1 Samuel 5:3
New International Version
When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place.

New Living Translation
But when the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front of the Ark of the LORD! So they took Dagon and put him in his place again.

English Standard Version
And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.

Berean Standard Bible
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again.

New American Standard Bible
When the Ashdodites got up early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.

NASB 1995
When the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again.

NASB 1977
When the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, and behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again.

Amplified Bible
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

Christian Standard Bible
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

American Standard Version
And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And the Ashdodites arose the day after, and they found Dagun thrown on his face on the ground before the Ark of God, and they took Dagun and they set him on his place

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And the people of Azotus rose early, and entered into the house of Dagon; and looked, and behold, Dagon had fallen on his face before the ark of the Lord: and they lifted up Dagon, and set him in his place. And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the Azotians, and he plagued them, and he smote them in their secret parts, Azotus and her coasts.

Contemporary English Version
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, they found the statue lying facedown on the floor in front of the sacred chest. They put the statue back where it belonged.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when the Azotians arose early the next day, behold Dagon lay upon his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord: and they took Dagon, and set him again in his place.

English Revised Version
And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Early the next day the people of Ashdod saw that Dagon had fallen forward on the ground in front of the LORD's ark. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.

Good News Translation
Early the next morning the people of Ashdod saw that the statue of Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground in front of the LORD's Covenant Box. So they lifted it up and put it back in its place.

International Standard Version
When the people of Ashdod got up the next morning, there was Dagon, lying on the ground in front of the Ark of the LORD. They took Dagon and put him back in his place.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

Literal Standard Version
And the Ashdodites rise early on the next day, and behold, Dagon is fallen on its face to the earth, before the Ark of YHWH; and they take Dagon, and put it back in its place.

Majority Standard Bible
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

New American Bible
When the people of Ashdod rose early the next morning, Dagon was lying face down on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they picked Dagon up and put him back in his place.

NET Bible
When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.

New Revised Standard Version
When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.

New Heart English Bible
And the Ashdodites rose early on the next day, and look, Dagon had fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they raised up Dagon and set him in his place again.

Webster's Bible Translation
And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon had fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

World English Bible
When the people of Ashdod arose early on the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before Yahweh’s ark. They took Dagon and set him in his place again.

Young's Literal Translation
And the Ashdodites rise early on the morrow, and lo, Dagon is fallen on its face to the earth, before the ark of Jehovah; and they take Dagon, and put it back to its place.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Ark Afflicts the Philistines
2carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue. 3When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place. 4But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained.…

Cross References
1 Samuel 6:5
Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land.

Isaiah 19:1
This is the burden against Egypt: Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud; He is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him, and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.

Isaiah 40:20
To one bereft of an offering who chooses wood that will not rot, who seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple?

Isaiah 46:1
Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.

Isaiah 46:2
The gods cower; they crouch together, unable to relieve the burden; but they themselves go into captivity.

Isaiah 46:7
They lift it to their shoulder and carry it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands, not budging from that spot. They cry out to it, but it does not answer; it saves no one from his troubles.


Treasury of Scripture

And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

Dagon was

Exodus 12:12
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

Psalm 97:7
Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

Isaiah 19:1
The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

set him

Isaiah 19:1
The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

Isaiah 40:20
He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.

Isaiah 41:7
So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

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1 Samuel 5
1. The Philistines having brought the ark into Ashdod, set it in the house Dagon
3. Dagon is smitten down and cut and cut in pieces,
5. and they of Ashdod smitten with tumors
8. So God deals with them of Gath, when it was brought thither
10. and so with them of Ekron, when it was brought thither














(3) 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, "corn," and supposes the worship to have been connected with Nature worship. The true derivation, however, is from Dag, a fish, which represents the sea from which the Philistines drew their wealth and power. In one of the bas-reliefs discovered at Khorsabad, and which, Layard states, represents the war of an Assyrian king--probably Sargon--with the inhabitants of the coast of Syria, a figure is seen swimming in the sea, with the upper part of the body resembling a bearded man wearing the ordinary conical tiara of royalty, adorned with elephants' tusks, and the lower part re sembling the body of a fish. It has the hand lifted up, as if in astonishment or fear, and is surrounded by fishes, crabs, and other marine animals.

