* Judges i. 21; cf. Zech. xi. 7, where Ekron in its decadence is likened to the Jebusite vassal of Judah. ** Jerusalem is sometimes assigned to Benjamin (Judges i. 21), sometimes to Judah (Josh. xv. 63). Judah alone is right. *** 2 Sam. v. 9, and the parallel passage in 1 Chron. xi. 7, 8. **** The account of the events which followed the battle of Eben-ezer up to its arrival in the house of Abinadab, is taken from the history of the ark, referred to on pp. 306, 307, supra. It is given in 1 Sam. v., vi., vii. 1, where it forms an exceedingly characteristic whole, composed, it may be, of two separate versions thrown into one; the passage in 1 Sam. vi. 15, where the Lévites receive the ark, is supposed by some to be interpolated. The reason why it had not brought victory on that occasion, was that God’s anger had been stirred at the misdeeds committed in His name by the sons of Eli, and desired to punish His people; true, it had been preserved from profanation, and the miracles which took place in its neighbourhood proved that it was still the seat of a supernatural power. [Illustration: 340.jpg MOUSE OF METAL] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published by Schick and Oldfield Thomas. At first the Philistines had, according to their custom, shut it up in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. On the morrow when the priests entered the sanctuary, they found the statue of their god prostrate in front of it, his fish-like body overthrown, and his head and hands scattered on the floor;* at the same time a plague of malignant tumours broke out among the people, and thousands of mice overran their houses. The inhabitants of Ashdod made haste to transfer it on to Ekron: it thus went the round of the five cities, its arrival being in each case accompanied by the same disasters. The soothsayers, being consulted at the end of seven months, ordered that solemn sacrifices should be offered up, and the ark restored to its rightful worshippers, accompanied by expiatory offerings of five golden mice and five golden tumours, one for each of the five repentant cities.** * The statue here referred to is evidently similar to those of the Chaldæan gods and genii, in which Dagon is represented as a man with his back and head enveloped in a fish as in a cloak. ** In the Oustinoff collection at Jaffa, there is a roughly shaped image of a mouse, cut out of a piece of white metal, and perhaps obtained from the ruins of Gaza; it would seem to be an ex-voto of the same kind as that referred to in the Hebrew text, but it is of doubtful authenticity.