by Nate Wilson, delivered 06 Sept. 2020 at Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan KS
We start back in to the middle of the Ark narrative, where we left off at the end of chapter 4. Chapter 5 is all from the perspective of the Philistines once they left the battlefield triumphantly with Israel’s Ark of the Covenant.
We’re going to see that God can hold His own with His enemies and teach them lessons they will never forget, but if they persist in worshipping other gods instead of – or in addition to Him, death and destruction are all that can be expected.
Here’s my translation of chapter 5: 1 So Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer toward Ashdod, 2 and Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the temple of Dagon, and they set it beside Dagon. 3 But the Ashdodites got up early on the next day and Look! Dagon falling on his face earthward before the ark of Yahweh! So they took Dagon and returned him to his position. 4 Then they got up early in the morning of the next day and Look! Dagon falling on his face earthward before the ark of Yahweh! And the head of Dagon and both of the palms of his hands were severed at the threshold; only the fish-part of him was left! 5 Therefore, to this day, priests of Dagon – and all those who go to the temple of Dagon in Ashdod – do not step upon the threshold of Dagon. 6 Also, the hand of Yahweh was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He laid waste to them and struck them – that is, Ashdod and her borderlands – with swellings. 7 And the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, and they said, “The ark of the god of Israel should not reside with us, because its agency is firmly against us and against Dagon our god!” 8 So they sent for – and gathered together to them – all the Philistine lords, and they said, “What should we do about the ark of the god of Israel?” And the Gathites said, “They should turn over the ark of the God of Israel to us!” So they sent the ark of the god of Israel around to Gath. 9 And it happened after they sent it around, that the hand of Yahweh brought about a really big panic in that city, and He struck the men of the city from the smallest person even to greatest person so that swellings erupted on them. 10 So they sent off the ark of God to Ekron, but what happened, as the ark of God was coming to Ekron, was that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “What? Have y’all sent the ark of the god of Israel around to me to kill me and my people?!” 11 And they sent for and gathered together the Philistine lords and said, “Send away the ark of the god of Israel, and let it go back to its place so it doesn’t kill us and our people!” It was so serious when the ark of God came there, that there was a deadly panic throughout all the city. 12 And the men who didn’t die were stricken with swellings. And the hollering of the city went up to the heavens!
The Hebrew word order of the first verse in chapter 5 puts the word “Philistine” in an emphatic position, as if to say that the unthinkable has just happened. After hundreds of years of continuous possession of the ark from the time of its construction under Moses in the wilderness, now, for the first time, it wasn’t Israelite Levites carrying it from the field, it was – horror of horrors – Philistines!
The repetition in v.2 of Philistines taking the ark could mean that the Philistine warriors who had carried it off the battlefield 160 miles1 to their hometown had met a cadre of Philistine priests at the entrance of Ashdod and transferred the sacred object to the priests, who took it from the entrance of the town up to their temple, Bayit Dagon. [Show route on map.]
This was perhaps a replacement temple to the one that Sampson had toppled in Gaza within the last century.
The Philistines’ national god was named Dagon. “The name may be derived from dag [the Hebrew word for fish2]… A fish-god, represented by a figure with the head and hands of a man and the body of a fish… ” ~Goldman (Soncino) [Show bass relief image.]
Archaeology appears to indicate that Dagon was a local god worshipped along the Levantine coast, not known to the Philistines before they moved to the Israelite coast from Greece. “In Ugarit, Dagan is the father of the storm god Baal, and his cult is attested ‘from Early Bronze Age Ebla in northern Syria to Roman Gaza at the southern extreme of the Philistine Plain.” (Tsumura, quoting McCarter)
So apparently, the Philistines had arrived on the coast of Israel – the Levant – within the last couple hundred years and had done their research to find out what gods (or demons) had power there, and had found some power demonstrated through the Syrian fish-god Dagon and adopted that as their deity3.
Mankind perceived that there were limitations in the powers of demons, and came to believe that all gods had control only in one certain area. They figured that the Israelite’s god must work for the Israelites further inland, but if they moved the Israelite’s ark-god out to the coast, it would be powerless, because that’s Dagon’s territory.
Later on, in 1 Kings 20, the Syrians attacked Israel in a lowland area, thinking that Yahweh wouldn’t have power outside of the hills. Boy were they wrong! The Philistines here were confronted with a new idea that there is a God who exercises power over all places, and that the Israelites, of all people, were on to Him!
But I’m getting ahead of the story. At the beginning of chapter 5, the Philistines are thinking that they will start a museum of sorts, in their temple, of all the idols of all the other nations that they conquer. So, after conquering Israel, they want to put the Israelite’s sacred object of worship in a nook of their temple back in Ashdod.
