1 Samuel 5:2

1Sa 5:2 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

Ver. 2. They brought it into the house of Dagon.] Which some {a} will have to be Iupiter Aratrius sive Frumentarius, - called Dagon of Dagan, which signifieth grain, - because he taught them the use of the plough, and of tillage, Others, {b} to be Triton, a sea god, - the Philistines or Phenicians were situate by the sea side, and worshipped fishes, as Xenophon, Siculus, and Cicero testify, - called Dagon of Dagah, a fish, because they made him like a man upward, and downward like a fish, whence that of Virgil,

“ Frons hominem praefert, in pristin desinit alvus. ”

And set it by Dagon.] Tanquam Iovi Feretrio spolia opima, as consecrating it unto their idol for a chief spoil.

{a} Euseb., Lel., Gyral., Arias, Pagnin., Jerome, Abulens, Adrichom.

{b} Ibid.

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.

1Sa 5:2-3. They set it 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. Behold Dagon was fallen upon his face — In a posture of the most humble adoration, which was prostration; as acknowledging the God of Israel to be above all gods. They (the priests of Dagon) took Dagon and set him in his place — Supposing his fall to be casual.

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

5:2 Dagon was one of the Philistines’ gods (see Judg 16:23-24). The name could be related to the Hebrew dag (“fish”), an appropriate name for a god of seafaring people. More likely, it reflects the Hebrew dagan (“grain”), suggesting a fertility or agriculture god.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Which was their chief idol, and as some write, from the navel downward was like a fish, and upward like a man.

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

the house of Dagon--Stately temples were erected in honor of this idol, which was the principal deity of the Philistines, but whose worship extended over all Syria, as well as Mesopotamia and Chaldea; its name being found among the Assyrian gods on the cuneiform inscriptions [RAWLINSON]. It was represented under a monstrous combination of a human head, breast, and arms, joined to the belly and tail of a fish. The captured ark was placed in the temple of Dagon, right before this image of the idol.

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

Verse 2. The house of Dagon] On this idol, which was supposed to be partly in a human form, and partly in that of a fish, see the note on Jdg 16:23. Some think that this idol was the same with Dirceto, Attergatis, the Venus of Askelon, and the Moon. - See Calmet's Dissertation on the gods of the Philistines.

The motive which induced the Philistines to set up the ark in the temple of Dagon, may be easily ascertained. It was customary, in all nations, to dedicate the spoils taken from an enemy to their gods:

1. As a gratitude-offering for the help which they supposed them to have furnished; and,

2. As a proof that their gods, i.e., the gods of the conquerors, were more powerful than those of the conquered.

It was, no doubt, to insult the God of Israel, and to insult and terrify his people, that they placed his ark in the temple of Dagon. When the Philistines had conquered Saul, they hung up his armour in the temple of Ashtaroth, 1Sa 31:10. And when David slew Goliath, he laid up his sword in the tabernacle of the Lord, 1Sa 21:8-9. We have the remains of this custom in the depositing of colours, standards, c., taken from an enemy, in our churches but whether this may be called superstition or a religious act, is hard to say. If the battle were the Lord's, which few battles are, the dedication might be right.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) They brought it into the house of Dagon.—The conquerors, we are told, in the meantime, with triumph, carried the captured Ark from the battle-field to Ashdod. This was one of the capital cities of the five Philistine princes. It is built on a hill close to the Mediterranean Sea, and was in after days known as Azotus (Act_8:40).

In Ashdod they placed it in the temple of the popular Philistine god, Dagon. This was their vengeance for the slaughter of the 3,000 Philistine worshippers in the temple of the same deity at Gaza, not many years before, by the blind Hebrew champion Samson.

The princes and Philistine people well remembered how the blind hero on that awful day, when 3,000 perished in the house of Dagon when he with his superhuman strength forced the great temple pillars down, called on the name of the God of Israel, whom they in their idol-trained hearts associated with the golden Ark.

“This only hope relieves me, that the strife

With me hath end, all the contest now

‘Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presumed,

Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,

His deity comparing and preferring

Before the God of Abraham. He, be sure,

Will not connive or linger thus provoked,

But will arise, and His great name assert.”—MILTON.

The insulted Dagon and all their murdered countrymen should be avenged by the perpetual humiliation of the “God of Abraham.”

The sacred Ark should henceforth be placed at the feet of their god Dagon.

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

2. When the Philistines, &c.] Better, And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it. The repetition is characteristic of the Hebrew historical style.

Dagon] Dagon (a diminutive of endearment from dâg = fish) was the national god of the Philistines, worshipped also at Gaza (Jdg_16:21-30), and elsewhere, as the name Beth-dagon (Jos_15:41; Jos_19:27) indicates. The statue of Dagon had the head and hands of a man, and the body of a fish. The fish was an emblem of fruitfulness. See Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, I. 381, or Layard’s Nineveh, II. p. 466, for a representation of a fish-god, which is probably the Philistine Dagon, as the bas-reliefs at Khorsabad from which it is taken record the wars of Sargon with Syria. A corresponding goddess Dercìto or Atargatis was worshipped at Askelon.

