Kings I 5:7

7 And the men of Azotus saw that so, and they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god.

Kings I 5:7 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 5:7

And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon,
&c.] The letter read he sent him:

that he rejoiced greatly;
that the friendship which had subsisted between him and David was like to be continued between him and his successor, but chiefly for what follows:

saying, blessed [be] the Lord this day;
or Jehovah, by which he seems to have some knowledge of the true God, the God of Israel, and might worship him, though along with him other deities, as some Heathen princes did:

which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people;
which he perceived by the letter he sent him, and by his solicitous concern to build an house for the worship and honour of God, and by various other things which his ambassadors reported to him they had seen and heard in Solomon's court.

Kings I 5:7 In-Context

5 Therefore the priests of Dagon, and every one that enters into the house of Dagon, do not tread upon the threshold of the house of Dagon in Azotus until this day, for they step over.

6 And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon Azotus, and he brought evil upon them, and it burst out upon them into the ships, and mice sprang up in the midst of their country, and there was a great and indiscriminate mortality in the city.

7 And the men of Azotus saw that so, and they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god.

8 And they send and gather the lords of the Philistines to them, and say, What shall we do to the ark of the God of Israel? and the Gittites say, Let the ark of God come over to us; and the ark of the God of Israel came to Geth.

9 And it came to pass after it went about to Geth, that the hand of the Lord comes upon the city, a very great confusion; and he smote the men of the city small and great, and smote them in their secret parts: and the Gittites made to themselves images of emerods.

Footnotes

• [a]. hard.