CHAPTER 5

(1141 B.C.)

THE ARK OF GOD

¹And the Philistines took the Ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod. (The Ark of God would not be a blessing to unrepentant Israel, but it would be a curse to the mocking Philistines. We will learn from this Chapter that God rules all.)

²When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. (The Philistines, knowing nothing about the ways of God, would automatically think that Israel was defeated because their god Dagon was more powerful than Israels God, Who was represented by the Ark. Unfortunately, unregenerate men always make ridiculous judgments regarding God [I Cor. 2:14]. This so-called god, Dagon, was portrayed as a man to the waist and with the tail of a fish. The Philistines putting the Ark of the Covenant by this fish-god Dagon 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.)

³And 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 (the priests of Dagon) took Dagon, and set him in his place again. (At Ashdod, one of the five main cities of Philistia, there was a temple of Dagon, the national god. Their god falling over was a way of God telling the Philistines that every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess [Rom. 14:11]. There is only one God, and all others that call themselves god, in effect, are no gods at all. They are actually representatives of demon spirits, exactly as false religions fall into the same category presently.)

⁴And when they arose early on the morrow morning, 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 stump of Dagon was left to him (by severing the head and the hands, the Lord was telling the Philistines that their god had no power against Him).

⁵Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any who come into Dagons house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day (apparently, the Books of Samuel were written some time after the events recorded in them took place).

⁶But the Hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and He destroyed them, and smote them with emerods (skin tumors), even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.

JUDGMENT

⁷And 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. (Williams says, It is not at all a pleasant thing for the people of this world to have God in their midst. He keeps up a perpetual controversy with their sins and their idolatries; and as the Philistines were not willing to become His People, they determined that the best thing they could do was to get rid of Him. In fact, that attitude has not changed, being the spirit of society presently.)

⁸They 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 (in their superstition, they evidently thought that possibly a change of cities in Philistia would solve their problems; they were to find out differently).

⁹And 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 (the idea seems to be that the tumors buried themselves deep in the flesh and, becoming thus incurable, ended in causing the death of the sufferers).

EKRON

¹⁰Therefore they sent the Ark of God to Ekron (another Philistine city). 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 kill us and our people. (It is strange that they saw the great Power of God, but still would not yield to Him. The only thought was, Get rid of the Ark.)

¹¹So 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 kill us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the Hand of God was very heavy there (deadly destruction, in the Hebrew, refers to many who were dying, and many who had died).

¹²And the men who died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to Heaven.