1And the Philistines took the ark of God and they brought it from Kaypha d’Eudrana“The Rock of Help” to Ashdod 2And the Philistines took the Ark of God and they brought it to the house of Dagun, and they stood it on the side of Dagun 3And the Ashdodites arose the day after, and they found Dagun thrown on his face on the ground before the Ark of God, and they took Dagun and they set him on his place 4And they arose at dawn the next day, and behold, Dagun was cast on his face on the ground before the Ark of LORD JEHOVAH, and the head of Dagun and both palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold of the door, and the body of Dagun remained 5Because of this, the Priests of Dagun and all who enter do not tread on the threshold of Dagun in Ashdod until today

6And the hand of LORD JEHOVAH was hard against the Ashdodites and was destroying them and striking them with tumors in Ashdod and its borders 7And the children of Ashdod saw that they were so, and they said: “The Ark of LORD JEHOVAH the God of Israel shall not dwell with us, because his hand has been hard against us and against Dagun our God!” 8And they sent and they gathered all the Tyrants of the Philistines to themselves and they said: “What shall we do with the Ark of LORD JEHOVAH God of Israel?” And they said: “You will return the Ark of LORD JEHOVAH God of Israel to Gath”, and they returned the Ark of LORD JEHOVAH, the God of Israel 9And after they returned it, the hand of LORD JEHOVAH was on the city, a very great plague, and it struck the men of the city, from the little one and unto the great; their tumors were broken out upon them 10And they sent the Ark of God to Aqrun, and the Aqrunites wailed and they said: “They returned the Ark of the God of Israel to us that it would kill us and our people!” 11And they sent and they gathered all the Tyrants of the Philistines and they said: “Send the Ark of God of Israel and return it to its place, that it will not kill us and our people!”, because the danger of death was in all the city and the hand of God was very severe there 12And the men who did not die were stricken with tumors, and the cry of the city came up unto Heaven