1 Samuel 5King James Version
The Philistines take the ark to the temple of their god Dagon in Ashdod. The next morning, Dagon is face down before the ark. They set him back up. The morning after, he is face down again with his head and hands broken off. Then a plague of tumors breaks out in every Philistine city the ark is brought to. They pass it from town to town, and every town wants to get rid of it.
The Philistines place the captured ark in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. The next morning Dagon's statue is prostrate before the ark. The morning after, the statue is prostrate again, its head and hands broken off on the threshold. The Philistines are struck with tumors. The ark is moved to Gath, then Ekron, and each city suffers the same affliction, with the people crying out that the ark means death.
The ark does not need Israel's army to defend it. God in the house of a pagan god is still God.
3: "And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face before the ark of the LORD." The gods of the conquerors bow first.
Ashdod, one of the five Philistine city-states, circa 1080 BC. The Philistines are not primitive; they have iron, organized armies, and sophisticated religious practice. Defeating Israel and capturing their cultic object should have confirmed Dagon's superiority. It does the opposite.
The Philistine city councils of Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron, learning through suffering that they have captured something they cannot contain.
This ironic reversal argues that Israel's God operates independently of Israel's faithfulness or military power. The Philistines learn theology the hard way.
There is dark comedy in this chapter, the statue face-down every morning, the priests carefully stepping over the threshold forever after. But the suffering is real, and the Philistines' fear is entirely rational.
1And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
2When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
3And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
4And 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.
5Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.
6But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
7And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
8They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.
9And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
10Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
11So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
12And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.