1 Samuel 5:5

Contextual Overview

¹ Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod. ¹ After the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they took it from the battleground at Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod. ¹ Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Eben–ezer unto Ashdod. ¹ After the Philistines had captured the Ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ¹ Now the Philistines had captured the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ¹ And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod. ¹ Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod. ¹Then the Philistines took the ark of God, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ¹ When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ¹ Forsothe Filisteis token the arke of God, and baren awey it fro the stoon of help in to Azotus.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

neither: Psalms 115:4-7, Psalms 135:15-18

tread: Joshua 5:15, Zephaniah 1:9

Reciprocal: Genesis 32:32 - eat not Exodus 20:23 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Genesis 3:19
in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground; for out of it were you taken: for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.

Genesis 3:19
You will sweat and work hard for your food. Later you will return to the ground, because you were taken from it. You are dust, and when you die, you will return to the dust."

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return."

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou shalt return to the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and to dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Genesis 3:19
"By the sweat of your face You will eat bread Until you return to the ground, For from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."

Genesis 3:19
in swoot of thi cheer thou schalt ete thi breed, til thou turne ayen in to the erthe of which thou art takun; for thou art dust, and thou schalt turne ayen in to dust.

Genesis 3:19
by the sweat of thy face thou dost eat bread till thy return unto the ground, for out of it hast thou been taken, for dust thou [art], and unto dust thou turnest back.'

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground-because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house,.... Neither the priests that continually attended the worship and service of Dagon, nor the people that came there to pay their devotions to him:

tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day: but used to leap over it, either reckoning it sacred because touched by their idol, which fell upon it; or rather, as it should seem, in a way of detestation, because it had been the means of cutting off the head and hands of their idol; and this custom not only continued to the latter days of Samuel, the writer of this book; but even among the Philistines in one place or another to the times of Zephaniah, who seems to allude to it, Zephaniah 1:9. In later times there was another deity worshipped at Ashdod; according to Masius s, the Philistine Venus, or Astarte, was worshipped in this place; though perhaps she may be no other than Atergatis, or Adergatis, which with Selden t is only a corruption of Addir-dag, the magnificent fish, in which form Dagon is supposed to be; so the Phoenician goddess Derceto, worshipped at Ashkelon had the face of a woman, and the other part was all fish; though Ben Gersom says Dagon was in the form of a man, and which is confirmed by the Complutensian edition of the Septuagint, which on 1 Samuel 5:4 reads, "the soles of his feet were cut off"; which is a much better reading than the common one, "the soles of his hands", which is not sense; by which it appears that he had head, hands, and feet; wherefore it seems most likely that he had his name from Dagon, signifying corn:

1 Samuel 5:4- :.

s Comment. in Jos. xv. 47. t De Dis. Syr. Syntagu. l. 2. c. 3. p. 267.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This custom still existed among the worshippers of Dagon so late as the reign of Josiah (see the marginal reference).

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 5:5. Tread on the threshold — Because the arms, c., of Dagon were broken off by his fall on the threshold, the threshold became sacred, and neither his priests nor worshippers ever tread on the threshold. Thus it was ordered, in the Divine providence, that, by a religious custom of their own, they should perpetuate their disgrace, the insufficiency of their worship, and the superiority of the God of Israel.

It is supposed that the idolatrous Israelites, in the time of Zephaniah, had adopted the worship of Dagon: and that in this sense 1 Samuel 1:9 is to be understood: In the same day will I punish all those who leap upon the threshold. In order to go into such temples, and not tread on the threshold, the people must step or leap over them and in this way the above passage may be understood. Indeed, the thresholds of the temples in various places were deemed so sacred that the people were accustomed to fall down and kiss them. When Christianity became corrupted, this adoration of the thresholds of the churches took place.