“The capturing of an enemy’s gods was comon in warfare in the ancient Near-East… It was understood that a people whose gods were in enemy hands was completely conquered… Ashdod [also known in the New Testament as Azotus, was] located about 3.5 miles south of modern Ashdod, which is inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It had a major seaport in the Late Bronze and Iron Age… [and] was the center of maritime trading in goods such as tin, as well as a center of the textile industry, including purple-dyed garments.” ~Tsumura (NICOT)
Now, it was apparently customary to do worship first thing in the morning for Dagon, just as we saw that it was customary to worship Yahweh first thing in the morning at the tabernacle in chapter 1. But what a suprise when the priests entered the temple of Dagon that morning!
The “Behold” followed by the simple active participle “falling” sounds to me like the priests of Dagon on the early shift actually saw it happen: Dagon capitulating to the ark of Yahweh!
Nevertheless, the Philistines of Ashdod tried to set their Dagon idol back up as though it were God, even after it had fallen on its face before the ark of the LORD! How foolish and stubborn even modern man is in this regard! How the humanists fly in the face of the obvious truth of God, trying desperately to patch up their little theories in their vain "religion."
The next day at the time of morning worship at the temple, the same thing happened, only this time the fall was a little more damaging to the idol.
The hands of the Dagon statue must have been carved to be in a raised position, level with its head, so that when it fell, the wrists and neck hit the raised threshold of the doorway first before the rest of the idol hit the floor on its way down.
This cracked off the two "hands" of the Philistine fish-god, symbolizing its inability to do anything, and its head, symbolizing death (or at least capitulation), leaving nothing but the trunk or stump of the idol, which now had no more identifiably-personal features.
In the Jewish Soncino commentary on 1 Samuel, Rabbi Goldman wrote, “Probably the threshold [was that] of an inner chamber or recess in which Dagon stood… [T]he head and palms having rolled to the threshold… ‘only Dagon (i.e. the fish-part) was left of him.” [Remember, dag means “fish.”]
Keil and Delitzch, in their classic Old Testament commentary, made a big deal of the fact that Dagon’s head and hands were “cut” off, not “broken” off. They wrote, “[This] miracle was to show them the annihilation of their idol through the God of Israel, in such a way as to preclude every thought of accident.”
However, instead of fearing the LORD, they instead began fearing… that’s right, the DOOR THRESHOLD! The ancient Septuagint version explains that they would “step over” the threshold instead instead of stepping into the middle of the doorway. Oh the lengths to which men will go to avoid giving due respect to the true God!
The Philistines do, however, begin to show some respect to the ark that Eli and his sons had not shown. The Philistines are the only ones in 1 Samuel who call it “the ark of Yahweh.” Joshua and David are about the only other people in the Bible who ever call it that. The Philistines at least gave God the respect of finding out what His proper name was, and they used it.
But they continued to worship Dagon, verse 5 says, “to this very day” - whenever the account was written down by Samuel or edited to its final form during the events of King David’s reign that close the second book of Samuel. God revealed the truth to the Philistines that they were worshipping the wrong god, and, with the exception perhaps of whoever the Philistine was who gave the information for this chapter of the Bible to Samuel, the Philistines did not accept the truth; they kept avoiding Yahweh and worshipping Dagon.
In Zephaniah 1:9, around 630 B.C., reference is made to worshippers who “leap over the threshold.”
And we know from 1 Maccabes chapters 10-11 that there was still a temple where Dagon was worshipped in Ashdod around 150 B.C., when it was destroyed by the Jews.
Even after that, there is evidence that the Dagon superstition – at least of not stepping on the threshold – persisted into the second century A.D. in Gaza and perhaps other places4.
Now, judgment did not merely fall upon the Philistine idol; it also fell upon the Philistine people personally with increasing severity in each of the three Philistine towns that the ark was stationed – and not just upon those who lived within the city walls but also upon all who lived in the suburbs and farms round about each walled city. As the Puritan commentator Matthew Henry put it, “If conviction conquer not, destruction shall.”
Our English slang term "wasted" (as in "our football team wasted the other team") has Biblical roots! In this case, it was God employing sickness and plague to whup-up on those who had set themselves in opposition to Him.
The main Hebrew word describing this sickness is ‘afalim. Masorite scribes preferred to substitute that with the word techorim. As far as I can tell, both mean basically the same thing; my best guess is that the original word had an edge of indecency about it.
In verse 9 (and other places), the ancient Septuagint and Vulgate translations rendered this Hebrew word as “seats” or “privates.” In other words, some sort of disease that affected your bottom. (I might note that God also focused his punishment on the reproductive organs of the citizens of Gerar, when King Abimelek tried to take Abraham’s wife as his own. God shut down the womb of every woman in town until Abimelek restored Sarah unharmed to Abraham.)
Jewish commentators since the Middle Ages have suggest that it was the Bubonic Plague, which would fit all the things listed in this passage: mice, swellings, and death, and could have been communicated by rats arriving at the seaport.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Genevan and King James Bibles used a different word to translate this Hebrew word for God’s affliction upon the Philistines. They used the word "hemorrhoids," which doesn’t seem to be as serious a problem, but some commentators like Josephus5 thought it was coupled with a bowel disease like dissentery which would be serious.
However, English translations since the 1901 ASV have translated this Hebrew word as "tumors," as though it were some kind of cancer, and that’s a serious disease too.
