1 Samuel 5:4

Overview - 1 Samuel 5
The Philistines having brought the ark into Ashdod, set it in the house of Dagon.
Dagon is smitten down and cut in pieces, and they of Ashdod smitten with emerods.
So God deals with them of Gath, when it was brought thither;
10 and so with them of Ekron, when it was brought thither.
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

1 Samuel 5:4  (King James Version)
And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon 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 upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
 


the head
Isaiah 2:18 Isaiah 2:19 ; 27:9 Jeremiah 10:11 ; 50:2 Ezekiel 6:4-6 ; Daniel 11:8 ; Micah 1:7

of Dagon
The name of this idol, Dagon, signifies a fish: and it is supposed to be the Atergatis of the Syrians, corruptly called Derceto by the Greeks, which had the upper part like a woman, and the lower part like a fish; as Lucian informs us: [Derketous de eidos en Phoinike ethesamn, thema xenon;
misen men gyn; to de okoson ek mrn es akrous podas,
ichtlyos our apoteinetai;] "In Phoenicia I saw the image of Derceto; a strange sight truly! For she had the half of a woman, but from the thighs downward a fish's tail." Diodorus, (1 ii.) describing the same idol, as represented at Askelon,
says, [to men prospon echei synaikos, to d'allo sma pan ichthyos.] "It had the head of a woman, but all the rest of the body a fish's." Probably Horace alludes to this idol, in De Art Poet. v. 4; {Desinat in piscem, mulier formosa superne:} "The upper part a handsome woman, and the lower part a fish." If such was the form of this idol, then everything that was human was broken off from what resembled a fish.

the stump
or, the fishy part.