1 Samuel 5:6-8

Living Bible

⁶ Then the Lord began to destroy the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with bubonic plague. ⁷ When the people realized what was happening, they exclaimed, “We can’t keep the Ark of the God of Israel here any longer. We will all perish along with our god Dagon.”

⁸ So they called a conference of the mayors of the five cities of the Philistines to decide how to dispose of the Ark. The decision was to take it to Gath.