The root meaning of the Hebrew word has to do with “swellings” or “bumps,” and it’s always used in the plural.
Should it suprise us that this word for “tumors” first appeared in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28, verse 27, as a covenant curse befalling those who disobey God! God has some nasty curses for those who, in the face of clear evidence, refuse to believe Him!
The Philistines figured out that it was the ark and the God of Israel that was wasting them. But, rather than internalizing that knowledge and seeking to appease and know this great God, they just wanted to get Him out of their lives. They were fearful, superstitious people, desperately trying to keep believing in their own little god.
“They do acknowledge the hand of God to be against them and their god Dagon: but this servile fear could not bring them to repentance: like as Pharaoh’s sorcerers confessed it was the finger of God, and as the Devils felt the power of God, when they said to Christ, ‘What have we to do with thee?’ After the same manner the Philistims here do confess God: and such is their blindnes, though they saw, that their god also was judged, yet they would not leave their filthy idolatrie.” ~Andrew Willet, 1607
What the folks in Ashdod say about it in vs.7-8 is very revealing: “We don’t even want the Israelite god in our museum if it’s going to conflict with our worship of Dagon. Our god is Dagon; we would never consider any other god, even if he proves to be more powerful than Dagon!”
So they send messengers to the other four city-states of Philistia asking each city to send its “Sar/leader/prince/governor/lord” to a council at the temple of Dagon on the coast. Once the council is gathered, the lord of Ashdod framed the reason for the gathering as deciding what to do about the ark.
The oldest manuscripts of v.8 (the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Dead Sea Scrolls) add a couple of little details that the traditional Hebrew text seems to have dropped out, so I incorporated them into my translation:
The lord of the city-state of Gath suggested that the ark be “sent around” to them. The verb they choose from the Hebrew root savav (which means “rotate”) makes it sound like the folks in Gath wanted to share the honor of displaying the ark in their own town, since their town had helped defeat the Israelites too. They seem worried that Ashdod might not be willing to share the triumph with the other Philistine cities of displaying the Israelite ark, so they suggest that the privilege should be “rotated” among their five cities, beginning with Gath, rather than being hoarded by the folks in Ashdod. Under the circumstances, Ashdod was only too happy to comply; so off the ark went to Gath!
Gath was four miles6 further inland from Ashdod, and when the ark arrived there,
they had the same trouble with swellings breaking out on people – especially in sensitive areas. And this affected everybody, “from small to great” – perhaps referring to all ages or to all social classes (Gill), but remember that this city was where Goliath came from, so perhaps the “big” men there were really giants!
In addition, a “very great destruction/confusion/panic” ensued. The hands of Dagon have been chopped off, but the “the hand of the LORD” shows up in Gath with the power to cause utter chaos.
The Hebrew word mahomah is not specific as to whether this panic was the people raising a general uproar over the disease outbreak or whether it was some sort of additional turmoil brought upon them, but either way, it should not surprise us that this “panic” was another one of the curses mentioned in Deuteronomy 28 that would befall those who disobey God.
The case can be made from verses 11 & 12 that whatever it was, it killed people.
Keil & Delitzsch also argue from chapter 6 that it also included the destruction of crops and famine.
So the citizens of Gath send the ark down the line to Ekron, the next Philistine city, even further inland, right on the border of Israel, only 22 miles from Jerusalem. Ekron was known for its production of olive oil. (Tsumara)
“‘As the ark moves on to Gath and then to Ekron, the story begins to read like a parody of a victory tour, in which the roles of victor and vanquished are reversed.’ This is certainly a triumphant march of the ark of Yahweh through enemy territory from one city to another.” ~Tsumura, quoting R.P. Gordon
So, imagine the plagued Gathites shuffling 10 miles painfully up the hill to the gate of Ekron, the city of Beelzebub, with their burden, the ark. The watchman leans over the city wall and his eyes go wide and he yells, “Hey, no way are we letting that thing into our city! What do you think you’re doing, trying to kill us or something?”
People hear him yelling and start gathering at the gate. “Our chiefs made the wrong decision a couple of months ago back on the coast. We’ve got to convene them again and figure out how to get rid of this problem for good! Send it back to Israel!”
People start dying and breaking out in swelling sores and hollering, and the chapter ends with pandemonium breaking loose in Ekron.
And I don’t think it was being heard by God.
“Going up to heaven” is never used in the Hebrew Bible to describe humans speaking to God, rather it is affirmed over and over in the Bible that humans can’t do anything that reaches up to heaven7.
In Ex. 2:23 and Psalm 18:6, this kind of outcry was heard by God, but it had been directed to “God,” not to the “heavens,” and that makes a big difference.
In this case, I think that “heavens” is just a Hebrew superlative that means the hollering in Ekron was was super-loud8.
The Philistines missed the whole point of the plague because their hearts were hardened, just as Pharoah’s heart was hardened in Egypt a couple hundred years before, and they chose the wrong solution.
