When you see it, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like new grass. The power of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but he will condemn his enemies.
I want to remind you about what you already know: The Lord once saved his people from Egypt. But on another occasion he destroyed those who didn’t believe.
Whenever the Israelites went to war, the power of the Lord brought disaster on them. This was what the Lord said he would do in an oath. So he made them suffer a great deal.
They called together all the Philistine rulers. “Send the ark of the God of Israel away,” they said. “Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us or our people.” There was a fear of death throughout the city, where God dealt ⌞with them⌟ very harshly.
But after they had moved it, the Lord threw the city into a great panic: He struck all the important and unimportant people in the city, and they were covered with tumors.
The power of the Philistines was crushed, so they didn’t come into Israel’s territory again. The Lord restrained the Philistines as long as Samuel lived.