High Priest and magistrate Aeli my colleague, partner, and hopeful collaborator in vision of a better Canaan,
I write to you in peace under a flag of truce. Please first permit me to give you whatever small words I can express for your bereavement, There are no words that elucidate the grief of losing both your sons. May their memory be for a blessing. It is a grief many Philistines knew in the battle, a grief every parent in Israel/Phillistine fears on either side and now I fear for my own children and kin, and that is why I write you.
Your god is clearly more powerful than our gods. We've long known that, and while we're not willing to convert because we don't want to tempt their wrath either, there are many after our experience who are sorely tempted. I know you would welcome them with open arms, but as they possess state secrets, we cannot allow them to leave, and in certain cases we had to imprison them. When I explain further, I'm sure you will understand the delicate nature of our situation. but in fact, we thought that by capturing the ark of your covenant we would be able to worship Yahweh properly and enlist him on our side.
I write you what follows in a position of maximum vulnerability. You could, in fact, kill us all with this knowledge. I therefore trust that you will not do this, as I suspect, though I could be wrong, that it would be an offense to Yahweh.
We thought by opening The Ark of the Covenant we were enlisting your god in our fight. We thought that by your defeat, we had proven that the Yahweh was in fact on our side and
(Write about how taking the arc into the Philistine city of Gath was a curse precisely because of how it made Philistines fearful and therefore how insane and violent it made them.)
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