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 “And He smote them with עפלים, i.e., boils:” according to the Rabbins, swellings on the anus, mariscae (see at Deu 28:27). For עפלים the Masoretes have invariably substituted טחרים, which is used in 1Sa 6:11, 1Sa 6:17, and was probably regarded as more decorous. Ashdod is a more precise definition of the word them, viz., Ashdod, i.e., the inhabitants of Ashdod and its territory.

Verses 7-8
“When the Ashdodites saw that it was so,” they were unwilling to keep the ark of the God of Israel any longer, because the hand of Jehovah lay heavy upon them and their god Dagon; whereupon the princes of the Philistines (סרני, as in Jos 13:3, etc.)