1 Samuel 5:6-9

The Voice

⁶ The hand of the Eternal One came down hard with punishment on the people of Ashdod while the covenant chest rested there. He ravaged the people of Ashdod and the surrounding territory and struck them with swollen, painful growths like tumors. ⁷ When the people of Ashdod saw how they were cursed, they said,

^8-9 So they gathered together all the rulers of the Philistines to ask what should be done with the covenant chest of Israel’s God.

They did so. But after they had moved the chest of the True God of Israel to Gath, another of the capital cities, the hand of the Eternal One began to punish the people of Gath and sent them into a panic. He also struck them with swollen, painful, tumor-like growths—the young and old alike.