And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod.
The ark of God — the gold-covered chest that stood for His presence among Israel — has just fallen to the Philistines in battle. This verse follows it out of Israel and into enemy hands, and it raises a hard question: what happens to God's honour when His people have thrown it away?
The Philistines carried the ark off as their trophy. But one commentator traces the loss further back than the battlefield, to the idolatry of the people themselves.
It was not the skill or bravery of the Philistines, as they might wrongly suppose. It was God Himself who deliberately "delivered His strength into captivity." The writer of 1 Samuel tells us nothing of "high places" and "graven images." But God, through the psalmist, has it recorded that it was for their idolatry that "He was angry and greatly abhorred Israel" — not only because of the wickedness of their priests.
C Knapp (the quoted words follow an older translation)
The ark had been in Israel's keeping. That the enemy could now find lodging for it in a pagan temple shows how little care they gave it.
Here we see the sad and humiliating result of Israel's unfaithfulness. How careless their hands, how faithless their hearts, that the ark of God could ever end up lodged in the temple of Dagon! How deeply Israel had failed! They had let go of everything. They had given up what was most sacred, leaving the uncircumcised to defile and mock it.
The two place names in this verse tell the story on their own. Ashdod was the home of Dagon, a Philistine god.
The holy ark of the covenant of Jehovah is dragged from the "stone of help" (Ebenezer) to the shrine of the unclean Dagon! They would probably show it some superstitious reverence. The nations never changed their gods, as foolish Israel did, but they had no objection to adding more of them.
These Philistines had trembled once. Now they handle the ark boldly — and both moods miss the truth.
Now the ark has been delivered into their hands. With bold daring they place it in the house of their idol. They act as if its capture were a victory for their god Dagon over the God of Israel. Their former trembling was as needless as their present daring is misplaced.
Once the ark stands inside that temple, Israel drops out of the argument altogether.
It is now no longer a question between God and Israel, or even between God and the Philistines. It is between the true God and man's false one — part fish, part man. That is how the twisted and corrupt cleverness of fallen man delights to picture the god of his own making. This false god is far below man: mostly fish, with the head and hands of human intelligence and power. Yet he is the object of man's dread and worship. Such is the idol always, in all its forms, really beneath those who make it.
To every onlooker the ark now looked like a captured god. The truth ran the other way.
The ark taken, the Philistines carried it to Ashdod, near the sea coast. They crossed with it as a captive the whole breadth of their country at its widest point, until they reached the temple of Dagon in that city. What a triumph it appeared for the enemy! The God of Israel unable to protect the symbol of His presence! But soon the people of Ashdod saw and felt how dreadful it was to have the ark among them. The Lord could not work for Israel, but He would care for His own glory, and at once.
That leaves a comfort and a warning side by side.
We need never be afraid that God will fail to vindicate either His holiness or His power. Our only fear should be that we are not in the condition in which we can be vessels of testimony for Him.
- Cause. The ark did not slip from God's grip. Idolatry among the people, not only sin among the priests, moved God to hand His own strength over to captivity.
- Carelessness. Israel had held the ark with a faithless heart. They could hardly complain when strangers carried it off to a temple.
- Contrast. The ark went from Ebenezer, the "stone of help," to a shrine in Ashdod. That distance measured Israel's unfaithfulness.
- Contest. Inside Dagon's house the quarrel changes. It is no longer God against Israel, but the true God against an idol men had carved.
- Care. God could not work for Israel, so He worked at once for His own glory. Our fear is never for His honour, only for our own fitness to speak for Him.
And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
The Philistines had beaten Israel in battle and carried off the ark of God. Now they set it down in the temple of their own god at Ashdod. Their trophy raises the real question here: does God's honour depend on the faithfulness of His people?
The ark reached a pagan temple because of the way Israel had treated it.
