Bible Study - 1 Samuel Chapter 5
Bible Study - 1 Samuel Chapter 5
| 1 Now the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. | So the Philistines took the Ark from the battlefield by Ebenezer, west to Aphek, then south to Ashdod. Aphek and Ebenezer were west and slightly north of Shiloh. Ashdod was west and slightly south of Jerusalem. Aphek was near the border with Israel, whereas Ashdod was deep inside Philistine territory, near enough to the Mediterranean coast that it controlled a major port. And it was one of the five ruling Philistines cities which are listed in 1 Samuel 6:17. Thus this was considered safe from any Israelite attempts to recover the Ark. (Modern Ashdod is 3.5 miles north of Philistine Ashdod.) |
| 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. |
Now the story of the Ark really begins with a sequence of events. The Philistines took the Ark, brought it to the house of Dagon in Ashdod, the primary temple for this philistine god, and set it next to the idol. Thus Dagon was supposed to gain control of the God of Israel. Capturing the gods, (idols,) of enemies was a common warfare tactic at the time. Losing one's gods was tantamount to being completely conquered. Dagon is the father of Baal, the storm god. Some scholars have tried to connect the name to "fish" or "grain". But this is largely an etymology of the name Dagon, and seem to be be conjectures with little to no support. That Dagon was believed to bring a good harvest is known. Worshippers were from the north of what is now northern Syria to Gaza. Since the name is not of Philistine origin, it is likely that they adopted the worship when they conquered the areas of Israel along the Mediterranean coast. Worship of Dagon continued until at least 50 B.C. in Ashdod. |
| 3 When the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. |
That Dagon was face down on the floor before the Ark meant it was in a position of worship. Traditionally, the idol of a god would be placed in a central location, usually on a dais. This would be the center of the far wall when entering the temple or main room, or in the center of the main room. Captured gods would be placed along the wall to either side, but at floor level. So for Dagon to be face down in a position of worshiping the Ark, the idol would have had to turn to the Ark and tip over, possibly even moving towards it or in front of it. This made it clear that this didn't just happen by accident like from an earthquake. And as the temple was guarded to prevent blasphemers from accessing it during the night no human could have done it. The Ashdodites put things back in place. |
| 4 But when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on 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 on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. |
The next day, the scene was of a greater humiliation. While Dagon's torso was again in a position of worship towards the Ark, its hands and head had been cut off and and left on the threshold of the dais or platform, most likely a step between the floor and the dais, but at least a contrasting stone coping around the dais. Some translations like the NIV and NLT use the verb "broken off" for what happened to Dagon. However, kerutot is a Hebrew Qal verb that always means that a thing was cut off, like a foreskin, plant, or garment. This is important to the text because the position of Dagon face down in front of the Ark and the hands and head made it clear that this didn't just happen by accident. If Dagon had just fallen over and broken, the torso would have been facing forward, not towards the Ark. And the broken parts would have radiated out from the torso in the direction of the fall, not placed on the threshold of the dais. Yahweh was making it clear that this situation was not acceptable in a way that was difficult to misinterpret. The collecting of heads or hands, typically the heads of kings or leaders and hands of soldiers or something similar, was a common practice when conquering a city. It showed utter subjugation as there could be no more resistance. In this culture and time, the hand included the wrist and forearm. And palms were what we would call hands today. Thus it is accurate for translations to only say the hands were cut off and omit the palm language. |
| 5 Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor all who enter Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. | The author states that no one would step on the dais threshold after this, but doesn't give the thought process behind it. It was possibly for fear the same would happen to them. Some scholars have put forward that this may have been a satirical action trying to make light of the incident that became a custom. Either way, Dagon was humiliated. Yet they didn't stop worshipping him. Humanity is beyond stubborn. It is documented that this practice of not stepping on the threshold continued into at least the first century. |
| 6 Now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He ravaged them and smote them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories. |
