1 Samuel 5:12

The cry of the city went up to heaven. Not the word used in 1 Samuel 5:10 , where it is an outcry of indignation, but a cry for help, a cry of sorrow and distress. Though in 1 Samuel 5:10 Ekronites is in the plural, yet in all that follows the singular is used. "They have brought about the ark to me, to slay me and my people … That it slay me not and my people." It is the prince of Ekron who, as the representative of the people, expostulates with his fellow rulers for the wrong they are doing him. But finally all join in his lamentation, and the whole city, smitten by God's band sends up its prayer to heaven for mercy.

HOMILETICS