But the hand of Yahweh was heavy on them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and the borders of it.
One other thing should be noted before we leave this chapter.  It is plain from what is written here that the Philistines worshipped the idol itself, and not any so-called `god' that the idol represented, a sin from which Israel was in large measure protected by God's admonition against their making any kind of a religious image.