A Plague on the Philistines

1 Samuel 5-6

            The Philistines captured the ark and set it in front of their chief god, Dagon. In ancient paganism, gods were tied to a locality, and, if one group defeated another, they believed that their god had defeated their opponents’ god. So, just like the defeated Samson was hauled into the Philistine temple to be mocked, so the ark was put in Dagon’s temple as a sign of Dagon’s victory over Yahweh.

            The problem, of course, is that Dagon had no such victory. Yahweh was and remains the only God. And the statue of Dagon fell prostrate before the ark. Just who has to pay homage to whom? Just who is victor here?

            Further, the Lord sends a plague on each of the Philistine cities that in which they try to keep the ark. Most modern translations simply say the Lord afflicted the Philistines with tumors. I remember reading an older translation in my youth and noting, to my horror and delight, it translated the as hemorrhoids. Most scholars think that the plague was bubonic plague, although in a 2007 paper the National Institute of Health identified it as tularemia, a deadly disease carried by rodents (treatable now by anitbiotics).

            So, the Philistines send the ark back, having been warned not to harden their hearts as the Egyptians did. No historical record outside of the Bible records the devastation of Egypt, but apparently the neighboring nations remembered it for a long time! Israel may have lost a battle, but Yahweh is not defeated, and His plans and purposes for Israel and for the world’s salvation will carry on.