Here we see the sad and humiliating result of Israel's unfaithfulness. They had kept the ark of God with a careless hand and a faithless heart, or it could never have ended up lodged in the temple of Dagon! How deeply Israel had failed! They had let go of everything. They had given up what was most sacred, and let the uncircumcised profane and blaspheme it.
More than an object was lost here. God had withdrawn His presence because His people had tied its symbol to their own sinful state.
The people of God had completely failed to uphold the honour of God. Worse, they had tried to tie the symbol of His presence to their own sinful condition. So God acted in judgment and withdrew His presence from among them. In these circumstances, while the godly may well be humbled because of the unfaithfulness of God's people, they need not fear for the honour of God. Quite apart from His people, God is able to vindicate His holiness and maintain His majesty.
Not long before, these same Philistines had felt very differently about the ark.
The Philistines had trembled when they heard that the ark had come into the camp of Israel. Now the ark has come into their hands, and they boldly place it in the house of their idol. It is as if they were celebrating its capture as a victory for their god Dagon over the God of Israel. Their former trembling was as needless as their present daring is misplaced.
They may even have felt they were doing Israel's God a favour.
They think the most fit place for it is in the house of Dagon, the fish-god (half fish, half man). No doubt they even considered they were patronising Israel's god by giving it this place!
The moment the ark entered that temple, the two sides in the dispute changed.
Now that the ark of God stands in the house of Dagon, the question is no longer between the Philistines and Israel. It is an issue between Dagon and the God of Israel. There can be but one end to this contest. Dagon is flung to the earth before the ark. To prove this is no accident, his worshippers set Dagon up in his place again — which only shows the majesty of God and the emptiness of an idol more clearly.
No Israelite was there to see what happened next in the temple at Ashdod.
If Israel would not act in defence of God's truth, He must act Himself — and so He did. The lords of the Philistines had defeated Israel. But the gods of the Philistines must fall down before that ark. Long ago it had driven back the waters of the Jordan. Here was divine triumph. In the dark, empty house of Dagon there was no eye to see and no ear to hear. There the God of Israel was defending those great truths His own people had so failed to uphold.
Setting the ark beside Dagon put the true God among the idols, as though He were one of them.
To us, with the light of the New Testament, "an idol has no real existence." But to these worshippers of Dagon, every idol stood for a real god, good or evil. The God of heaven and earth will allow no rival, and there is no one besides Him. He has decreed that every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue confess that He is Lord. We see this truth here among the Philistines. They set the ark beside their Dagon, as a sign, they thought, of his triumph over "these mighty gods of the Hebrews."
What was settled in Ashdod still holds wherever people try to combine the two.
The whole affair proved beyond all question that the Lord and the uncircumcised could never go on together. So it was, so it is, and so it must always be. "What accord has Christ with Belial? … What agreement has the temple of God with idols?" None whatever.
- Failure — Israel handled the ark carelessly and tied God's presence to their own sin. So it ended up in a pagan temple.
- Presumption — The Philistines once trembled at the ark. Now they set it beside Dagon and credited their idol with the win.
- Contest — Inside that temple the fight was no longer Philistia against Israel. It was Dagon against God.
- Vindication — Unseen and alone, God defended the honour His own people had given up.
- Exclusivity — God allows no rival. He and idols can never share a house.
And when they of Ashdod arose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the fish-stump was left to him.
The Philistines had captured the ark of God and set it beside their idol Dagon in his temple at Ashdod. On the first morning the idol lay face down. On the second it lay broken. Who did this, and why did God wait a second night to finish it?
Dagon was a composite figure, and the verse notes exactly which parts were destroyed and which were left. One writer draws the point from the shape of the idol itself:
Once men carried it into Dagon's house (this being an idol, part man and part fish), and when the ark went in, the man fell down, and the fish only was left in place. This had its meaning.
