1 Samuel 5:6
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. 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.
This judgment stands in a history that began when direct revelation was rare and there was no open vision, when old Eli lay down with failing sight and young Samuel lay down to sleep by the ark of God before the lamp went out, when the Lord passed by Eli to call the child three times and commission him as prophet with the message of condemnation to Eli's house as a rebuke to Eli and his house. The affliction on Ashdod was part of the judgment that followed the humbling of Dagon. The hand of the Lord rested heavily on Ashdod and its surrounding territory and coasts, striking the inhabitants with emerods, a distressing, fatal disease and plague that brought severe affliction and destruction and death. That same heavy hand brought affliction and death upon them because the ark was among them, becoming to the wicked a burden and curse rather than protection.
The judgment came because the Philistines had taken the ark, which belonged to Israel, and kept it among them. In taking and keeping it they insulted and defied God, treated the sacred ark as an ordinary thing, and transgressed His holy law. The divine presence that attended the ark to be the strength and glory and blessing and protection of an obedient people still attended it to bring terror and destruction, so that the ark, which was strength to the obedient, became a burden and curse and punishment and death to the wicked who disobeyed His law.
The judgment made clear that the living God of Israel had authority and power and was acting against them. The people connected their affliction with the ark's presence and its rulers sent it away and moved it, but the calamity and continuing destruction followed it to other Philistine cities and left them terrified and perplexed. The verse shows that God had not wholly cast aside Israel and would not long permit the exultation of the Philistines: He had used the Philistines as the instrument to punish the unfaithfulness of Israel, and He then employed the ark to punish the Philistines. God often employs His bitterest enemies to punish the unfaithfulness of His professed people, the wicked may triumph for a time while Israel suffers chastisement, but they too must meet the sentence of a holy, sin-hating God, and wherever iniquity is cherished swift and unerring divine judgments follow.