The messenger dreaded to tell the old priest the sad news; but he said, "Alas! alas! the Israelites are conquered! Your own sons have fallen; and even the Ark which the Israelites carried into battle has been taken!"
Poor old Eli! This was more than he could bear. The Ark taken! And the old man threw up his hands and fell back, dead.
Now, the Ark was taken by the Philistines to one of their own heathen temples, and one of their idols was set upon it.
The Philistines thought the Ark was one of the gods of the Israelites, just as their idols were their gods; so they set it up on their altar, and it was their chief god, Dagon they called it, that they set beside it.
But when the Philistines went into their temple the morning after the battle, there lay Dagon upon the floor.
"This is strange!" they said; and they put the idol back upon the Ark again.
The next morning, again was the idol found upon the floor, its hands and its head broken.
Then a dreadful plague settled upon the people. "It is the idol of the Israelites that has done all this!" the people cried. "Let us send it away!"
So the Ark was sent to Gath; but there a plague fell upon the people.
"We will not have it among us!" the people of Gath cried; so they sent it on to Ekron.