The solution should have been to do what Ninevah would do a couple hundred years later after Jonah’s prophecy, that is, to repent of their worship of the impotent fish-god and seek a right relationship with the one true God.
Can you imagine what would have happened if the Philistines had decided to get rid of Dagon and dedicate their temple to Yahweh instead? The Palestinians would be God’s people instead of Israel! I can’t even imagine how different Palestine would be today. (Yes, “Philistine” is where the word “Palestine” comes from.) But they didn’t repent.
Instead they chose to send the presence of the God of Israel away from them. (A millennium later, the Gadarenes, on the other side of Israel, would send Jesus Himself away after He set in motion the destruction of their herd of pigs.) And in sending Him away, they sent away their only hope for eternal life.
God will not tolerate any gods beside Himself! His very first commandment was, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and He means it!
Just as God showed to Eli in the last chapter that He was not to be trifled with, so in this chapter, God is showing the Philistines that He was not to be used as a trophy or relegated to a museum. And, the scriptures tell us that “these things were written for our benefit” today.
The lesson for us is to repent of doing what they did.
Is there any way in which we also try to set up other things right next to God in importance in our lives?
God and Country.
God and Health.
God and Family.
God and Me (Me ‘n God).
Are there any ways that we, like the Philistines, try to use God as a display item?
when we relegate Him to Sunday morning and live the rest of our week for ourselves,
or when we display a Bible on our desk but never read it,
or when we use Christian jargon on social media to make people think a certain way about us when our heart is actually not focused on glorifying God,
or when we use prayer only to make our life more comfortable, not to further the kingdom of God.
In most of those cases, there’s a great big god called “self” sitting on the throne of your life, and God is not going to tolerate that.
Perhaps God is turning up the heat in your life over something you want which is not His will. You have been trying to keep that thing in your life alongside God, and God has seen to it that the stress in your life has increased. He does it to let you know He won’t tolerate the competition, but you’ve stubbornly clung to that thing because you can’t imagine life without that idol, anymore than the Philistines couldn’t imagine life without Dagon.
I keep in my office a poster containing a quote from the great 19th century missionary to China, Hudson Taylor. It reads, “The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will.” [Repeat for emphasis.]
Are you going to persist in holding on to your little god, like the Philistines held on to Dagon when confronted with the superior greateness of the one true God, or will you surrender your will to the God of the universe and trust Him to satisfy you?
Don’t pass up on your only hope for eternal life! Let go of idolatry and surrender to Jesus the Lord and only Savior.
Finally, have compassion on the nations lost in darkness.
Jesus said, “The harvest is great, but the workers few; beseech therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He thrust out laborers into His harvest.” (Matt. 9:37-38, NAW)
and “Go into all the world, making disciples...” (Matt. 28:19)
Who knows if the Palestinians will listen to you at the local university... or across the world on the West Bank, but, like the Apostle Philip, you just might find your Ethiopian Eunuch there, ready to receive Christ Jesus as Lord! (Acts 8)
Greek OT |
Brenton (LXX) |
DRB (Vulgate) |
KJV |
NAW |
MT |
1 Καὶ ἀλλόφυλοι ἔλαβον τὴν κιβωτὸν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ εἰσήνεγκαν αὐτὴν ἐξ ΑβεννεζερB εἰς Ἄζωτον. |
1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Abenezer to Azotus. |
1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and carried it from the Stone of help into Azotus. |
1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. |
1 So Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer toward Ashdod, |
א וּפְלִשְׁתִּים לָקְחוּ אֵת אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים וַיְבִאֻהוּ מֵאֶבֶן הָעֵזֶר אַשְׁדּוֹדָה. |
2 καὶ ἔλαβον ἀλλόφυλοι τὴν κιβωτὸν κυρίου καὶ εἰσήνεγκαν αὐτὴν εἰς οἶκον Δαγων καὶ παρέστησαν αὐτὴν παρὰ Δαγων. |
2 And the Philistines took the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. |
2 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the temple of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. |
2 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. |