The hand of Yahweh is the same wording used in Exodus 9:3, (when Moses was warning Pharaoh about the 5th plague, a pestilence on their livestock.) And the plague of tumors is also a parallel of the plagues on Egypt. The word is actually "with swelling", which is a euphemism for tumors. Thus it is nearly always translated as tumors as that is a clarification of the text. Some scholars has put forward the idea that the plague was actually bubonic plague, which also causes swelling. The reasons for this was that Ashdod controlled a coastal area with the major port of the Philistines, making it a prime target for the transmission of this plague from other lands. And the fact that golden mice were made along with the golden tumors as a guilt offering in chapter 6 could indicate this. However, no mice are mentioned here. The language does not refer to the other symptoms of bubonic plague or the massive deaths that come with it. Instead it uses the standard euphemism for tumors. Additionally, there is little to no evidence that they ever saw a connection between mice and the plague here at this time. It appears they viewed the two as dual plagues rather than causal between them. That does not mean it wasn't the case, only that the evidence isn't available. |
| 7 When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god." |
"God of Israel" is actually gods of Israel, elohim in Hebrew. The Philistines would naturally use the plural, and so did the Israelites when using the generic term for God, but for different reasons. It would be accurate to translate Jewish use of the term as God. But when it is the Philistines, it is clear they meant the plural gods and that would be a more accurate translation. God did not protect Israel during the battle near Ebenezer because the people were arrogant thinking that they could bend God to their will. But now it was the Philistines that were being arrogant, thinking that because they had captured the talisman of Israel, the gods of Israel would be subordinated to Dagon, the dominant God of Ashdod. So while God would not support the arrogance of Israel, neither would God allow the arrogance of the Philistines toward Him to go unchecked. And he did it in a way that made it clear what the issue was by what happened to the idol of Dagon, as well as made it personal with the tumors. So the Philistines knew they had angered God. |
| 8 So they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" And they said, "Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath." And they brought the ark of the God of Israel around. |
Again, the word God in this verse is really gods. The five lords of the five ruling cities of the Philistines gathered together to decide. This confederation of city-states was like the modern day United Arab Emirates. Together, they decided to send the Ark of the gods of Israel to Gath, which is east of Ashdod towards Jerusalem. It is also the home city of Goliath. This seems strange since Gath is one of the five ruling cities, meaning the lord of Gath was part of this decision. Of course, he could have been overruled by a majority vote. Or it could be they thought or were trying out that maybe what made the gods of Israel angry was the presence of Dagon. Another possibility is they were thinking being closer to Israel would be more palatable to the gods of Israel, and/or further from the coast. Regardless, they tried a change of venue hoping it would work. |
| 9 After they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city with very great confusion; and He smote the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. | Here the Ark is in Gath, and the people of Gath are also afflicted with swelling, which is from tumors. This time there is a mention of confusion among the people, which is probably clearer to translate as panic. And there is no mention of any Philistine god being affected. Perhaps they didn't place the Ark in a temple this time. Scripture doesn't say. Whatever they hoped to accomplish by moving the Ark, the consequences of its presence continued. It is implied that the consequences ceased in Ashdod after the Ark left. |
| 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And as the ark of God came to Ekron the Ekronites cried out, saying, "They have brought the ark of the God of Israel around to us, to kill us and our people." |
Now the Philistines move the Ark from Gath to Ekron, which is another of the five ruling cities. There is no mention of a gathering of the lords. That doesn't mean there wasn't one. But if they had, what would have been their reasoning? Since Ashdod was a bad idea, and Gath didn't work either, why not try Ekron? Judging by the reaction of the Ekronites, it seems Gath did this move unilaterally without a decision by the lords. The exclamation is stated to be from the Ekronites, which is clearly plural. But the exclamation ends with "to kill me and my people" which are clearly first person singular. Either this is an aggregate of statements by Ekronites, or it was an idiomatic statement. |
| 11 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said, "Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, so that it will not kill us and our people." For there was a deadly confusion throughout the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. |
Unlike verse 10, the gathering of the lords is explicitly stated. It is logical that a consensus would have to agree before a battle trophy of such magnitude was returned to the people it was taken from. This is the plea and argument for the return of the Ark by the Elkonites and/or the lord of Elkon to the other four lords. Just like in Gath, the result of the Ark being there is panic. |
| 12 And the men who did not die were smitten with tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven. |
The result of the heavy hand of God was tumors and death. Death was not specifically mentioned when the Ark was in Ashdod or Gath. But the outcry by the Elkonites makes it clear that death had occurred in great enough numbers to make them fear the Ark being in their city. The cry going up to heaven is a euphemism for being very loud rather than it being directly to or heard by God. |
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.