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1 Samuel 5 · a question people ask

Why did the LORD strike the Philistines?

In the text

The chapter doesn't give the LORD's reason in words. It tells what happened, in order: they took God's ark and set it by Dagon (5:1-2); Dagon fell "before the LORD’s ark" (5:3, 5:4); then "the LORD’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod" (5:6). The Philistines' own words say what they understood: "his hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god" (5:7). In the next chapter their priests and diviners tell them to send the ark back with "a trespass offering" (6:3) and to "give glory to the God of Israel" (6:5), and they ask, "Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?" (6:6). Exodus had said of the night the LORD struck Egypt, "I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt" (Exodus 12:12). This chapter doesn't quote that or say it is the reason here.

The verses

“They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, don’t send it empty; but by all means return a trespass offering to him. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.””
1 Samuel 6:3 · World English Bible
“Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his hand from you, from your gods, and from your land. Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t they let the people go, and they departed?”
1 Samuel 6:5-6 · World English Bible
“For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.”
Exodus 12:12 · 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