Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 5:7
And 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.
7. is sore ] i.e. severe.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 7. His hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.] Here the end was completely answered: they now saw that they had not prevailed against Israel, on account of their god being more powerful than Jehovah; and they now feel how easily this God can confound and destroy their whole nation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
7. the ark of God shall not abidewith usIt was removed successively to several of the largetowns of the country, but the same pestilence broke out in everyplace and raged so fiercely and fatally that the authorities wereforced to send the ark back into the land of Israel [1Sa5:8-10].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so,…. That many of their inhabitants were taken away by death, and others afflicted with a painful disease; all which they imputed to the ark being among them:
they said, the ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us; like the Gergesenes, who besought Christ to depart their coasts, having more regard for their swine than for him:
for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon, our god, not the hand of the ark, unless they took it for a god, but the hand of the God of Israel; in this they were right, and seem to have understood the case better than the other lords they after consulted; his hand was upon Dagon, as appeared his fall before the ark, and upon them by smiting with the haemorrhoids, the memory of which abode with the Philistines for ages afterwards; for we are told w that the Scythians, having plundered the temple of Venus at Ashkelon, one of their five principalities, the goddess inflicted upon them the female disease, or the haemorrhoids; which shows that it was thought to be a disease inflicted by way of punishment for sacrilege, and that it was still remembered what the Philistines suffered for a crime of the like nature.
w Herodot. Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 105.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ When the Ashdodites saw that it was so,” they were unwilling to keep the ark of the God of Israel any longer, because the hand of Jehovah lay heavy upon them and their god Dagon; whereupon the princes of the Philistines ( , as in Jos 13:3, etc.) assembled together, and came to the resolution to “ let the ark of the God of Israel turn (i.e., be taken) to Gath ” (1Sa 5:8). The princes of the Philistines probably imagined that the calamity which the Ashdodites attributed to the ark of God, either did not proceed from the ark, i.e., from the God of Israel, or if actually connected with the presence of the ark, simply arose from the fact that the city itself was hateful to the God of the Israelites, or that the Dagon of Ashdod was weaker than the Jehovah of Israel: they therefore resolved to let the ark be taken to Gath in order to pacify the Ashdodites. According to our account, the city of Gath seems to have stood between Ashdod and Akron (see at Jos 13:3).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Ark in Gath, 1Sa. 5:7-9
7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that is 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.
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 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.
9 And 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.
5.
Where was Gath? 1Sa. 5:8
Gath was also one of the cities of the Philistine pentapolis. The name means wine press. The site has not been uncovered, and the city probably disappeared because of the disaster hinted at in Amo. 6:2. Many archaeologists favor a site at Telles-Safiyeh; ten miles east of Ashdod and ten miles southeast of Ekron. The Crusaders stopped here, and Richard the Lionhearted made his raids on caravans near Beersheba from this point. The city was the nearest of the large Philistine towns to Hebrew territory. It is known as the home of Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Achish was king of the city at the time of David and befriended him during Sauls persecution. David later captured the city (1Ch. 18:1).
6.
What were Emerods? 1Sa. 5:9
The Hebrew word signifies a tumor (Deu. 28:27). An affliction of emerods was considered a painful disease. It was especially promoted by the sedentary habits of the Orientals and hence very common among them. Although the affliction is rather easily cured by the advanced skill of the Western people, the popular medicine of the East had no cure for it. It was therefore a very terrible visitation. The affliction struck the men in their secret parts and made them very uncomfortable.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
7. The ark shall not abide with us To idolaters, whether they be Israelitish or Philistine, Jehovah’s presence is a fearful scourge, and in idolatry they can have ease only by sending Him away.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 5:7 And 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.
Ver. 7. The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us. ] They should have rather parted with their sins, than with the ark: and have said unto their idols, “Get ye hence,” as Isa 30:22 . What have we to do any more with Dagon, who cannot save himself, much less us, from the divine vengeance? Wicked men are upon all occasions glad to be rid of God and his ark, his ordinances, which they, Philistine-like, have rather as prisoners than as privileges, rather in testimonium et ruinam quam salutem, for an utter mischief.
For his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
men. Hebrew. “enosh. App-14. Ill.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
saw: 1Sa 4:8, Exo 8:8, Exo 8:28, Exo 9:28, Exo 10:7, Exo 12:33
The ark: 1Sa 6:20, 2Sa 6:9, 1Ch 13:11-13, 1Ch 15:13
upon Dagon our god: 1Sa 5:3, 1Sa 5:4, Jer 46:25, Jer 48:7
Reciprocal: 1Sa 5:6 – the hand 1Sa 6:3 – known 1Sa 6:5 – off your Psa 32:4 – hand Psa 44:2 – how thou didst afflict Eze 39:21 – and my
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE FISH-GOD
Dagon our god.
1Sa 5:7
I. The possession of the ark proved to be a curse rather than a blessing to the Philistines.This was because God, for whose presence the ark stood, was not given His proper place. They placed the ark beside the image of their god, which fell prostrate before the ark, as if to show them the position which they should take before the God of Israel. The Philistines determined to have Dagon as well as the ark, and so they set him up again.
Many people around us to-day would give God second place in their hearts if their idols might remain. But that cannot be. There must be a choiceGod or idolsnot both.
II. The next morning the Philistines found their idol again fallen before the ark, with his head and hands off.Therefore they would not have the ark abide with them, but sent it first to one place, and then to another, taking destruction wherever it went. After it had been seven months in their country, the Philistines determined to send it back to the Israelites. The ark was received by the people of Beth-shemesh; but when God smote the men of that city for having looked into the ark, they sent it to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, who took it to the house of Abinadab, where it remained a long time.
The priests of Beth-shemesh must have known that even the Levites were forbidden to look upon the furniture of the Holy of Holies upon pain of death (Num 4:19-20), but instead of hastening to cover it with befitting reverence, they left it exposed to the public gaze, and brought down a judgment which was intended to vindicate the holiness of Jehovah.
Illustrations
(1) If in our hearts there is some Dagon idol, before which we have prostrated ourselves, let us bring in the ark of the God of Israel. Surely no evil thing can stand against the entrance of the Redeemer. It must fall down before Him, and be broken. Those who cannot cast down Dagon before introducing the ark, should introduce the ark, and Dagon will fall down by himself. The idols He shall utterly abolish.
(2) In the Books of Samuel and the Kings it is the presence or the absence of the ark which justifies everything that is normal and sufficiently explains everything that is abnormal in the history. Whether at Shiloh, or in the hands of the Philistines, at Kirjath-jearim or on Mount Zion, it is everywhere and always the ark of the covenant, the silent witness from the period of the exodus. There is but one such ark in Israelitish history, and it renders that history in its main features, especially in its characteristics religious features, indivisible and unimpeachable. The secret of the books is the secret of the ark which stored them, and between whose cherubim dwelt Jehovah of hosts.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Sa 5:7-8. The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us Now their eyes were opened to see that, though they had vanquished the Israelites, they could not stand before the God of Israel. Let the ark be carried to Gath They seem to have been possessed with a superstitious conceit that there was something in the place which was offensive to the God of Israel, and therefore removed the ark from Ashdod, to which and its coasts they supposed the plague, for some particular reasons, was confined. Or they thought it had come upon them by chance, or for putting the ark into Dagons temple, which they resolved they would not do.