1 Samuel 5

The Philistines took the ark of God and carried it from Ebenezer to the city of Ashdod.

1And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.

NoteThe ark of God was a gilded wooden chest, carried on poles, that held the stone tablets of the covenant; it was the most sacred object of Israel's worship and was treated as the place where God's presence met his people. The Philistines were a people of the coastal plain southwest of Israel, organized around five cities, and Israel's main rivals at this period. Ebenezer was the site of the battle, described in the previous chapter, where the Philistines defeated Israel and seized the ark; Ashdod was one of their five chief cities, about thirty miles away on the coast.

2After the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the temple of their god Dagon and set it down beside the statue of Dagon.

2When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

NoteDagon was a long-established god of the region, associated with grain and, in some texts, with storm and fertility; he was worshiped across Syria and Mesopotamia long before the Philistines adopted him. Placing a defeated enemy's sacred object in the temple of your own god was standard practice in the ancient Near East: it displayed the captured item as a trophy and credited the victory to the god of the winning side. "House of Dagon" in the King James means his temple, not a dwelling.

3Early the next morning the people of Ashdod got up, and there was Dagon, fallen face down on the ground in front of the ark of the LORD. So they picked Dagon up and put him back in his place.

3And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

Note"Fallen upon his face" describes the posture of a person bowing flat to the ground before a superior, the position a defeated king would take before a conqueror. The statue's collapse into that pose is the point of the scene.

4Early the next morning they got up again, and there was Dagon, fallen face down on the ground in front of the ark of the LORD. His head and both his hands had been broken off and were lying on the doorway's stone sill. Only his body was left.

4And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

NoteThe King James "palms of his hands" translates a word for the hands as a whole. "Only the stump of Dagon was left to him" renders a Hebrew phrase that is genuinely obscure, literally something like "only Dagon was left to him." Translators have taken it as the torso or trunk of the statue; an old and much-repeated suggestion that it means a fish's tail rests on later tradition rather than on this text. The threshold was the stone sill under the doorway, and doorways carried weight in ancient thought as boundaries between sacred and ordinary space.

5That is why, to this day, the priests of Dagon and everyone else who enters Dagon's temple in Ashdod do not step on the stone sill of the doorway.

5Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.

Note"Unto this day" is the narrator speaking of his own time, long after the events: he is explaining the origin of a custom his readers could still observe. Avoiding the threshold of a temple is attested elsewhere in the ancient world as a way of not disturbing what guarded or inhabited the doorway.

6But the LORD's hand pressed hard on the people of Ashdod. He ruined them and struck them with painful swellings, both in Ashdod itself and in the surrounding countryside.

6But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.

Note"The hand of the LORD" is a standard Hebrew idiom for divine power actively at work, usually in judgment; it is not a description of a body part. "Emerods" is an old English form of "hemorrhoids," the King James translators' guess at a Hebrew word that means swellings or tumors. What disease is meant is disputed; the golden mice sent back with the ark in the next chapter have led many to suspect an outbreak of bubonic plague, whose swellings appear in the groin. "The coasts thereof" in the King James means the territory or borders around the city, not a shoreline.

7When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us. His hand is punishing us hard, and it is punishing Dagon our god too."

7And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.

8So they sent messengers and gathered all the rulers of the Philistines and asked, "What should we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" The rulers answered, "Move the ark of the God of Israel over to the city of Gath." So they moved the ark of the God of Israel there.

8They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.

Note"The lords of the Philistines" translates a title, seren, used only of these five rulers, one for each of the Philistine cities of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. They acted together as a council, which is why a decision about the ark required all five.

9But after they had moved it there, the LORD's hand was against that city too, and it was thrown into terrible ruin and panic. He struck the men of the city, young and old alike, and painful swellings broke out on them.

9And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.

10So they sent the ark of God on to the city of Ekron. But as the ark of God arrived, the people of Ekron cried out, "They have brought the ark of the God of Israel over to us to kill us and our people!"

10Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.

11So they sent messengers and gathered all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the ark of the God of Israel away. Let it go back to its own place, so it does not kill us and our people." For a deadly panic had spread through the whole city, and God's hand was pressing very hard on it.

11So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

12The men who did not die were struck with the painful swellings, and the cry of the city rose up to the sky.

12And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.