1 Samuel 5:3

3 But when the citizens of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen facedown on the ground before the LORD's chest! So they took Dagon and set him back up where he belonged.

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 took God's chest, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

2 Then the Philistines took God's chest and brought it into Dagon's temple and set it next to Dagon.

3 But when the citizens of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen facedown on the ground before the LORD's chest! So they took Dagon and set him back up where he belonged.

4 But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon again, fallen facedown on the ground before the LORD's chest—and this time Dagon's head along with both his hands were cut off and lying on the doorstep! Only Dagon's body was left intact.

5 That's why to this day Dagon's priests or anyone else who enters his temple in Ashdod doesn't step on the threshold.