"There can be hardly any doubt," argues Keil, "that we have here a representation of the Philistine Dagon. This deity was a personification of the generative and vivifying principle of nature, for which the fish, with its innumerable multiplication, was specially adapted, and set forth the idea of the Giver of all earthly good."

This strange image the men of Ashdod, on the morrow of their triumphal offering of the Ark of the Lord before the idol shrine, found prostrate on the temple floor, before the desecrated sacred coffer of the Israelites.

They at once assumed that this had taken place owing to some accident, and they raised again the image to its place.

Verses 3, 4. - On the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of Jehovah. I.e. he was in the attitude of adoration, and instead of triumphing over Jehovah, he was prostrate, as if compelled to worship. But his priests perhaps thought that it was an accident, and so they set the image in its place again. They also, we may be sure, took due precaution against any one entering his temple by stealth; but when early on the second morning they came with anxious minds to see whether any new prodigy had happened, they found their god not only prostrate, as before, but mutilated, and his head and both the palms of his hands were cut off - not broken off by the fall of the image from its place, but severed with deliberate care, and placed contemptuously upon the threshold, i.e. upon the door sill, the place where all must tread. Only Dagon was left to him. We cannot in English render the full contemptuousness of this phrase, because Dagon is to us a mere proper name, with no significance. In the original it conveys the idea that the head, the emblem of reason, and the human hands, the emblems of intellectual activity, were no real parts of Dagon, but falsely assumed by him; and, deprived of them, he lay there in his true ugliness, a mere misshapen fish; for dag, as we have seen, means a fish, and Dagon is here a diminutive of contempt. In spite of his discomfiture the Philistines were tree to their allegiance to their god, because, believing as they did in "gods many," he was still their own national deity, even though he had been proved inferior to the God of Israel, and would probably be rendered more particular and exacting as regards the homage due to him from his own subjects by so humiliating a defeat. For the gods of the heathen were jealous, fickle, and very ill tempered if any slight was put upon them. After all, perhaps they thought, he had done his best, and though worsted in the personal conflict, he had managed so cleverly that they had gained in fair fight a great victory.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
When the people of Ashdod
אַשְׁדּוֹדִים֙ (’aš·dō·w·ḏîm)
Noun - proper - masculine plural
Strong's 796: Ashdodites -- an inhabitant of Ashdod

got up early
וַיַּשְׁכִּ֤מוּ (way·yaš·ki·mū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 7925: To load up, to start early in the morning

the next morning,
מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת (mim·mā·ḥo·rāṯ)
Preposition-m | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4283: The morrow, tomorrow

there
וְהִנֵּ֣ה (wə·hin·nêh)
Conjunctive waw | Interjection
Strong's 2009: Lo! behold!

was Dagon,
דָג֗וֹן (ḏā·ḡō·wn)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1712: Dagon -- a god and an idol of the Philistines

fallen
נֹפֵ֤ל (nō·p̄êl)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 5307: To fall, lie

on his face
לְפָנָיו֙ (lə·p̄ā·nāw)
Preposition-l | Noun - common plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 6440: The face

before
לִפְנֵ֖י (lip̄·nê)
Preposition-l | Noun - common plural construct
Strong's 6440: The face

the ark
אֲר֣וֹן (’ă·rō·wn)
Noun - common singular construct
Strong's 727: A chest, ark

of the LORD.
יְהוָ֑ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

So they took
וַיִּקְחוּ֙ (way·yiq·ḥū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 3947: To take

Dagon
דָּג֔וֹן (dā·ḡō·wn)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1712: Dagon -- a god and an idol of the Philistines

and returned
וַיָּשִׁ֥בוּ (way·yā·ši·ḇū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 7725: To turn back, in, to retreat, again

him
אֹת֖וֹ (’ō·ṯōw)
Direct object marker | third person masculine singular
Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case

to his place.
לִמְקוֹמֽוֹ׃ (lim·qō·w·mōw)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 4725: A standing, a spot, a condition


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OT History: 1 Samuel 5:3 When they of Ashdod arose early (1Sa iSam 1 Sam i sa)
1 Samuel 5:2
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