1 Samuel 5:9-12

9After they had moved the Covenant Box to Gath, the Lord punished the people in that city too. He made them all very afraid. He caused tumours to grow on them, young people as well as old people.

10So then they took God's Covenant Box to Ekron. When God's Covenant Box arrived in Ekron, the people screamed. They said, ‘They have brought the Covenant Box of Israel's God here! They want to kill us all!’

11So they called the Philistine rulers to meet together. Ekron's people said to them, ‘Take away the Covenant Box of Israel's God! Send it back to its proper place. If you leave it here, it will kill us and all our families.’ All the people in the town were afraid of death. God had already started to punish them a lot.

12Many people had already died. All the other people in the town had tumours on their bodies. So they cried loudly up to the skies for help.