The pieces that fell were the human ones, and where they fell mattered too:
The next morning it lies face down again. But this time it cannot be set up so easily. The human parts — the head and hands — of the part-man, part-fish god are cut off and lying on the threshold. Only the fish part is left to him. So the confusion man has made is undone. The human joined to the animal is shown to be worthy only of contempt, fit to be trampled underfoot, and the creature lies face down in the presence of the Creator.
The two parts removed were the parts a worshipper would look to for help. The damage was therefore a message, aimed precisely:
It was a message to the Philistines that if they thought Dagon had intelligence, he had not even a head: if they thought he could do anything, he had no hands to do it.
The first fall could be explained away, and the Philistines did explain it away by standing the idol up again. The second night removed that option:
Night came, and morning succeeded that night, when the Ashdodites found that Dagon's previous fall was no accident. There lay the idol, not merely prostrate and helpless, but now broken to pieces, the head and the palms of its hands cut off on the threshold, and only the stump, or fishy part of the idol left. The Ashdodites evidently had been aware of nothing unusual during the night. No earthquake upset the idol's equilibrium. God, the true God, had thrown it down.
Israel had failed, and no one from Israel was there to act for God. That is what makes the scene so striking:
If Israel would not act to defend God's truth, He must act Himself — and so He did... In the darkness and stillness of the house of Dagon, where there was no eye to see and no ear to hear, the God of Israel was acting to defend those great truths His people had so failed to hold up. Dagon fell, and in his fall he proclaimed the honour of the God of Israel... The scene was so completely emptied of the creature that the Creator could show Himself in His own true character. Man's failure made room for God's faithfulness. The Philistines had proved stronger than Israel; but Jehovah was stronger than Dagon.
This shifts where our anxiety belongs:
We need never be afraid that God will fail to vindicate either His holiness or His power. Our only fear should be lest we be not in that state in which we can be vessels of testimony for Him.
The most sobering detail is what the Philistines did next. They kept the religion and merely built a new custom around the wreckage:
Indeed, set this humiliated glory beside Dagon, as the men of Ashdod did, and the world's idol will be overturned and broken. But this changes nothing about the worship that the world offers to its idol. It prefers its mutilated false gods, objects of disdain and derision, to the glory of God that makes it uncomfortable.
Several writers read the two mornings as a picture of something larger — a first fall, then a shattering:
Instead of learning the lesson of Dagon on his face on the earth before the ark, they put Dagon back in his place again, only to find him, not only fallen down again, but broken, his head and hands cut off, his fish stump being left. Are we not taught another lesson from this, even that the death of Christ not only brought down the power of the god of this world, but also broke his power, or, as the Scripture says, "that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14).
- Fallen — The first night put the idol on its face. The Philistines could still call that an accident.
- Broken — The second night removed the head and the hands: no intelligence to know, no power to act, only the fish stump left standing.
- Alone — No one from Israel defended the ark. In an empty temple at night God acted for His own honour. Man's failure made room for His faithfulness.
- Hardened — The men of Ashdod picked up the pieces and made a rule about the threshold. They preferred a broken god to the glory that unsettled them.
- Foreshadowed — The broken idol pictures the death of Christ, which destroyed the one who had the power of death.
Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
The Philistines had carried Israel's ark into the temple of their god Dagon. Twice they found the idol on the floor. The second time, its head and hands lay broken off at the doorway. This verse records the result. They did not repent. Instead they kept a habit of stepping over that threshold long after.
The ark now stood inside the idol's temple. That changed who the real opponents were.
Once the ark of God stood in the house of Dagon, the question was no longer between the Philistines and Israel. It became an issue between Dagon and the God of Israel. This contest could end only one way. Dagon is thrown to the ground before the ark. To prove this was no accident, Dagon is put back in his place. The result only shows the majesty of God and the emptiness of an idol more clearly.
The custom in this verse points to the exact spot where the pieces fell. The broken parts carried their own message.
