Philistine captivity of the Ark

The Philistine captivity of the Ark was an episode in the history of the Israelites, in which the Ark of the covenant was in the possession of the Philistines, who had captured it after defeating the Israelites in a battle at a location between Eben-ezer, where the Israelites encamped, and Aphek, (probably Antipatris) where the Philistines encamped. According to the Books of Samuel, prior to the battle the Ark had been residing at the ancient sanctuary of Shiloh, but was brought out by the Israelites in hope of victory [1 Samuel 4] .

The text describes the Philistines as having to move the Ark to several parts of their territory, as boils suddenly afflicted the people in each town to which it was taken - Ashdod, then Gath, then Ekron [1 Samuel 5-6] ; at Ashdod there was additionally a plague of mice [ibid] . In Ashdod, when the Ark was placed in the temple of Dagon, the statue of Dagon was found prostrate in front of the Ark the next morning; after the statue of Dagon was restored to its place, it was again found prostrate the next morning, and this time it had also been broken [ibid] . The narrative goes on to state that, on the advice of their mancers about how to end the bad luck, the Philistines made a guilt offering of five goldern tumors and five gold mice (representing the 5 Philistine rulers). They then placed the gold along with the ark on a cart drawn by two milch cows, assuming the cows would go and wander in the wilderness. Instead the cows headed strait for the Israelites and did not waver.

Textual scholars regard the account of the captivity as originating from a distinct source, referred to as the "sanctuaries source", which was originally independent of those which constitute the rest of the books of Samuel ["Peake's commentary on the Bible"] [JewishEncyclopedia, "Books of Samuel"] .

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