1 Samuel 5

1Sa 5:1, 2.

THE

PHILISTINES

BRING THE

ARK INTO THE

HOUSE OF

DAGON.

1. Ashdod--or Azotus, one of the five Philistine satrapies, and a

place of great strength. It was an inland town, thirty-four miles north

of Gaza, now called Esdud.

2. the house of Dagon--Stately temples were erected in honor of this

idol, which was the principal deity of the Philistines, but whose

worship extended over all Syria, as well as Mesopotamia and Chaldea;

its name being found among the Assyrian gods on the cuneiform

inscriptions

[RAWLINSON]. It was represented under a monstrous

combination of a human head, breast, and arms, joined to the belly and

tail of a fish. The captured ark was placed in the temple of Dagon,

right before this image of the idol.

1Sa 5:3-5.

DAGON

FALLS

DOWN.

3, 4. they of Ashdod arose early--They were filled with consternation

when they found the object of their stupid veneration prostrate before

the symbol of the divine presence. Though set up, it fell again, and

lay in a state of complete mutilation; its head and arms, severed from

the trunk, were lying in distant and separate places, as if violently

cast off, and only the fishy part remained. The degradation of their

idol, though concealed by the priests on the former occasion, was now

more manifest and infamous. It lay in the attitude of a vanquished

enemy and a suppliant, and this picture of humiliation significantly

declared the superiority of the God of Israel.

5. Therefore neither the priests . . . nor any . . . tread on the

threshold of Dagon--A superstitious ceremony crept in, and in the

providence of God was continued, by which the Philistines contributed

to publish this proof of the helplessness of their god.

unto this day--The usage continued in practice at the time when this

history was written--probably in the later years of Samuel's life.

1Sa 5:6-12.

THE

PHILISTINES

ARE

SMITTEN WITH

EMERODS.

6. the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod--The presumption

of the Ashdodites was punished by a severe judgment that overtook them

in the form of a pestilence.

smote them with emerods--bleeding piles, hemorrhoids

(Ps 78:66),

in a very aggravated form. As the heathens generally regarded diseases

affecting the secret parts of the body as punishments from the gods for

trespasses committed against themselves, the Ashdodites would be the

more ready to look upon the prevailing epidemic as demonstrating the

anger of God, already shown against their idol.

7. the ark of God shall not abide with us--It was removed successively

to several of the large towns of the country, but the same pestilence

broke out in every place and raged so fiercely and fatally that the

authorities were forced to send the ark back into the land of Israel

[1Sa 5:8-10].

11. they sent--that is, the magistrates of Ekron.

12. the cry of the city went up to heaven--The disease is attended

with acute pain, and it is far from being a rare phenomenon in the

Philistian plain [VAN

DE

VELDE].