after this manner, to the five cities of the Philistines, as
though it exacted these disasters as a tribute to be paid it for
its coming among them.

2. When those that had experienced these miseries were tired out
with them, and when those that heard of them were taught thereby
not to admit the ark among them, since they paid so dear a
tribute for it, at length they sought for some contrivance and
method how they might get free from it: so the governors of the
five cities, Gath, and Ekron, and Askelon, as also of Gaza, and
Ashclod, met together, and considered what was fit to be done;
and at first they thought proper to send the ark back to its own
people, as allowing that God had avenged its cause; that the
miseries they had undergone came along with it, and that these
were sent on their cities upon its account, and together with it.
However, there were those that said they should not do so, nor
suffer themselves to be deluded, as ascribing the cause of their
miseries to it, because it could not have such power and force
upon them; for, had God had such a regard to it, it would not
have been delivered into the hands of men. So they exhorted them
to be quiet, and to take patiently what had befallen them, and to
suppose there was no other cause of it but nature, which, at
certain revolutions of time, produces such mutations in the
bodies of men, in the earth, in plants, and in all things that
grow out of the earth. But the counsel that prevailed over those
already described, was that of certain men, who were believed to
have distinguished themselves in former times for their
understanding and prudence, and who, in their present
circumstances, seemed above all the rest to speak properly. These
men said it was not right either to send the ark away, or to