1 Samuel 5:3

3 When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord.^[a] So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

1 Samuel 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 5:3

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.

1 Samuel 5:3 In-Context

1 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,

2 brought it into the temple of Dagonand placed it next to his statue.

3 When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

4 But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. [This time], both Dagon's head and the palms of his hands were broken off and lying on the threshold. Only Dagon's torso remained.

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

Footnotes

• [a]. Isa 46:1-9