1 Samuel 5:7,8

The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us Now their eyes were opened to see that, though they had vanquished the Israelites, they could not stand before the God of Israel. Let the ark be carried to Gath They seem to have been possessed with a superstitious conceit that there was something in the place which was offensive to the God of Israel, and therefore removed the ark from Ashdod, to which and its coasts they supposed the plague, for some particular reasons, was confined. Or they thought it had come upon them by chance, or for putting the ark into Dagon's temple, which they resolved they would not do.