1 Samuel 5 - Introduction
V. (1 Samuel 5:1) The Ark of God among the Philistines.... [ Continue Reading ]
V. (1 Samuel 5:1) The Ark of God among the Philistines.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PHILISTINES TOOK THE ARK OF GOD. — The sacred writer concerns himself after the battle of Aphek only with the future of the Ark of the Covenant, and says nothing of the fate of Shiloh after the rout of the Israelites and the death of the high priest. We can, however, from Psalms 78:60, and two p... [ Continue Reading ]
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 d... [ Continue Reading ]
DAGON WAS FALLEN UPON HIS FACE. — This Dagon was one of the chief Philistine deities, and had temples not only in Ashdod and in Gaza, but in the cities of Philistia. (See St. Jerome on Isaiah 46:1.) The idol had a human head and hands, and the body of a fish. Philo derives the word Dagon from _dagan... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY AROSE EARLY ON THE MORROW. — Strange to say, on the next day a new and startling circumstance aroused and disturbed the exultant Philistines. The idol was again fallen, but this time broken. No mere accident could account for what had happened. The head and hands were severed from the imag... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THIS DAY. — This curious “memory” of the disaster to the Dagon image in this Philistine temple at Ashdod long existed among the worshippers of the fish-god. Zephaniah (1 Samuel 1:9), in the reign of King Josiah, mentions this among idolatrous observances which he condemns: “In the same day I wi... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS HEAVY UPON THEM OF ASHDOD. — A painful and distressing sickness, in the form, perhaps, of tumours — (the word _emerods_ should be spelt _hemorrhoids_) — broke out among the inhabitants of the Philistine city in which was situated the idol temple, where was placed the Ark... [ Continue Reading ]
GATHERED ALL THE LORDS OF THE PHILISTINES UNTO THEM. — The Philistine federation seems to have been a very powerful one, and owing to the disinclination of the Israelites to maritime pursuits and foreign commerce — [the foreign commercial expeditions of King Solomon were apparently quite exceptional... [ Continue Reading ]
SEND AWAY THE ARK. — The lords of the Philistines were a long time before they could make up their minds to get rid of this deadly trophy of their victory. They had grown up with an undefined awe of the “golden chest,” which, as they supposed, had so often in the days of the famous Hebrew conqueror,... [ Continue Reading ]