1 Chronicles 10:10

1Ch 10:10 And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.

Ver. 10. And fastened his head.] In way of abuse and mockage; so, that which Saul feared came upon him. {1Ch 10:4}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ch 10:10. In the temple of Dagon — If we give not God the glory of our successes, even Philistines will rise up in judgment with us, and condemn us. Shall Dagon have so great a place in their triumphs, and the true God be forgotten in ours?

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which was the idol of the Philistines, and from the belly downward had the form of a fish, and upward of a man.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

THE PHILISTINES TRIUMPH OVER HIM. (Ch1 10:8-14)

put his armour in the house of their gods--It was common among the heathen to vow to a national or favorite deity, that, in the event of a victory, the armor of the enemy's king, or of some eminent leader, should be dedicated to him as an offering of gratitude. Such trophies were usually suspended on the pillars of the temple.

fastened his head in the temple of Dagon--while the trunk or headless corpse was affixed to the wall of Beth-shan (Sa1 31:10).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(10) In the house of their gods.—Or god, as LXX. Samuel, “house of Ashtaroth,” which the chronicler or his source paraphrases, perhaps from a repugnance to mentioning the idol’s name. Ashtoreth had a great temple at Ascalon, as “Heavenly Aphrodite” (Herod., Hist i. 108). The “Queen of Heaven” (Jer_7:18) was worshipped by the Semitic races generally. Under the name of Ishtar, she was a chief goddess of the Assyrians, and had famous temples at Nineveh and Arbela. The Sabæans worshipped her as Athtâr; and the name Ashtâr is coupled with Chemosh on the Moabite Stone.

Fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.—Literally, and his skull (gulgôleth—comp. Golgotha, Mat_27:33) they fastened in the house of Dagon. Instead of this, we read in Samuel, “and his corpse they fastened to the wall of Beth-shan.” It is hardly likely that the one reading is a corruption of the other. The chronicler has omitted the statement about Saul’s corpse, which is not mentioned in 1Ch_10:9, and supplied one respecting his head, which has been already spoken of in that verse. He found the fact in his additional source, if the clause in question has not dropt out of the text of Samuel.

The Accadians worshipped Dagon, as we learn from the cuneiform inscriptions: comp. the name Ismi-Dagan (Dagon hears).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. in the house of their gods] In Samuel (more definitely) “in the house (or houses) of Ashtaroth,” Ashtaroth being the plural of Ashtoreth, a goddess, who seems here to bear a martial character. She was apparently consort of the Phœnician Baal (Jdg_2:13; Jdg_10:6).

fastened his head in the temple of Dagon (lit. Beth-Dagon)] In Sam. fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. The reading of Chron. is almost certainly a misreading of the text of Sam., yet the fact stated by the Chronicler is probably true. Saul’s body was fixed to the wall of Beth-shan (Sam.), but his head (lit. his skull) and his armour (Chron.; cp. 1Sa_31:9) were probably sent into Philistia to be distributed as trophies among the Philistine temples. Beth-shan is N.E. of Gilboa, about four miles distant from the Jordan, and about a day’s march (1Sa_31:12) from Jabesh (1Ch_10:11), which was situated on the other side of Jordan in Gilead.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Head, while his body was hung on the walls of Bethsan, 1 Kings xxxi. 10. (Calmet) --- The temple of Dagon was contiguous to the wall. (Du Hamel)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

And his body severed from his head to the wall of Beth-shan, 1Sa 31:10.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. They… fastened his head in the temple of Dagon — In Samuel we are merely told that “they cut off his head,” but no account is there given of what they did with it. This act of the Philistines was, perhaps, a retaliation for the disposition made of the head of Goliath. 1Sa_17:54.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The house of their gods. In place of this general designation, the parallel (1Sa_31:10) designates the house more exactly as "the house of Ashtaroth" (Gen_14:5; the Phoenician female deity, as Baal was their male deity. The Greek form of the name is Astarte. See also Cic., "De. Nat. Deo.," 3:23). And fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. The parallel, as above, gives us, "And fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shah" (which account is corroborated in, 2Sa_21:12-14) and does not say what further was done with the head. It is no doubt remarkable that one historian puts on record the one fact and the other the other; and it is one of the clearer indications that both took from some common sources. It is perhaps something to be remarked also that, while the historian in Samuel says nothing further about the head (though allusion to it is probably included in the "body" and the "bones," the further account of which is given in vers. 12, 13, as well as in, (2Sa_21:12-14) the compiler of Chronicles does revert to mention of "the body of Saul," ver. 12, infra, though without any corresponding naming of Beth-shah. Bertheau finds little difficulty in the question, by simply supposing that the omission in Chronicles is another instance of the desire to compress; while others suppose corruption in our text, or, as Thenius and Ewald, the loss of a sentence to our text. After all said, the omission in Samuel of the fate of the head would seem to be fully as remarkable as the omission, so far as this verse is concerned, in Chronicles of the fate of the body. It is reasonable to suppose that the head and trunk of the body of Saul were brought together again, or it were likely some allusion to the contrary would have transpired in the following verses of this chapter or in 2Sa_21:12-14. With regard to the act of the Philistines in dedicating the armour of Saul, and fixing his head in the temple of Dagon, as though trophies, the custom was both ancient and not uncommon (Jud 16:21-30; 1Sa_5:1-5 1Sa_21:9) The house of Dagon (Jos_15:41 Jos_19:27) here spoken of was that at Ashdod, (Jos_15:47) between Gaza and Joppa. Though belonging to Judah"s lot, it was never subdued by Israel, and remained throughout their history one of their worst foes. It is the Azotus of Act_8:40. There was another Dagon temple at Gaza. (Jud 16:21-31) Dagon"s representation was the figure of a man, as to head, hands, and bust, but for the rest that of a fish, which was a symbol of fruitfulness. As Ashdod was situate on the extreme west of Palestine, so Beth-shah generally written Beth-shean, a city of Manasseh (ch. 7:29), though within the borders of Issachar, (Jos_17:11) flora which the Canaanites were not expelled (Jud 1:27) was on the extreme east near the Jordan. It was afterwards called Scythopolis. Considering the distance these were apart, and their contrary directions, we may suppose that some suggestion was intended by the fixing the head in the one place and the body in the other.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Temple of Dagon - If we give not God the glory of our successes, even Philistines will rise up in judgment with us and condemn us. Shall Dagon have so great a place in their triumphs, and the true God be forgotten in ours?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.