When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, ‘The ark of Israel’s God must not stay here with us, because his hand is strongly against us and our god Dagon.’
The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘I am about to punish Amon, god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, Egypt, her gods, and her kings #– #Pharaoh and those trusting in him.
For the Lord our God burst out in anger against us because you Levites were not with us the first time, for we didn’t enquire of him about the proper procedures.’
Woe to us! Who will rescue us from these magnificent gods? These are the gods that slaughtered the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.
Pharaoh’s officials asked him, ‘How long must this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Don’t you realise yet that Egypt is devastated? ’
Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Appeal to the Lord to remove the frogs from me and my people. Then I will let the people go and they can sacrifice to the Lord.’
So they called all the Philistine rulers together and asked, ‘What should we do with the ark of Israel’s God? ’ ‘The ark of Israel’s God should be moved to Gath,’ they replied. So they moved the ark of Israel’s God.