Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
However, the true God had not been defeated at all; Israel indeed had suffered a defeat, but God was still the only One and True God; and he made sure in the developments related in this chapter that the Philistines would soon catch on to this fact.  The total length of time it took for God to accomplish that objective was only seven months.