5:7
The people of Ashdod were obviously not too happy about the situation. They were right in thinking that it was the ark of God that was inflicting the tumours. Their response was to send the ark away. This was the wrong response, the correct response would have been to repent and turn to God. Likewise, the response of our societies is to try and send God away. It is true that God is judging our societies (Rom 1:18), but the correct response is for us to turn to God and He would heal us (Is 6:10).
5:8,9
The people of Ashdod called the Philistine leaders together, and they decided to move the ark of God to Gath, this was a bit nearer Israel. It isn’t clear why they thought this would improve the situation. Perhaps they thought that because Gath was nearer Israel then the “god” (as they saw it) that inhabited the Ark would be happier. However, this did not happen and tumours broke out among the people of Gath, and the city was thrown into a panic.
5:10-12
Next they tried Ekron. Ekron doesn’t seem to have had any say in this decision, and they were none too pleased about it, for entirely understandable reasons. They reckoned that the rest of Philistine was out to kill them. So they called together all the Philistine rulers urging them to send the Ark back to Israel. The Philistines were consumed with fear and many died.
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