Bible Strands
1 Samuel 5:6
Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the ongoing judgment on the Ashdodites and their surrounding towns immediately after the Philistines placed the captured ark inside Dagon’s temple.
The words — יַד־יְהוָה (yad-Yahweh) translates to “hand of Yahweh,” and וַתִּכְבַּד (vatikkabbad) means “and it was heavy.”
The thread — The text links this localized devastation to broader divine patterns: Exodus 9:3 shows the same “hand of the LORD” bringing plague, while Deuteronomy 28:27 records Yahweh afflicting people with tumors, and 1 Samuel 5:11 shows the Philistine rulers responding to identical judgment by ordering the ark’s removal.
Why it lands — The text states that opposing Yahweh’s presence produces direct, unpreventable devastation, and it requires the reader to acknowledge that seizing sacred authority demands immediate surrender rather than control.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 5:11 Then the Ekronites called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!” For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was very heavy upon it.
- Exodus 9:3 then the hand of the LORD will bring a severe plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks.
- Deuteronomy 28:27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.
- Psalms 32:4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah
- Acts 13:11 Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
- 1 Samuel 5:7 And when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon our god Dagon.”
- Psalms 78:66 He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame.
- 1 Samuel 6:4 “What guilt offering should we send back to Him?” asked the Philistines. “Five gold tumors and five gold rats,” they said, “according to the number of rulers of the Philistines, since the same plague has struck both you and your rulers.
- Job 31:3 Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?
- 1 Samuel 5:9 But after they had moved the ark to Gath, the LORD’s hand was also against that city, throwing it into great confusion and afflicting the men of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.