1 Samuel 5:7

_AND 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._ The ark of ... God ... shall not abide with us. It was removed successively to several of the large towns of the country; but the same pestilence broke out in every place, and raged so fiercely and fatally that the authorities were forced to send the ark back into the land of Israel....

6-12 The hand of the Lord was heavy upon the Philistines; he not only convinced them of their folly, but severely chastised their insolence. Yet they would not renounce Dagon; and instead of seeking God's mercy, they desired to get clear of his ark. Carnal hearts, when they smart under the judgments of God, would rather, if it were possible, put him far from them, than enter into covenant or communion with him, and seek him for their friend. But their devices to escape the Divine judgments only increase them. Those that fight against God will soon have enough of it....

Verse 1 Samuel 5:7. _HIS HAND IS SORE UPON US, AND UPON DAGON OUR GOD._] Here the _end_ was completely answered: they now saw that they had not prevailed against Israel, on account of their god being more _powerful_ than _Jehovah_; and they now feel how easily this God can confound and destroy their whole nation....

EXPOSITION THE ARK OF GOD IN PHILISTIA (1 Samuel 5:1). 1 SAMUEL 5:1 THE PHILISTINES TOOK THE ARK OF GOD. The silence of Scripture is often as remarkable as what it tells us. From Psalms 78:60-19; Jeremiah 7:12; Jeremiah 26:9, we gather that from Aphek the Philistines marched upon Shiloh, and having captured it, put all whom they found there to the sword, a

AND WHEN THE MEN OF ASHDOD SAW THAT IT WAS SO,.... That many of their inhabitants were taken away by death, and others afflicted with a painful disease; all which they imputed to the ark being among them: THEY SAID, THE ARK OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL SHALL NOT ABIDE WITH US; like the Gergesenes, who besought Christ to depart their coasts, having more regard for their swine than for him: FOR HIS HAND IS SORE UPON US, AND UPON DAGON, OUR GOD, not the hand of the ark, unless they took it for a god, but the hand of the God of Israel; in this they were right, and seem to have understood the case better than the other lords they after consulted; his hand was upon Dagon, as appeared his fall before the ark, and upon them by smiting with the haemorrhoids, the memory of which abode with the Philistines for ages afterwards; for we are told w that the Scythians, having plundered the temple of Venus at...

6. THE ARK IN THE HANDS OF THE PHILISTINES AND ITS RETURN CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The ark in the house of Dagon (1 Samuel 5:1)_ 2. The Philistines smitten by Jehovah (1 Samuel 5:6) The ark was brought to Ashdod, the leading city of the Philistines, and set up in the temple dedicated to Dagon, the chief god of the people. It was half fish and half man, the symbol of fertility. Before this idol the ark was set up. In their blindness they imagined that Dagon had conquered the God of Israel. The next morning they found Dagon fallen with his face to the earth before the ark. It was the Lord who did it and not an accident. The next morning the whole idol-image, except the fish-part, is fallen upon the ground. “The head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands lay cut off upon the threshold.” T

1 SAMUEL 5. THE ARK IN THE PHILISTINE CITIES. 1 Samuel 5:1. Ashdod. 1 Samuel 5:8. Gath. 1 Samuel 5:10. Ekron: see Joshua 11:22; Joshua 13:3; p 28. 1 Samuel 5:2. Dagon: see Judges 16:23 *. 1 Samuel 5:3. The Ark is thought of as possessing marvellous inherent powers; it brings disaster on

MEN. Hebrew. _"enosh._ App-14. Ill....

_is sore_ i.e. _severe_....

THE ARK IN GATH, 1 SAMUEL 5:7-9 7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that _is 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. 8 They 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._ 9 And 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. _5._ Where was Gath? 1 Samuel 5:8 Gath was al