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1 Samuel 5

KJV · Chapter 5/31

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The Philistines place the captured ark in the temple of their god Dagon in Ashdod. Dagon's statue falls and breaks before the ark, and outbreaks of tumors afflict the Philistine cities through which the ark passes.

Explanation

The repeated falling of Dagon's statue, culminating in its head and hands breaking off on the threshold, was a clear public humiliation of the Philistine god before the God of Israel, even on enemy territory and with no Israelite army present to claim the victory. The plagues that followed the ark from city to city among the Philistines (Ashdod, Gath, Ekron) show that God's power did not depend on Israel's military strength—he acted directly to defend his own honor, even while his people were defeated and had no control over the ark. This episode teaches that God does not need our victory to prove his power; he can act independently of human circumstances.

Fun facts

  • The custom mentioned, that Dagon's priests would not step on the threshold of the temple in Ashdod 'to this day' (v.5), suggests the biblical author was writing some time after the event, yet at a time when this custom was still observed and known.
  • Dagon was a deity worshiped throughout the region of Mesopotamia and Canaan, traditionally associated with agriculture and grain—not, as a mistaken popular tradition suggests, a fish-god.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 1 Samuel 5:1Ashdod was one of the five great Philistine cities and home to an important temple dedicated to Dagon — it is no accident that this is where the captured ark is taken first, as a trophy of war.
  2. 1 Samuel 5:2Placing the ark “stood beside” the statue of Dagon was a common gesture in antiquity: the victorious god stood next to the defeated god, as a symbol of the enemy’s religious submission.
  3. 1 Samuel 5:3Finding their own statue fallen face down before the ark of the enemy god was humiliation enough — but the priests still try to reverse the scene, setting the idol back up as if nothing had happened.
  4. 1 Samuel 5:4Dagon was the chief god of the Philistines; finding him fallen and then shattered before the ark, with only his trunk left standing, was a public humiliation of the rival god. That is how the custom arose of not even stepping on the threshold of his temple in Ashdod.
  5. 1 Samuel 5:5“Unto this day” is a formula the narrator uses to explain the origin of a custom still alive in his own time — a common device in the Old Testament for linking present-day traditions to events of the past.
  6. 1 Samuel 5:6The “emerods” mentioned here and in the next chapters were probably painful tumors or swellings — many scholars, because of the mention of mice in the next chapter, link the plague to a rodent-borne epidemic, a kind of ancient pestilence.
  7. 1 Samuel 5:7The Philistines themselves recognize a double defeat: not only do the people of Ashdod suffer physically, but the god Dagon himself has already been humiliated — the ark needs to leave before things get even worse.
  8. 1 Samuel 5:8Instead of returning the ark to Israel right away, the Philistines first try relocating it to another of their own cities — only after the disaster repeats in Gath and Ekron do they consider giving it back for good.
  9. 1 Samuel 5:9The plague in Gath strikes everyone, from the humblest to the most important in the city — showing this was not an isolated stroke of bad luck but a pattern that followed the ark wherever it went.
  10. 1 Samuel 5:10The people of Ekron already know, from the news out of Ashdod and Gath, what the arrival of the ark tends to bring — so they protest immediately, even before any plague begins there.
  11. 1 Samuel 5:11The request is now unanimous among the five Philistine cities: the ark must go back to Israel, the only way to stop the disaster that kept repeating city after city.
  12. 1 Samuel 5:12The chapter’s final image is one of widespread suffering — the cry of the city “went up to heaven,” describing the intensity of the collective pain caused by the plague.

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