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The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
The Antiquities of the Jews
Written by Flavius Josephus
Translated by William Whiston
Book Six
Chapter 1
The Destruction That Came Upon The
Philistines, And Upon Their Land, By The Wrath Of Go On Account
Of Their Having Carried The Ark Away Captive; And After What
Manner They Sent It Back To The Hebrews
1. WHEN the Philistines had taken the ark of the Hebrews
captive, as I said a little before, they carried it to the city
of Ashdod, and put it by their own god, who was called Dagon,
(1) as one of their spoils; but when they went into his temple
the next morning to worship their god, they found him paying the
same worship to the ark, for he lay along, as having fallen down
from the basis whereon he had stood: so they took him up, and
set him on his basis again, and were much troubled at what had
happened; and as they frequently came to Dagon and found him
still lying along, in a posture of adoration to the ark, they
were in very great distress and confusion. At length God sent a
very destructive disease upon the city and country of Ashdod,
for they died of the dysentery or flux, a sore distemper, that
brought death upon them very suddenly; for before the soul
could, as usual in easy deaths, be well loosed from the body,
they brought up their entrails, and vomited up what they had
eaten, and what was entirely corrupted by the disease. And as to
the fruits of their country, a great multitude of mice arose out
of the earth and hurt them, and spared neither the plants nor
the fruits. Now while the people of Ashdod were under these
misfortunes, and were not able to support themselves under their
calamities, they perceived that they suffered thus because of
the ark, and that the victory they had gotten, and their having
taken the ark captive, had not happened for their good; they
therefore sent to the people of Askelon, and desired that they
would receive the ark among them. This desire of the people of
Ashdod was not disagreeable to those of Askelon, so they granted
them that favor. But when they had gotten the ark, they were in
the same miserable condition; for the ark carried along with it
the disasters that the people of Ashdod had suffered, to those
who received it from them. Those of Askelon also sent it away
from themselves to others: nor did it stay among those others
neither; for since they were pursued by the same disasters, they
still sent it to the neighboring cities; so that the ark went
round, after this manner, to the five cities of the Philistines,
as though it exacted these disasters as a tribute to be paid it
for its coming among them.
2. When those that had experienced these miseries were tired out
with them, and when those that heard of them were taught thereby
not to admit the ark among them, since they paid so dear a
tribute for it, at length they sought for some contrivance and
method how they might get free from it: so the governors of the
five cities, Gath, and Ekron, and Askelon, as also of Gaza, and
Ashclod, met together, and considered what was fit to be done;
and at first they thought proper to send the ark back to its own
people, as allowing that God had avenged its cause; that the
miseries they had undergone came along with it, and that these
were sent on their cities upon its account, and together with
it. However, there were those that said they should not do so,
nor suffer themselves to be deluded, as ascribing the cause of
their miseries to it, because it could not have such power and
force upon them; for, had God had such a regard to it, it would
not have been delivered into the hands of men. So they exhorted
them to be quiet, and to take patiently what had befallen them,
and to suppose there was no other cause of it but nature, which,
at certain revolutions of time, produces such mutations in the
bodies of men, in the earth, in plants, and in all things that
grow out of the earth. But the counsel that prevailed over those
already described, was that of certain men, who were believed to
have distinguished themselves in former times for their
understanding and prudence, and who, in their present
circumstances, seemed above all the rest to speak properly.
These men said it was not right either to send the ark away, or
to retain it, but to dedicate five golden images, one for every
city, as a thank-offering to God, on account of his having taken
care of their preservation, and having kept them alive when
their lives were likely to be taken away by such distempers as
they were not able to bear up against. They also would have them
make five golden mice like to those that devoured and destroyed
their country (2) to put them in a bag, and lay them upon the
ark; to make them a new cart also for it, and to yoke milch kine
to it (3) but to shut up their calves, and keep them from them,
lest, by following after them, they should prove a hinderance to
their dams, and that the dams might return the faster out of a
desire of those calves; then to drive these milch kine that
carried the ark, and leave it at a place where three ways met,
and So leave it to the kine to go along which of those ways they
pleased; that in case they went the way to the Hebrews, and
ascended to their country, they should suppose that the ark was
the cause of their misfortunes; but if they turned into another
road, they said, "We will pursue after it, and conclude that it
has no such force in it."
3. So they determined that these men spake well; and they
immediately confirmed their opinion by doing accordingly. And
when they had done as has been already described, they brought
the cart to a place where three ways met, and left it there and
went their ways; but the kine went the right way, and as if some
persons had driven them, while the rulers of the Philistines
followed after them, as desirous to know where they would stand
still, and to whom they would go. Now there was a certain
village of the tribe of Judah, the name of which was Bethshemesh,
and to that village did the kine go; and though there was a
great and good plain before them to proceed in, they went no
farther, but stopped the cart there. This was a sight to those
of that village, and they were very glad; for it being then
summer-time, and all the inhabitants being then in the fields
gathering in their fruits, they left off the labors of their
hands for joy, as soon as they saw the ark, and ran to the cart,
and taking the ark down, and the vessel that had the images in
it, and the mice, they set them upon a certain rock which was in
the plain; and when they had offered a splendid sacrifice to
God, and feasted, they offered the cart and the kine as a
burnt-offering: and when the lords of the Philistines saw this,
they returned back.
4. But now it was that the wrath of God overtook them, and
struck seventy persons of the village of Bethshemesh dead, who,
not being priests, and so not worthy to touch the ark, had
approached to it. Those of that village wept for these that had
thus suffered, and made such a lamentation as was naturally to
be expected on so great a misfortune that was sent from God; and
every one mourned for his own relation. And since they
acknowledged themselves unworthy of the ark's abode with them,
they sent to the public senate of the Israelites, and informed
them that the ark was restored by the Philistines; which when
they knew, they brought it away to Kirjathjearim, a city in the
neighborhood of Bethshemesh. In this city lived one Abinadab, by
birth a Levite, and who was greatly commended for his righteous
and religious course of life; so they brought the ark to his
house, as to a place fit for God himself to abide in, since
therein did inhabit a righteous man. His sons also ministered to
the Divine service at the ark, and were the principal curators
of it for twenty years; for so many years it continued in
Kirjathjearim, having been but four months with the Philistines.
Continue on to
Book
Six,
Chapter 2,
The Antiquities of the Jews
by
Flavius Josephus
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The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
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