View 1st Samuel 5 in the note window.
The Philistines carry the ark into the temple of Dagon, ver. 1, 2.
Dagon is overthrown, ver. 3 - 5.
The men of Ashdod and Gath plagued, ver. 6 - 9.
The Philistines determine to send it back, ver. 10 - 12.
2: By Dagon - By way of reproach, as a spoil and trophy set there to
the honour of Dagon, to whom doubtless they ascribed this victory.
3: They - The priests of Dagon. Set him - Supposing his fall was
casual.
4: Cut off - The head is the seat of wisdom; the hands the
instruments of action: both are cut off to shew that he had neither wisdom
nor strength to defend himself or his worshippers. Thus the priests by
concealing Dagon's shame before, make it more evident and infamous.
The stump - Heb. only dagon, that is, that part of it from which it
was called Dagon, namely the fishy part, for Dag in Hebrew
signifies a fish. It - Upon the threshold; there the trunk abode in
the place where it fell, but the head and hands were slung to distant
places.
5: This day - When this history was written, which if written by
Samuel towards the end of his life, was a sufficient ground for this
expression.
6: Emerods - The piles.
8: To Gath - Supposing that this plague was confined to Ashdod
for some particular reasons, or that it came upon them by chance, or for
putting it into Dagon's temple, which they resolved they would not do.
9: Hidden parts - In the inwards of their hinder parts: which is the
worst kind of emerods, as all physicians acknowledge, both because its pains
are far more sharp than the other; and because the malady is more out of the
reach of remedies.
11: The city - In every city, where the ark of God came.
