John Gill Commentary 1 Samuel 5

And the Philistines took the ark of God
Which fell into their hands, Israel being beaten, and caused to flee, and the priests that had the care of the ark slain; and when possessed of it, they did not destroy it, nor take out of it what was in it, only took it up:

and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod .
Ebenezer was the place where the camp of Israel was pitched, (1 Samuel 4:1) and near to which the battle was fought. Ashdod was one of the five principalities of the Philistines, the same with Azotus, (Acts 8:40) . The distance between these two places, according to Bunting ^F17 was one hundred and sixty miles; though one would think the distance from each other was not so great:

why it was carried to Ashdod is not plain; perhaps it might be the nearest place of note in their country; and certain it is that it was one of their most famous cities, if not the most famous; (See Gill on Isaiah 20:1), and had a famous idol temple in it.

FOOTNOTES:

• F17: Travels of the Patriarchs p. 122.

When the Philistines took the ark of God
And had brought it to Ashdod:

they brought it into the house of Dagon ;
a temple dedicated to that idol, and in which his image stood; of which (See Gill on Judges 16:23),

and set it by Dagon ;
by the side of him, either in honour to the ark, as Abarbinel, designing to give it homage and adoration, as to their own deity; for though the Gentiles did not choose to change their gods, yet they would add the gods of other nations to them; and such the Philistines might take the ark to be: or else, as Procopius Gazaeus, they brought it into their idol's temple, as a trophy of victory, and as a spoil taken from their enemies, and which they dedicated to their idol. Laniado ^F18 observes, that the word here used signifies servitude, as in (Genesis 33:15) and that the ark was set here to minister to, or serve their god Dagon. The temple of Dagon at Ashdod or Azotus was in being in the times of the Maccabees, and was burnt by Jonathan,

``83 The horsemen also, being scattered in the field, fled to Azotus, and went into Bethdagon, their idol's temple, for safety. 84 But Jonathan set fire on Azotus, and the cities round about it, and took their spoils; and the temple of Dagon, with them that were fled into it, he burned with fire.'' (1 Maccabees 10)

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: Cli Yaker, fol. 162. 4.

And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow ,
&e.] Either the people, the inhabitants of the place, who came early to pay their devotions to their idol, before they went on their business; or the priests of the idol, who came to sacrifice in the morning:

and, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark
of the Lord ;
as if he was subject to it, and giving adoration to it, and owning it was above him, and had superior power over him:

and they took Dagon, and set him in his place again ;
having no notion that it was owing to the ark of God, or to the God of Israel, that he was fallen, but that it was a matter of chance.

And when they arose early on the morrow morning
For the same purpose as before; unless they had any curiosity to indulge, to see whether the ark and Dagon agreed better together, if they had any suspicion that the former mischance was to be attributed to some variance and disagreement between them:

behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of
the Lord :
again, and in a worse condition than before:

and the head of Dagon, and both the palms of his hands, were cut off
upon the threshold ;
of the temple, upon which he fell with such force, that the threshold cut off his head, and both his hands; which signified he had neither wisdom to contrive for his own safety, nor strength and power to defend himself; and therefore of what advantage could he be to his votaries? This may be an emblem of the fall of idolatry in the Gentile world, before the preaching of Christ and his Gospel in it; or of the idol of man's righteousness, which is set up, though it cannot stand, against the righteousness of Christ, and of man's renouncing that, when convinced of the weakness and insufficiency of it, and submitting to the righteousness of Christ:

only the stump of Dagon was left to him :
his body, as the Targum, his head and hands being cut off; or, as it is in the Hebrew text, only Dagon was left; that is, the fishy part of this idol; for "Dag" signifies a fish; and, as Kimchi relates, this idol, from the navel upwards, had the form of a man, and from thence downwards the form of a fish; and it was the lower part that was left; (See Gill on Judges 16:23).

Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into
Dagon's house
Neither the priests that continually attended the worship and service of Dagon, nor the people that came there to pay their devotions to him:

tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day :
but used to leap over it, either reckoning it sacred because touched by their idol, which fell upon it; or rather, as it should seem, in a way of detestation, because it had been the means of cutting off the head and hands of their idol; and this custom not only continued to the latter days of Samuel, the writer of this book; but even among the Philistines in one place or another to the times of Zephaniah, who seems to allude to it, (Zephaniah 1:9) .

In later times there was another deity worshipped at Ashdod; according to Masius ^F19 , the Philistine Venus, or Astarte, was worshipped in this place; though perhaps she may be no other than Atergatis, or Adergatis, which with Selden ^F20 is only a corruption of Addir-dag, the magnificent fish, in which form Dagon is supposed to be; so the Phoenician goddess Derceto, worshipped at Ashkelon had the face of a woman, and the other part was all fish; though Ben Gersom says Dagon was in the form of a man, and which is confirmed by the Complutensian edition of the Septuagint, which on (1 Samuel 5:4) reads, "the soles of his feet were cut off"; which is a much better reading than the common one, "the soles of his hands", which is not sense; by which it appears that he had head, hands, and feet; wherefore it seems most likely that he had his name from Dagon, signifying corn: (See Gill on Judges 16:23).

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: Comment. in Jos. xv. 47.
• F20: De Dis. Syr. Syntagu. l. 2. c. 3. p. 267.