The second morning, though, they could not repair the damage. Dagon had fallen again, and this time his head and the palms of his hands were cut off. This was a message to the Philistines. If they thought Dagon had a mind, he did not even have a head. If they thought he could act, he had no hands to act with. The damage had happened on the threshold of his house. So the priests of Dagon took up the superstitious custom of never stepping on that threshold as they came in the door.
Israel had failed, and the ark was in enemy hands. Even so, God guarded His own name.
God is always enough for His own honour… So it became a standing mark of the victory of the God of Israel over Dagon.
The sight should have ended Dagon's worship. Instead the Philistines turned the place of his humiliation into one more thing to revere.
If there had been the least desire for truth, what a powerful witness this would have been to the Philistines! It would have shown them the emptiness of Dagon and the reality of the living God. Sadly, their hardened hearts see little in it. They even give Dagon more honour by refusing to step on the threshold where his head and hands had lain… All witness is hopeless to those who do not want to know the truth. But God is vindicated.
Their reaction was not merely stubborn; it was the natural working of what they had given themselves to.
Head and hands gone, what will he do now? It is strange that his worshippers should respect him at all after this. But as Bishop Hall once said, "It is just of God that those who lack grace should lack sense too. Superstition turns men into the wood and stone they worship."
The idol lost, but the worship carried on.
Set this humbled glory of God beside Dagon, as the men of Ashdod did, and the world's idol will fall and break. But that changes nothing in the worship the world gives its idol. The world prefers its broken false gods, objects of contempt and mockery, to the glory of God that makes it uncomfortable… Their superstitious habit itself stands as a lasting witness to how low their idol had fallen.
The custom in Ashdod outlasted the day it began. So do the effects of a far greater victory.
Satan thought he had won a mighty victory over God and His Christ when he used the leaders of Israel to crucify and kill their Messiah. But in the wisdom of God, it was his own undoing… Men did not see this mighty triumph. But the unseen world saw it openly, just as the priests of Dagon saw their god humbled and broken… Like the triumph of the Philistines, Satan's triumph was short-lived. The effects of Christ's triumph last, and they bring rich and lasting blessing to His own.
- Contest — The ark beside the idol made it a straight issue between Dagon and the God of Israel. It could end only one way.
- Broken — The head and the hands went first: no intelligence, no ability. God exposed the false god at the very door of his own house.
- Memorial — The doorway they would not step on became a lasting mark of God's victory. His honour never rested on Israel's success.
- Superstition — They honoured the place of judgment instead of leaving the god who fell there. Evidence changes no one who has no desire for truth.
- Triumph — Dagon's temple points ahead to Christ's victory over Satan. The enemy's win was brief. Christ's win lasts.
And the hand of Jehovah was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he laid them waste, and smote them with hemorrhoids, -- Ashdod and its borders.
The Philistines beat Israel in battle and carried off the ark of God, the golden chest that marked His presence among them. They set it up before their god Dagon, who twice fell broken before it; now the blow moves from the idol to the people who worshipped him.
The judgment does not stop at the fallen statue.
This is not the only way God upholds His majesty. He has poured contempt on the idol; now He will deal in judgment with the idolaters. "The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod." Many are destroyed and others are struck with disease. In their distress the Philistines of Ashdod seek advice from their lords, who tell them to send the ark to Gath.
Commentators compare this stroke with what God had already done in Egypt. There He struck both the people and everything they lived on.
In Egypt, God poured out His plagues not only on the people but on their sources of livelihood. He does the same here. He laid His hand heavily on them and struck them with tumours. The plague was probably like the boils of Egypt, and like what we now call the bubonic plague — repulsive and deadly in its effects. He had said, "Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments" (Ex. 12:12). The blow was so complete that no one could ever point to a person or a god of Egypt who escaped. He would do the same in the land of the Philistines. The scale was smaller, but the work was just as thorough, and it closed off every opening for unbelief to raise its head again.
The plague had a boundary. It covered Ashdod and its whole territory, but it followed the ark and went no further.
