1 Samuel 5:9
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. 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.
After the ark was carried about from Ashdod to Gath and onward to Ekron, the hand of the Lord followed it and was against the city with very great destruction. He smote the men of the city, both small and great, young and old, with emerods in their secret parts, a severe and fatal disease. The people recognized that the presence of the ark was the cause of their suffering and that the Lord's hand was against them and their god.
The affliction shows that the ark was sacred and under God's care and could not be treated as an ordinary object nor taken to give safety to those who seized it. God had used the Philistines as the instrument to punish the unfaithfulness of Israel, and then employed the ark to punish the Philistines; the same invisible divine presence that was the strength and glory of obedient people brought terror and destruction upon transgressors of His holy law.
The verse shows that God had not wholly cast aside Israel and would not long suffer the exultation of the Philistines. Though the wicked may triumph for a time while Israel suffers chastisement, they must meet the sentence of a holy, sin-hating God, for wherever iniquity is cherished swift and unerring judgment follows.