So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. It happened, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.
Ekron stood about 6 miles north of Gath. [Note: See Trude Dothan, "Ekron of the Philistines. Part I: Where They Came From, How They Settled Down, and the Place They Worshiped In," Biblical Archaeology Review 16:1 (1990):26-36.] The reputation of the ark preceded it to that town, and its residents did not welcome it as a trophy of war. They saw it instead as a divine instrument of death (cf. Exodus 2:23; Exodus 11:6; Exodus 12:30). The Philistines repeatedly acknowledged Yahweh’s superior power over themselves and Dagon (1 Samuel 5:7-12; cf. 1 Samuel 2:6; cf. 1 Samuel 2:25; Exodus 10:7; Exodus 12:31-33). This is another testimony to Yahweh’s sovereignty in the narrative. The cry that went up to heaven from Philistia (1 Samuel 5:12) recalls the death cry that went up to heaven earlier from Egypt when God afflicted that enemy (Exodus 12:30; cf. 1 Samuel 4:8). Through the seven months that the ark was in Philistia (1 Samuel 6:1) the Philistines learned what the Israelites had not: Yahweh is the sovereign God. Yet they refused to bow before Him and so experienced death, though the Lord mixed mercy with judgment and did not kill all the Philistines (1 Samuel 5:12).