1 Samuel 5:3

3 Early the next day the people of Ashdod saw that Dagon had fallen forward on the ground in front of the LORD's ark. So they took Dagon and put him back in 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 brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

2 They brought it into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside Dagon.

3 Early the next day the people of Ashdod saw that Dagon had fallen forward on the ground in front of the LORD's ark. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.

4 But the next morning they saw that Dagon had [again] fallen forward on the ground in front of the LORD's ark. Dagon's head and his two hands were cut off [and were lying] on the temple's threshold. The rest of Dagon's body was intact.

5 This is why the priests of Dagon and everyone else who comes into Dagon's temple in Ashdod still don't step on the temple's threshold.