This was not a general epidemic visiting the land. The tumours only attacked those places where the Ark was held captive. God was teaching the Ashdodites that His presence and power were solemn realities. Made aware of it in this distressing way, they wanted to be rid of the presence of the Ark. As long as it remained, disease and death would keep destroying them. In agony they said, "The Ark of the God of Israel shall not remain with us, for His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god." What a confession from the conquerors of the Israelites!
Israel's sin had cost them the battle and the ark. Their loss did not leave God defenceless.
What could be a clearer testimony to the living power and the truth of the God of Israel than this very fact? Granted, Israel deserved to be in the dust. Granted, they could not strike a blow. Granted, they were struck hardest when they most dishonoured the ark of Jehovah. But God watched over His own ark, which Israel's sin had so recklessly betrayed and lost. The destruction that went out was so marked that all the lords of the Philistines could not help feeling their utter weakness before the God of Israel.
A lighter judgment would have left the Philistines room to explain everything away.
And do we not see mercy in all this? Suppose Dagon had only been knocked over. Then the people's unbelief and their half-pity for their god would have found some ready excuse. They would have patched up their pride and their wounded god at the same time, and carried on with the old idolatry. But the judgment touches their property too. Even the little mice, small and contemptible as they are, can ravage their fields and rob them of their food. So they are forced to acknowledge a hand whose weight they are beginning to feel, and they cannot escape its chastening. Then the blow comes still closer. They feel the stroke of God on their own bodies, with the dead all around them. Surely they must bow and own the rod.
One writer draws a line from Ashdod's fate to the world that handled Christ.
It was a solemn matter for the people of Ashdod to lay their hands on the ark of God. How much more solemn for the world to lay their hands on the Lord Jesus and put Him to death!
- Hand on the idol. God shamed Dagon first, then dealt with the people who bowed to him — one hand, working outward.
- Hand on the body. The stroke was tumours, like the plagues of Egypt. It touched bodies and livelihood, so no one could claim escape.
- Hand they could trace. This was no ordinary epidemic. It fell only where the ark was held, and the Philistines named the cause themselves.
- Hand that means mercy. The blows came closer and closer, until every excuse ran out and the sufferers had to bow.
- Hand no defeat weakens. Israel lost the ark through sin and could not lift a finger. God defended His own glory without them.
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 severe upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
The men of Ashdod had carried Israel's ark home as a trophy. Now their idol lies in pieces and disease is spreading, so they name the hand behind it — and then ask that hand to move on.
The disease in Ashdod is not a separate event from the fall of Dagon, the Philistine god, in the verses just before. One writer reads two stages of one answer.
Nor is this the only means by which God maintains His majesty. He has poured contempt on the idol; He will now deal in judgment with the idolaters. "The hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod." Many are destroyed and others are struck with disease.
Israel had lost the ark through their own sin. What follows shows that God's honour did not fall with theirs.
God will be God, however His people may fail. Israel failed completely to guard the ark of His testimony. They let it pass into the hands of the Philistines. All was lost in man's hand. Then the glory of God shone out in power and splendour. Dagon fell, and the hand of the Lord made the whole land of the Philistines tremble. The events proved beyond all question that the Lord and the uncircumcised could never go on together. So it was, so it is, and so it must always be. "What accord has Christ with Belial? … What agreement has the temple of God with idols?" None whatever.
If God can defend Himself among His enemies, one fear is left for His people.
We need never be afraid that God will fail to vindicate either His holiness or His power. Our only fear should be that we are not in the state in which we can be vessels of testimony for Him.
The Ashdodites did not have to guess at the cause. One writer shows how the disease marked out its own target.
The Lord's hand was heavy on the men of the place. He destroyed them, and struck them with tumours, in Ashdod and in its territory (v. 6). This was not a general epidemic in the land. The tumours only attacked those where the Ark was held captive. God was teaching the Ashdodites that His presence and power were solemn realities. Aware of it — made aware in this distressing way — they wanted to be rid of the presence of the Ark. As long as it remained, disease and death would keep destroying them. In deep distress they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god." What a confession from the conquerors of the Israelites!