2 and Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the temple of Dagon, and they set it beside Dagon. |
ב) וַיִּקְחוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים אֶת אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים וַיָּבִיאוּ אֹתוֹ בֵּית דָּגוֹן וַיַּצִּיגוּ אֹתוֹ אֵצֶל דָּגוֹן. |
3 καὶ ὤρθρισαν οἱ Ἀζώτιοι X [καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς οἶκον Δαγων καὶ εἶδον καὶ] ἰδοὺ Δαγων πεπτωκὼς X X ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον κιβωτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ· καὶ ἤγειραν τὸν Δαγων καὶ κατέστησαν εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτοῦ. [καὶ ἐβαρύνθη χεὶρ κυρίου ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἀζωτίους καὶ ἐβασάνισεν αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐπάταξεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὰς ἕδρας αὐτῶν, τὴν Ἄζωτον καὶ τὰ ὅρια αὐτῆς.] |
3 And the people of Azotus rose early X, [and entered into the house of Dagon; and looked, and] behold, Dagon had fallen on his face Χ Χ before the ark of the Lord: and they lifted up Dagon, and set him X in his place. [And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the Azotians, & he plagued them, and he smote them in their secret parts, Azotus and her coasts.] |
3
And when the Azotians arose early the next day,
behold Dagon |
3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. |
3 But the Ashdodites got up early on the next day and Look! Dagon falling on his face earthward before the ark of Yahweh! So they took Dagon and returned him to his position. |
(ג) וַיַּשְׁכִּמוּ אַשְׁדּוֹדִים מִמָּחֳרָת וְהִנֵּה דָגוֹן נֹפֵל לְפָנָיו אַרְצָה לִפְנֵי אֲרוֹן יְהוָה וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת דָּגוֹן וַיָּשִׁבוּ אֹתוֹ לִמְקוֹמוֹC. |
4 καὶ [ἐγένετο ὅτε] ὤρθρισαν τὸ πρωί XX, καὶ ἰδοὺ Δαγων πεπτωκὼς X X ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον κιβωτοῦ [διαθήκης] κυρίου, καὶ ἡ κεφαλὴ Δαγων καὶ ἀμφότερα τὰ ἴχνη χειρῶν αὐτοῦ [ἀφῃρημένα] ἐπὶ τὰ ἐμπρόσθια αμαφεθ ἕκαστον, [καὶ ἀμφότεροι οἱ καρποὶ τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ πεπτωκότες ἐπὶ τὸ πρόθυρον,] πλὴν ἡ [ῥάχις] Δαγων ὑπελείφθη. |
4 And [it came to pass when] they rose early in the morning, XX behold, Dagon had fallen X X on his face before the ark of [the covenant of] the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off [each] before the threshold[, and both the wrists of his hands had fallen on the floor of the porch]; only the [stump] of Dagon was left. |
4
And the next day again, when they rose X in the
morning, X |
4 And when they arose early on the morrow X X morning, X behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stumpD of Dagon was left to him. |
4. Then they got up early in the morning of the next day and Look! Dagon falling on his face earthward before the ark of Yahweh! And the head of Dagon and both of the palms of his hands were severed at the threshold; only the fish-part of him was left! |
(ד) וַיַּשְׁכִּמוּ בַבֹּקֶר מִמָּחֳרָת וְהִנֵּה דָגוֹן נֹפֵל לְפָנָיו אַרְצָה לִפְנֵי אֲרוֹן יְהוָה וְרֹאשׁ דָּגוֹן וּשְׁתֵּי כַּפּוֹת יָדָיו כְּרֻתוֹת אֶל הַמִּפְתָּן רַק דָּגוֹן נִשְׁאַר עָלָיו. |
5 διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐπιβαίνουσιν οἱ ἱερεῖς Δαγων καὶ πᾶς ὁ εἰσπορευόμενος εἰς οἶκον Δαγων ἐπὶ βαθμὸν οἴκου Δαγων ἐν Ἀζώτῳ ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης, [ὅτι ὑπερβαίνοντες ὑπερβαίνουσιν.] -- |
5 Therefore the priests of Dagon, and every one that enters into the house of Dagon, do not tread upon the threshold of the house of Dagon in Azotus until this day[, for they step over]. |
For this cause neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that go into the temple X X, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Azotus unto this day. |
5 Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. |
5 Therefore, to this day, priests of Dagon – and all those who go to the temple of Dagon in Ashdod – do not step upon the threshold of Dagon. |
(ה) עַל כֵּן לֹא יִדְרְכוּ כֹהֲנֵי דָגוֹן וְכָל הַבָּאִים בֵּית דָּגוֹן עַל מִפְתַּן דָּגוֹן בְּאַשְׁדּוֹד עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה. |
6 καὶ ἐβαρύνθη χεὶρ κυρίου ἐπὶ Ἄζωτον, καὶ ἐπήγαγενE αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐξέζεσεν αὐτοῖς εἰς τὰς ναῦςF, καὶ μέσον τῆς χώρας αὐτῆς [ἀνεφύησαν μύες, καὶ ἐγένετο σύγχυσις θανάτου μεγάλη ἐν τῇ πόλει.]G |
6 And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon Azotus, and he brought [evil] upon them, and it burst out upon them into the ships, [and mice sprang up] in the midst of their country,[ and there was a great and indiscriminate mortality in the city.] |
6 And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the Azotians, & he destroyed them, & afflicted Azotus & the coasts thereof with emerods. And in the villages [& fields in the midst of that country, there came forth a multitude of mice, & there was the confusion of a great mortality in the city.] |
