them to be dumbfounded and struck them with ^[a]tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. ⁷When the men of Ashdod saw what had happened, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.” ⁸So they sent word and gathered all the lords (governors) of the Philistines to them and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to ^[b]Gath.” So they took the ark of the God of Israel there.

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Footnotes

1 Samuel 5:6 It is possible that this was a type of bubonic plague or infection spread by rats (or fleas hosted by rats), as intimated in 6:4f.
1 Samuel 5:8 Gath was another major Philistine city and the home of their giant warrior, Goliath. Faced with the humiliation of surrendering the ark to Israel, the Philistine governors decided instead to treat it like a dangerous “hot potato” and simply get rid of it by sending it to another city.