At first the Philistines had, according to their custom, shut it up in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod.  On the morrow when the priests entered the sanctuary, they found the statue of their god prostrate in front of it, his fish-like body overthrown, and his head and hands scattered on the floor;* at the same time a plague of malignant tumours broke out among the people, and thousands of mice overran their houses.  The inhabitants of Ashdod made haste to transfer it on to Ekron:  it thus went the round of the five cities, its arrival being in each case accompanied by the same disasters.  The soothsayers, being consulted at the end of seven months, ordered that solemn sacrifices should be offered up, and the ark restored to its rightful worshippers, accompanied by expiatory offerings of five golden mice and five golden tumours, one for each of the five repentant cities.**

* The statue here referred to is evidently similar to those of the Chaldaean gods and genii, in which Dagon is represented as a man with his back and head enveloped in a fish as in a cloak.

** In the Oustinoff collection at Jaffa, there is a roughly shaped image of a mouse, cut out of a piece of white metal, and perhaps obtained from the ruins of Gaza; it would seem to be an ex-voto of the same kind as that referred to in the Hebrew text, but it is of doubtful authenticity.

The ark was placed on a new cart, and two milch cows with their calves drew it, lowing all the way, without guidance from any man, to the field of a certain Joshua at Bethshemesh.  The inhabitants welcomed it with great joy, but their curiosity overcame their reverence, and they looked within the shrine.  Jehovah, being angered thereat, smote seventy men of them, and the warriors made haste to bring the ark to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained for a long time, in the house of Abinadab on the hill, under charge of his son Eleazar.* Kirjath-jearim is only about two leagues from Jerusalem.  David himself went thither, and setting “the ark of God upon a new cart,” brought it away.* Two attendants, called Uzzah and Ahio, drove the new cart, “and David and all Israel played before God with all their might:  even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.”  An accident leading to serious consequences brought the procession to a standstill; the oxen stumbled, and their sacred burden threatened to fall:  Uzzah, putting forth his hand to hold the ark, was smitten by the Lord, “and there he died before the Lord.”  David was disturbed at this, feeling some insecurity in dealing with a Deity who had thus seemed to punish one of His worshippers for a well-meant and respectful act.**