³ behold, the ^(A)hand of the Lord will be on your cattle in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the oxen, and on the sheep—a very severe pestilence.

⁴ But ^(A)Pharaoh will not heed you, so ^(B)that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My ^[a]armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt ^(C)by great judgments.

¹¹ And now, indeed, ^(A)the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.”

And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

⁹ And watch: if it goes up the road to its own territory, to ^(A)Beth Shemesh, then He has done ^[a]us this great evil. But if not, then ^(B)we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us—it happened to us by chance.”

⁶ But the ^(A)hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He ^(B)ravaged them and struck them with ^(C)tumors,^[a] both Ashdod and its ^(D)territory. ⁷ And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, “The ark of the ^(E)God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our god.” ⁸ Therefore they sent and gathered to themselves all the ^(F)lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?”

And they answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried away to ^(G)Gath.” So they carried the ark of the God of Israel away. ⁹ So it was, after they had carried it away, that ^(H)the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction; and He struck the men of the city, both small and great, ^[b]and tumors broke out on them.

¹⁰ Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. So it was, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people!” ¹¹ So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go back to its own place, so that it does not kill us and our people.” For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

¹⁹ Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is ^(A)the^[a] finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s ^(B)heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said.

³ So they said, ^(A)“The God of the Hebrews has ^(B)met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with ^(C)pestilence or with the sword.”