The ark was placed in Dagon’s temple as a votive-offering (cp. 1Ch_10:10), and to mark the supposed victory of Dagon over Jehovah.

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.

When the Philistines took the ark of God,.... And had brought it to Ashdod:

they brought it into the house of Dagon; a temple dedicated to that idol, and in which his image stood; of which See Gill on Jdg 16:23,

and set it by Dagon; by the side of him, either in honour to the ark, as Abarbinel, designing to give it homage and adoration, as to their own deity; for though the Gentiles did not choose to change their gods, yet they would add the gods of other nations to them; and such the Philistines might take the ark to be: or else, as Procopius Gazaeus, they brought it into their idol's temple, as a trophy of victory, and as a spoil taken from their enemies, and which they dedicated to their idol. Laniado (r) observes, that the word here used signifies servitude, as in Gen 33:15 and that the ark was set here to minister to, or serve their god Dagon. The temple of Dagon at Ashdod or Azotus was in being in the times of the Maccabees, and was burnt by Jonathan,"83 The horsemen also, being scattered in the field, fled to Azotus, and went into Bethdagon, their idol's temple, for safety. 84 But Jonathan set fire on Azotus, and the cities round about it, and took their spoils; and the temple of Dagon, with them that were fled into it, he burned with fire.'' (1 Maccabees 10)

(r) Cli Yaker, fol. 162. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They brought it into the house of Dagon (see the marginal reference) in order to enhance the triumph of the gods of the Philistines over the God of Israel. (Compare 1Sa 31:9; Jdg 16:23; Isa 37:12.)

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Dagon is the same as Derceto, Atergatis, Venus, and the moon, (Calmet) and was represented like a woman, (Tirinus) as far as the waist, and a fish below. (Haydock) (Judges xvi. 23.) --- The ark was placed near the idol, out of respect; (Calmet) or as a trophy of the victory, which they attributed to Dagon. (Menochius) --- Thus they hung up the arms of Saul in the temple of Asteroth; (chap. xxxi. 10,) and David placed the sword of Goliah[Goliath] in the tabernacle.

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).

Either, first, Out of respect to it, that it might be worshipped together with Dagon. Or rather, secondly, By way of reproach and contempt of it, as a spoil and trophy set there to the honour of Dagon, to whom doubtless they ascribed this victory, as they did a former, Jdg 16:23. And though they had some reverence for the ark before, 1Sa 4:7, &c.; yet that was certainly much diminished by their success against Israel, notwithstanding the presence and help of the ark.

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

2. House of Dagon — Hebrew, Beth-Dagon; not here the name of a city, as at Jos_15:41; Jos_19:27, but the house or temple (1Ch_10:10) in which Dagon was worshipped. The Philistines placed the ark in Dagon’s temple as a dedicatory offering to their god, who had gotten them their victory. Dagon was the great national god of the Philistines. His image bore the body of a fish, and the face and hands of a man. Various representations of this idol have been found on the Assyrian monuments, and in them all the characteristic feature is the figure of a fish. See note and cut at Jdg_16:23.

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

When the Philistines, etc. The words are exactly the same as those in ver. 1, viz. "And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it," marking the simplicity of ancient narrative. Dagon is derived by Philo from dagan, "corn," and is explained by him as an emblem of the earth"s fertility; but as the shape of this national deity of the Philistines was certainly that of a man to the waist, ending in the body and tail of a fish, the true derivation is doubtless that from dag, "a fish." It represented, however, not so much the sea, on which the Philistines trafficked, as the fruitfulness of water, which in the East is looked upon as the active principle of life (comp. Gen_1:20) In one of the sculptures brought from Khorsabad there is a representation of a battle between the Assyrians and the inhabitants of the Syrian sea coast, and in it there is a figure, the upper part of which is a bearded man with a crown, while from the waist downwards it has the shape of a fish (Layard"s "Nineveh," 2:466). Moreover, it is swimming in the sea, and is surrounded by a multitude of marine creatures. Doubtless this figure represents Dagon, who, nevertheless, is not to be regarded as a sea god, like Neptune; but as the fish is the product of water, he is the symbol of nature"s reproductive energy. Together with Dagon a female deity was commonly worshipped, called Atergatis, half woman and half fish, whose temple is mentioned in RAPC 2Ma 12:26. In the margin there she is explained as being Venus; but the ideas have only this in common that Venus also, as rising out of the sea, symbolises life as springing out of water. As Dagon had a temple also at, (Jud_1:16:23) and at the other cities of Philistia, (Jerome on Isa_46:1) he was evidently the chief deity of the nation, and thesolemn depositing of the ark in his temple, and by Dagon, literally, "at his side, was intended as a public demonstration that the God of the Israelites was inferior to, and had been vanquished by, the national deity of the Philistines.

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

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.

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

Beside Dagon. The idol was made in the form of a fish.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.