(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 5:6–12, “But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god. They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.”
When the Philistines refused to take advantage of the Lord’s grace, He showed them that they still needed to bow before Him. Israel was unworthy, because of their own sin, to carry out the Lord’s vengeance as He has commanded them to do when they first entered the Promised Land, so the Lord brought destruction Himself. The Lord brought a severe plague to the Philistines. The symptoms described here would suggest that they suffered from Bubonic Plague. This is caused by flea bites and is followed by swelling in lymph glands. The bacteria that come from the fleas multiplies, caused painful swelling and then reproduces. These swellings move to the armpits, around the groin and neck region and other parts of the body. Before long the victim suffers from gangrene in their toes, fingers and other parts of the body. Before long many of the victims die from this plague. When the people from Ashdod found they were being destroyed by this plague, they believed that it had come because they had taken possession of the ark and sent it over to Gath. Before long the plague attacked the citizens of Gath and they began to die as well. After this they sent the ark to Ekron but the citizens of Ekron were afraid and they called a meeting of all the Philistine leaders to decide what to do. This conference decided to send the ark of the Lord away from their country so that they could save themselves. While this was happening, all the people who managed to survive the plague were sill infected with the painful swellings and other symptoms of the disease.
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