6 But the hand of the LORD was heavy uponH them of Ashdod, and he destroyedI them, and smoteJ them with emerodsK, even Ashdod and the coastsL thereof. |
6 Also, the hand of Yahweh was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He laid waste to them and struck them – that is, Ashdod and her borderlands – with swellings. |
(ו) וַתִּכְבַּד יַד יְהוָה אֶל הָאַשְׁדּוֹדִים וַיְשִׁמֵּם וַיַּךְ אֹתָם בעפליםM אֶת אַשְׁדּוֹד וְאֶת גְּבוּלֶיהָ. |
7 καὶ εἶδον οἱ ἄνδρες Ἀζώτου ὅτι οὕτως, καὶ λέγουσιν ὅτι Οὐ καθήσεται κιβωτὸς τοῦ θεοῦ Ισραηλ μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν, ὅτι σκληρὰ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐπὶ Δαγων θεὸν ἡμῶν. |
7 And the men of Azotus saw that it was so, and they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god. |
7
And the men of Azotus seeing this kind [of
plague], X said: The ark of the God of Israel shall not |
7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was soN, X they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is soreO upon us, and upon Dagon our god. |
7 And the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, and they said, “The ark of the god of Israel should not reside with us, because its agency is firmly against us and against Dagon our god!” |
(ז) וַיִּרְאוּ אַנְשֵׁי אַשְׁדּוֹד כִּי כֵן וְאָמְרוּ לֹא יֵשֵׁב אֲרוֹן אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עִמָּנוּ כִּי קָשְׁתָה יָדוֹ עָלֵינוּ וְעַל דָּגוֹן אֱלֹהֵינוּ. |
8 καὶ ἀποστέλλουσιν καὶ συνάγουσιν X τοὺς σατράπας τῶν ἀλλοφύλων πρὸς αὐτοὺς καὶ λέγουσιν Τί ποιήσωμεν κιβωτῷ θεοῦ Ισραηλ; καὶ λέγουσιν οἱ Γεθθαῖοι Μετελθέτω κιβωτὸς τοῦ θεοῦ X X πρὸς ἡμᾶς· καὶ μετῆλθεν κιβωτὸς τοῦ θεοῦ X X εἰς Γεθθα. |
8 And they send and gather the lords of the Philistines to them, and say, What shall we do to the ark of the God of Israel? and the Gittites say, Let the ark of God X X come over to us; and the ark of the God of Israel came to Geth. |
8
And sending, they gathered together all the
lords of the Philistines to them, and said: What shall we do with
the ark of the God of Israel? And the Gethites
|
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 |
8 So they sent for - and gathered together to them - all the Philistine lords, and they said, “What should we do about the ark of the god of Israel?” And the Gathites said, “They should turn over the ark of the God of Israel to us!” So they sent the ark of the god of Israel around to Gath. |
(ח) וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ וַיַּאַסְפוּ אֶת כָּל סַרְנֵיQ פְלִשְׁתִּים אֲלֵיהֶם וַיֹּאמְרוּ מַה נַּעֲשֶׂה לַאֲרוֹן אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמְרוּ גַּתR יִסֹּבS אֲרוֹן אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵלT וַיַּסֵּבּוּ אֶת אֲרוֹן אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵלU. |
9 καὶ ἐγενήθη μετὰ τὸ μετελθεῖν αὐτὴν καὶ γίνεται χεὶρ κυρίου ἐν τῇ πόλει, τάραχος μέγας σφόδρα, καὶ ἐπάταξεν τοὺς ἄνδρας τῆς πόλεως ἀπὸ μικροῦ ἕως μεγάλου καὶ ἐπάταξενV αὐτοὺς εἰς τὰς ἕδραςW αὐτῶν[, καὶ ἐποίησαν ἑαυτοῖς οἱ Γεθθαῖοι ἕδρας]. |
9 And it came to pass after it went about [to Geth], that the hand of the Lord comes upon the city, a very great confusion; and he smote the men of the city small and great, and smote them in their secret parts: [and the Gittites made to themselves images of emerods]. |
9
And |
9 And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, X the hand of the LORD was against the city [with] a very great destructionX: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. |
9 And it happened after they sent it around, that the hand of Yahweh brought about a really big panic in that city, and He struck the men of the city from the smallest person even to greatest person so that swellings erupted on them. |
(ט) וַיְהִי אַחֲרֵי הֵסַבּוּ אֹתוֹY וַתְּהִי יַד יְהוָה בָּעִיר מְהוּמָה גְּדוֹלָה מְאֹד וַיַּךְ אֶת אַנְשֵׁי הָעִיר מִקָּטֹן וְעַד גָּדוֹל וַיִּשָּׂתְרוּ לָהֶם עפליםZ. |
10 καὶ ἐξαποστέλλουσιν τὴν κιβωτὸν τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς Ἀσκαλῶνα, καὶ ἐγενήθη ὡς εἰσῆλθεν κιβωτὸς θεοῦ εἰς Ἀσκαλῶνα, καὶ ἐβόησαν οἱ Ἀσκαλωνῖται λέγοντες Τί ἀπεστρέψατε πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὴν κιβωτὸν τοῦ θεοῦ Ισραηλ θανατῶσαι ἡμᾶς καὶ τὸν λαὸν ἡμῶν; |
10 And they send away the ark of God to Ascalon; and it came to pass when the ark of God went into Ascalon, that the men of Ascalon cried out, saying, Why have ye brought back the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people? |
10 Therefore they sent the ark of God into Accaron. And X when the ark of God was come into Accaron, X the Accaronites cried out, saying: They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people. |
