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1 Samuel 5:1-6

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The Ark in Philistine Hands

1 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,
2 brought it into the temple of Dagon[a][b]and placed it next to his statue.[c]
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.[d] 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.[e]
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.
6 The Lord severely oppressed[f] the people of Ashdod, terrorizing and afflicting the people of Ashdod and its territory with tumors.[g][h][i]
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1 Samuel 5:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 5

This chapter relates how that the ark being brought by the Philistines to Ashdod, and placed in the temple of their idol, that fell down before it, 1Sa 5:1-5, that the hand of the Lord was upon the men of Ashdod, and smote them with emerods, 1Sa 5:6,7 and being carried to Gath, the men of Gath were smitten likewise with the same, 1Sa 5:8,9, and after that the men of Ekron, whither it also was carried, 1Sa 5:10-12.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Footnotes 9

  • [a]. A Philistine god of the sea, grain, or storm
  • [b]. Jdg 16:23-24; 1 Ch 10:8-10
  • [c]. Lit to Dagon
  • [d]. Isa 46:1-9
  • [e]. LXX; Hb reads Only Dagon remained on it
  • [f]. Lit The hand of the Lord was heavy on
  • [g]. LXX adds He brought up mice against them, and they swarmed in their ships. Then mice went up into the land and there was a mortal panic in the city.
  • [h]. Perhaps bubonic plague
  • [i]. Dt 28:27
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