Their confession was accurate. Their response was not.
These afflictions horrify the men of Ashdod, where the ark had first been brought. Like people in similar situations, they try to get rid of the cause. They do not do it by repentance, but by putting God, as it were, far away from them. If the load grows too heavy for one shoulder, it will be shifted to the other and then to the arms. The load does not yet become so unbearable that it lays them low before the God of Israel. Still less does it bring them to a sense of their true condition. They will get rid of the trouble by getting rid of the ark. So they send it on to Gath, from Gath to Ekron, and through all the cities of the Philistines.
The same instinct appears far beyond Ashdod. One writer traces it from Eden to Sinai to Gadara, where Jesus had just freed a man from demons.
Guilty man is always afraid of God. Adam, fallen, was afraid; Israel, at Sinai, were afraid; and the men of Gadara were afraid. It does not matter how God comes. He may come as a visitor in the Garden of Eden, in majesty at Sinai, or in grace as at Gadara. The presence of God is unbearable to guilty man. Men prefer the demons, the possessed man, and the pigs to the Son of God. They prefer them even though He is present in power and grace to deliver man. So we read, "They began to beg Him to depart from their region". Their prayer was answered — He departed.
- Idol first. God poured contempt on Dagon, then dealt with the idolaters. The falling statue and the heavy hand are one answer in two stages.
- Hand traced. This was no general epidemic. The disease followed the ark, so Ashdod could not mistake whose hand it was.
- Confession made. The conquerors of Israel said the hand was hard on them and on their own god. It was a true statement from the wrong mouths.
- God removed. They pushed God further off instead of repenting. The load moved from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron.
- Pattern repeated. Guilty people have always found God's nearness unbearable — in Eden, at Sinai, at Gadara. When they ask Him to leave, He goes.
And they sent 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 said, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about to Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about [thither].
Struck by God's hand at Ashdod, the Philistines call their rulers together and ask what to do with the captured ark. Three times they name it the ark of the God of Israel, yet their answer is to move Him on rather than bow to Him.
Their whole council turns on logistics. They accept that the ark is the trouble, but not one of them asks why, or what He wants of them.
So the advice the Philistine rulers give to the people's question, "What shall we do?", comes to nothing... They do not know what to do with the throne of God, the mercy-seat, the vessel of the mind of God! Moved by the same spirit, the Gadarenes begged the Lord to leave their region. It makes them uncomfortable because it judges them. For them the question is how they shall send this disturbing guest away, not whether they ought to send it away. It does not occur to them to speak to Him.
Sending the ark to Gath is not a solution but a transfer. The pain is real enough to move them, yet not deep enough to break them.
These blows appall the men of Ashdod, where the ark first arrived. Like others in the same situation, they try to get rid of the cause — not by repentance, but by putting God far away from them, as it were. If the load grows too heavy for one shoulder, a man shifts it to the other, and then to his arms. It is still not so unbearable that they fall down before the God of Israel. Even less does it bring them to a sense of their true condition. They will get rid of the trouble by getting rid of the ark.
The plan is also cold. One city's relief costs the next.
The result is not that they turn to God, but that they send Him away, hoping to be rid of Him. At the same time we see here the selfishness that marks the world. As long as Ashdod is left alone, what does it matter that Gath is tormented? As long as Gath is left alone, what does it matter that Ekron is tormented?
The Philistines chose a city with a fearsome name. Its reputation counted for nothing.
The city of Gath was famous as the home of the last of the Anakim — a race of giants. However, the might of man proves to be of no use against the power of God.
At Gath the blow fell on every rank alike. That pattern points forward.
But here too God's hand is heavy upon them... God shows no partiality. At the great white throne both small and great must stand before Him, and He will judge each one according to his works.