10 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. |
10 So they sent off the ark of God to Ekron, but what happened, as the ark of God was coming to Ekron, was that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “What? Have y’all sent the ark of the god of Israel around to me to kill me and my people?!” |
(י) וַיְשַׁלְּחוּ אֶת אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִיםAA עֶקְרוֹן וַיְהִי כְּבוֹא אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים עֶקְרוֹן וַיִּזְעֲקוּ הָעֶקְרֹנִים לֵאמֹר AB הֵסַבּוּ אֵלַי אֶת אֲרוֹן אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לַהֲמִיתֵנִי וְאֶת עַמִּי. |
11 καὶ ἐξαποστέλλουσιν καὶ συνάγουσιν X τοὺς σατράπας τῶν ἀλλοφύλων καὶ εἶπον Ἐξαποστείλατε τὴν κιβωτὸν τοῦ θεοῦ Ισραηλ, καὶ καθισάτω εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς καὶ οὐ μὴ θανατώσῃ ἡμᾶς καὶ τὸν λαὸν ἡμῶν· ὅτι ἐγενήθη σύγχυσιςAC θανάτου ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ πόλει βαρεῖα σφόδρα, ὡς εἰσῆλθεν κιβωτὸς θεοῦ [Ισραηλ] ἐκεῖ, |
11 And they send and gather X the lords of the Philistines, and they said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it lodge in its place; and let it not slay us and our people. 12 For there was a very great confusion in all the city, when the ark of the God [of Israel] entered there; |
11 They sent therefore, and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines: and they said: Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return into its own place, and not kill us and our people. 12 For there was the fear of death in every city, and the hand of God was exceeding heavy. |
11 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. |
11 And they sent for and gathered together the Philistine lords and said, “Send away the ark of the god of Israel, and let it go back to its place so it doesn’t kill us and our people!” It was so serious when the ark of God came there, that there was a deadly panic throughout all the city. |
יא וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ וַיַּאַסְפוּ אֶת כָּלAD סַרְנֵי פְלִשְׁתִּים וַיֹּאמְרוּ שַׁלְּחוּ אֶת אֲרוֹן אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיָשֹׁב לִמְקֹמוֹ וְלֹא יָמִית אֹתִי וְאֶת עַמִּיAE כִּי הָיְתָה מְהוּמַת מָוֶתAF בְּכָל הָעִיר כָּבְדָה מְאֹד יַדAG הָאֱלֹהִים שָׁםAH. |
12 [καὶ οἱ ζῶντες] καὶ οὐκ ἀποθανόντες ἐπλήγησαν εἰς τὰς ἕδραςAI, καὶ ἀνέβη ἡ κραυγὴ τῆς πόλεως εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν. |
and those, [who lived and] died not were smitten with emerods; and the cry of the city went up to heaven. |
The men also that did not die, were afflicted with the emerods: and the cry of every city went up to heaven. |
12 And the men that died not were smittenAJ with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven. |
12 And the men who didn’t die were stricken with swellings. And the hollering of the city went up to the heavens! |
(יב) וְהָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר לֹא מֵתוּ הֻכּוּ בעפלים AK וַתַּעַל שַׁוְעַת הָעִיר הַשָּׁמָיִםAL. |
1An estimation by a man named Bunting quoted by John Gill in his commentary.
2Some commentators debate the fish connection and suggest that the name ‘dagon’ was instead related to grain (Tsumura, Gill) , but I haven’t found their arguments convincing.
3“Since Dagon is Semitic and the Philistines were not, they presumably adopted Dagon sometime after their arrival, but how soon is not known.” ~Tsumura
4Tsumura quoted McCarter quoting a 1964 paper by M. Delcour on this: Jahweh et Dagon ou le Jahwisme face a la religion des Philistines d’apres 1 Sam V
5Antiquities. l. 6. c. 1. sect. 1
6Again, computed by Bunting and quoted by Gill.
7Deut. 30:12; Job 20:6; Ps. 107:26; Prov. 30:4; Isa. 14:13; Jer. 51:53, Amos 9:2
8Cf.
Henry: "'the cry went up to heaven,' that is, it might be heard
a great way off…"
Cf. Gill: “up
to heaven; not that it was heard and
regarded there, but the phrase is used to denote the greatness of
it, how exceeding loud and clamorous it was...”
AMy
original chart includes the NASB and NIV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. I have included the ESV in
footnotes when it employs a word not already used by the KJV, NASB,
or NIV. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scroll containing any part of 1 Samuel 2 is 4Q51Samuela,
which contains fragments of vs. 1-10 and 16-36 (highlighted in
purple), and which has been dated between 50-25 B.C. Where the DSS
supports the LXX with text not in the MT, I have highlighted
with yellow the LXX and its translation into English.
BAquila & Theodotian, Jewish translators of the OT into Greek in the first couple of centuries AD chose to translate (Αq. & Θ = λιθου της βοηθειας) rather than transliterate (LXX = Αβενεζερ) this place-name.
