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1 Samuel 5 · a question people ask

Did the ark have power of its own?

In the text

The narrator never says the ark struck anyone. The chapter names whose hand it was: "the LORD’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod" (5:6), "the LORD’s hand was against the city" (5:9), and "The hand of God was very heavy there" (5:11). The men of Ashdod said his hand: "his hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god" (5:7). At Ekron they spoke of the ark itself: "Send the ark of the God of Israel away, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people" (5:11). In the chapter before, the ark was brought into Israel's camp "that it may come among us and save us" (4:3), and it didn't: "God’s ark was taken" (4:11). In the next chapter the Philistines' priests and diviners put the question of his hand: "if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us. It was a chance that happened to us" (6:9).

The verses

“When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let’s get the ark of the LORD’s covenant out of Shiloh and bring it to us, that it may come among us and save us out of the hand of our enemies.””
1 Samuel 4:3 · World English Bible
“God’s ark was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.”
1 Samuel 4:11 · World English Bible
“But the LORD’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and its borders. When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel shall not stay with us, for his hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god.””
1 Samuel 5:6-7 · World English Bible
“It was so, that after they had carried it there, the LORD’s hand was against the city with a very great confusion; and he struck the men of the city, both small and great, so that tumors broke out on them.”
1 Samuel 5:9 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Samuel 5

1 Samuel 5: The LORD's hand was heavy

Dagon fell before the LORD's ark twice, and the second time his head and the palms of his hands lay cut off on the threshold (5:4). Two verses later "the LORD’s hand was heavy" on Ashdod (5:6). In Hebrew hands and hand are one word, yad, and in the whole chapter no Israelite lifts one.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions