Judges 16:23

_THEN THE LORDS OF THE PHILISTINES GATHERED THEM TOGETHER FOR TO OFFER A GREAT SACRIFICE UNTO DAGON THEIR GOD, AND TO REJOICE: FOR THEY SAID, OUR GOD HATH DELIVERED SAMSON OUR ENEMY INTO OUR HAND._ THE LORDS OF THE PHILISTINES GATHERED... TO OFFER A GREAT SACRIFICE UNTO DAGON. It was a common practice in pagan nations, on the return of their solemn religious festivals, to bring forth their war prisoners from their places of confinement or slavery, and in heaping on them every species of indignity, offer their grateful tribute to the gods by whose aid they had triumphed over their enemies. A vast temple was there erected to Dagon, who was a sea-idol, usually represented as having the head and upper parts human, while the rest of the body resembled a fish....

22-24 Samson's afflictions were the means of bringing him to deep repentance. By the loss of his bodily sight the eyes of his understanding were opened; and by depriving him of bodily strength, the Lord was pleased to renew his spiritual strength. The Lord permits some few to wander wide and sink deep, yet he recovers them at last, and marking his displeasure at sin in their severe temporal sufferings, preserves them from sinking into the pit of destruction. Hypocrites may abuse these examples, and infidels mock at them, but true Christians will thereby be rendered more humble, watchful, and circumspect; more simple in their dependence on the Lord, more fervent in prayer to be kept from falling, and in praise for being preserved; and, if they fall, they will be kept from sinking into despair....

Verse Judges 16:23. _UNTO DAGON THEIR GOD_] Diodorus Siculus describes their god thus: Το μεν προσωπον εχει γυναικος, το δ' αλλο σωμα παν ιχθους;; "It had the head of a woman, but all the rest of the body resembled a fish." Dagon was called _Dorceto_ among the heathens. Horace, in the following lines, especially in the _third_ and _fourth_, seems to have in view the image of _Dagon_: - Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam Pingere si velit; et varias inducere plumas, Undique collatis Inembris; ut _turpiter atrum_ _Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne;_ Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici? DE ART. POET., V....

Dagon was the national idol of the Philistines 1 Chronicles 10:10, so called from Dag, a fish. The description of Dagon, in his temple at Ashdod 1 Samuel 5:4, exactly agrees with the representations of a fish-god on the walls of Khorsabad, on slabs at Kouyunjik, and on sundry antique cylinders and gems. In these the figures vary. Some have a human form down to the waist, with that of a fish below the waist; others have a human head, arms, and legs, growing, as it were, out of a fish’s body, and so arranged that the fish’s head forms a kind of mitre to the man’s head, while the body and fins form a kind of cloak, hanging down behind....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 16:23 GATHERED THEM, _i.e._ themselves. TO REJOICE. The Hebrew _is for a festivity_,_ _or _merry-making_,_ _or _feast. _There was to be a great feast upon the sacrifices offered to Dagon their God. DAGON (from dag, a fish in Hebrew), the national male god of the Philistines, as _Atergatis_, or _Derceto_,_ _was their goddess. Both the male and female divinities seem to have had the head and breast and hands human, and the rest of the body fish-shaped (see 1 Samuel 5:5). The fish was a natural emblem of fertility and productiveness, especially to a maritime people. The fish-shaped idol is found upon old Phoenician coins, and also on the monument

THEN THE LORDS OF THE PHILISTINES GATHERED THEM TOGETHER,.... The five lords, with their friends, not directly upon Samson's being taken and committed to prison, but some time after; perhaps some months: FOR TO GET A GREAT SACRIFICE TO DAGON THEIR GOD; in later times their god was called Marnas o, which signifies the lord of men, but now Dagon; who also had a temple at Ashdod, another of the five principalities of the Philistines, 1 Samuel 5:2 and seems to have been at this time their common and chief deity: according to Jarchi in the place referred to, it was in the form of a fish, for "dag" in Hebrew signifies a fish; and Kimchi on the same place says, that from its navel upwards it was in the form of a man, and from thence downwards in the form of a fish p; and Diodorus Siculus q relates that Derceto, a goddess of Ashkelon, another of the five principalities of Palestine,

CHAPTER 16 DELILAH, AND SAMSON _ 1. In Gaza (Judges 16:1)_ 2. Delilah and her victory over him (Judges 16:4) 3. The captive of the Philistines (Judges 16:21) 4. The feast of Dagon and Samson's death (Judges 16:22) Down he goes again, and this time to Gaza, the Philistine stronghold. There he unites himself with a harlot. We are here reminded of the history of the Church. The harlot typifies that system which in Revelation is called by the same name, she who seduces to commit fornication, Babylon the great, Rome. Rome is the capital of Philistinism, ritualistic Christendom, as Gaza was the capital of the

THE DEATH OF SAMSON. Dagon, the god of the Philistines, had been worshipped in the Maritime Plain long before their coming. They adopted the god of the district, just as many Israelites learned to worship the Baals of Canaan. One of the Amarna letter-writers was called Dagon-takala. There is still a Beit Dajan near Joppa, and another near Nâ blû s. Judges 16:24. In the Heb. the words Our god. many of us form a rhymed five-line song, each short line ending in _ç nû._ Judges 16:25. The blind giant apparently made sport by harmless exhibitions of his strength. Judges 16:27. And all the lords. women is probably a later insertion to heighten the effect. Codex B of the LXX has 70 instead

OFFER. Hebrew "slay". See App-43. TO REJOICE. Figure of speech _Antimereia_ (of Noun). App-6. Noun "rejoicing", put for verb "to rejoice". for. rejoicing...

_Samson and Delîlah: his ruin and famous end_ 4 _.the valley of Sorek_ Now Wâdi eṣ-Ṣarâr, a broad valley narrowing as it rises towards the Judaean highlands; the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem ascends the lower part of it. _Soreḳ_denotes a choice kind of vine (Genesis 49:11; Isaiah 5:2; Jeremiah 2:21), which may have given its name to the valley. A ruined site near Ṣar-a (Judges 13:2 _n._) is still called Sûrîk....