CThe LXX adds a sentence which is an almost-exact match to the entirety of v.6, but it’s not in the Vulgate. Unfortunately, no DSS of this verse has survived for comparison. But since the extra statement in the LXX is repeated in v.6, it doesn’t actually add anything to the story.
DNASB & ESV = “trunk” NIV = “body” following the LXX. MT = “only Dagon remained”
EAquilla’s Greek version (& Theodotion’s) is more like the MT εφαγεδαινισεν “divinely consumed”
FAq. (επαταξεν αυτους εν ταις ‘εδραις) & Sym. (επληξεν αυτους κατα των κρθπτων) are more like the MT
G“neither the Syriac nor Targum Jonath. has this clause” ~K&D
HESV = against (also in v.7)
INASB = “ravaged,” NIV = “brought devastation upon,” ESV = “terrified”
JNIV & ESV = “afflicted”
KLXX = “ships” NASB, NIV, ESV = “tumors” (also in v.12)
LLXX
= “country,” NASB/ESV = “territories,”
NIV = “vicinity”
MQere is בַּטְּחֹרִים (“in the hemhorroids /tumors”) There are only two places in the Hebrew Bible where this alternate word occurs in the original, and that is 1 Sam. 6:11&17, where the Philistines make images of this affliction. In 6 other places in the Hebrew Bible, Masorite scribes also suggested this word be substituted for *עפל (Deut. 28:27; 1 Sam. 5:9, 12; 6:4-5). The Deuteronomy passage is a prophecy of this disease as a covenant curse befalling those who disobey God.
NNIV = “what was happening” ESV = “how things were”
ONASB = “severe,” NIV = “heavy,” ESV = “hard”
PNASB/ESV
= “brought around,” NIV = “moved”
(also in v.9)
QGoldman and Tsumura commented that this word is not Hebrew but Philistine.
RDSS has extra room in this obliterated part to support extra letters that would turn “Gath” into “Gathites,” which is the reading of the LXX and Vulgate. The location of this word in the plural after the verb “they said” also would fit Hebrew grammar better than would the placement of a place name (without any preposition or directional He) as an indirect object at the beginning of a sentence, as the MT has it. The location of the city of Gath is the subject of some debate. Tsumura favored Rainey’s identification of it with “Tel es-Safi on the southern bank of Wadi Elah, where it enters the Shephelah… about 12 miles east of Ashdod and about 6 miles west of Asekah.”
SDSS adds a vav to the end of this word, making it plural, “Let them rotate...” It also has a word between “rotate” and “ark” which starts with an aleph, presumably the sign of the direct object, which would make no difference in translation. The choice of the word “rotate/send around” could perhaps connote that the carrier route to Gath was circutious (the position Gill took), but I think it more likely that it connotes that some sort of rotation among the pentapolis was intended.
TDSS has extra space in this obliterated section to support the LXX “to us.”
UDSS has the letter gimmel after “Israel” followed by obliterated text, matching the LXX “to Gath.”
VΑq. = περιλυθησαν
WAq. supported the LXX, but Σ. rendered it Κρυπτα/ων (“privates”)
XNASB = “confusion,” NIV/ESV = “panic” (also in v.11)
YI’m not sure why scholars believe that the DSS reads “to Gath” here instead of “it,” for, as best I can tell, there is no DSS with this part of this verse legible, and the word spacing would be about the same. Perhaps because the Lucian rescension of the LXX reads προς τους Γεθθαιοθς (“to Gath”)?
ZQere is טְחֹרִים (see M above)
AADSS adds “of Israel,” but it’s not in the LXX or Vulgate (although it is in the Lucian rescension of the Greek). It makes no change in meaning, seeing as it has already occurred.
ABDSS & LXX begin this quote with “Why...” and there is a tav followed by obliterated letters at the end of the ensuing verb, matching the 2nd person plural in the LXX.
ACΑq. = φαγεδαινα (“supernatural consuming disease”?), Σ. = ταραχη (“irritation”), Θ. = εκστασις (“dysfunction”)
ADThere is not enough space in this obliterated section of the DSS to support all the words in the MT. This supports the omission of “all” in the LXX. It doesn’t change the story, though.
AEUnlike the MT singular suffixes “me and my,” the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate all read plural “us and our.” The DSS is obliterated at this point, but there is extra space on the line for the two extra letters this would require.
AFDSS reads “confusion of Yahweh,” but LXX and Vulgate support the MT “deadly confusion.”
AGDSS is obliterated here, but has too much space for the wording of the MT, supporting the longer reading of the LXX, “when came the ark...” There may or may not be enough space for “of Israel” in the DSS lacuna.
AHDSS ends this word with a directional he
AIΑq. φαγεδαινης εσχηκασιν ελκος (“on account of the supernatural consuming disease, they having had a wound”)
AJNIV = “afflicted,” ESV = “struck”
AKQere is בַּטְּחֹרִים (see M above)
ALKittel noted that some Hebrew manuscripts end this word with a directional he “heavenward.”