1 Samuel 5:9

9 But as soon as they moved it there, God came down hard on that city, too. It was mass hysteria! He hit them with tumors. Tumors broke out on everyone in town, young and old.

1 Samuel 5:9 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 5:9

And it was so, that after they had carried it about
And at last placed it in the city of Gath;

the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great
destruction:
greater than that at Ashdod, more persons were destroyed; the distemper sent among them was more epidemic and mortal:

and he smote the men of the city, both small and great;
high and low, persons of every class, rank, and station, young and old, men, women, and children:

and they had emerods in their secret parts;
and so had the men of Ashdod; and the design of this expression is, not to point at the place where they were, which it is well known they are always in those parts, but the different nature of them; the emerods or piles of the men of Ashdod were more outward, these more inward, and so more painful, and not so easy to come at, and more difficult of cure; for the words may be rendered,

and the emerods were hidden unto them
^F26; were inward, and out of sight; and perhaps this disease as inflicted on them might be more grievous than it commonly is now. Josephus ^F1 wrongly makes these to be the Ashkalonites, when they were the men of Gath.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (Mylpe Mhl wrtvyw) "et absconditi erant", Montanus; so Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius.
F1 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 1. sect. 1.)

1 Samuel 5:9 In-Context

7 When the leaders of Ashdod saw what was going on, they decided, "The chest of the god of Israel has got to go. We can't handle this, and neither can our god Dagon."

8 They called together all the Philistine leaders and put it to them: "How can we get rid of the chest of the god of Israel?" The leaders agreed: "Move it to Gath." So they moved the Chest of the God of Israel to Gath.

9 But as soon as they moved it there, God came down hard on that city, too. It was mass hysteria! He hit them with tumors. Tumors broke out on everyone in town, young and old.

10 So they sent the Chest of God on to Ekron, but as the Chest was being brought into town, the people shouted in protest, "You'll kill us all by bringing in this Chest of the God of Israel!"

11 They called the Philistine leaders together and demanded, "Get it out of here, this Chest of the God of Israel. Send it back where it came from. We're threatened with mass death!" For everyone was scared to death when the Chest of God showed up. God was already coming down very hard on the place.