This is interesting because I think it shows when God is involved.
Day 1 ( no Ark). 4000 Israelites are killed by Phillistines
Day 2 (Ark, no God). 30,000 Israelites killed by Phillistines. Ark gets captured by pagan Phillistines
The Phillistines have the Ark for 7 months. Everywhere they take it, people die and get tumors. Weird. But if we say 5000 died in each city, that’s 25,000. Clearly these guys don’t know the specific rules about handling the Ark from Exodus. God is not pleased at all. Who would make a golden tumor? Really weird.
The Israelites from Beth Shamesh also don’t follow the rules, and they should have known. 50,070 died. Yikes! God is serious about His rules! Another generation has to learn the hard way. It’s a good thing Indiana Jones had read this and kept his eyes closed.
God with Ark. Phillistines are in total retreat, but no death toll is given.