The journey from city to city is not only wrath. Each stop offers a chance.
The same story is repeated everywhere. Men cannot get rid of their chastening so easily. Shifting the burden of an uneasy conscience will not remove the certainty of judgment. The ark's passing from one Philistine city to another is again a witness of the mercy and the holiness of God. He will knock, as it were, at the door of each place, just as He did in Sodom before judgment finally fell, to see if anyone there feared Him.
On paper, the ark is a prisoner of war passed between its captors. Faith sees the opposite.
But what a triumphant procession this was for the ark! It was like Paul moving from one pagan city to another. Jewish hatred and Gentile scorn competed in heaping insults on him, yet he could say, "thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession"... So here, the ark of God makes its majestic progress from city to city, and fallen men and ruined storehouses bear witness to it.
- Question — Ashdod asks what to do with the ark, never what to do about itself. The council debates removal, not repentance.
- Transfer — Moving the ark to Gath only shifts the load from one shoulder to the other. It spares Ashdod at Gath's expense.
- Reach — Gath was the city of giants, yet human strength was no defence, and the blow fell on small and great alike.
- Mercy — Every stop was God knocking at another door, to see if anyone there feared Him.
- Triumph — It looked like a captured box passed from city to city. It was God's throne on a victory march through enemy land.
And it came to pass that, after they had carried it about, the hand of Jehovah was against the city with very great panic; and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and hemorrhoids broke out upon them.
The Philistines moved the ark from Ashdod to Gath, as if a change of address could settle matters with the God of Israel. The result raises the question this chapter keeps pressing: who really won the battle in which Israel lost the ark?
Gath was known for its fighting men. This verse shows what that reputation was worth.
The city of Gath was famous as the dwelling place of the last of the Anakim — a race of giants (Joshua 11:21-22; 1 Sam. 17:4). However, the might of man proves to be of no avail against the power of God, for we read, "the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic, and He afflicted the men of the city, both young and old" (1 Sam. 5:9).
The older translation Smith used reads "a very great destruction" where the ESV has "a very great panic" — the same blow, named by its effect.
The men of Ashdod took the cheap way out: hand the trouble on. That choice is what brought the ark to Gath.
These afflictions horrify the men of Ashdod, where the ark first arrived. Like men in the same situation, they try to get rid of the cause — not by repentance, but by putting God, as it were, far away from them. If the load grows too heavy for one shoulder, they shift it to the other, and then to their arms. The pain is not yet bad enough to lay them low before the God of Israel. Still less does it bring them to see their true condition. They will get rid of the trouble by getting rid of the ark.
Israel had let the ark fall into enemy hands. The disaster at Gath shows who really lost that battle.
God will be God, however His people may fail. Israel failed completely to guard the ark of His testimony, and let it pass into the hands of the Philistines. When all was lost in man's hand, the glory of God shone out in power and splendour. Dagon fell, and the hand of the Lord made the whole land of the Philistines tremble. His presence was unbearable to them, and they tried to get rid of it as soon as possible. This proved beyond all question that the Lord and the uncircumcised Philistines could never go on together.
The blow struck every rank in Gath. One writer weighs what that public ruin proves about God.
The hand of the Lord is stretched out in every place among His enemies… What could testify more clearly to the living power and the truth of the God of Israel than this fact? Granted that Israel ought to be in the dust; granted that they were unable to strike a blow; granted that God struck them hardest when they most dishonoured His ark. But God watched over His own ark, which Israel's sin had so carelessly betrayed and lost. The destruction that went out was so marked that all the lords of the Philistines had to feel their utter weakness before the God of Israel.
The ark's journey from town to town is not only punishment. One writer sees God giving each place its own chance.
Men cannot get rid of their chastening so easily. Shifting the burden of an uneasy conscience will not remove the certainty of judgment. The ark passes from one Philistine city to another, and this again witnesses to God's mercy and His holiness. He will, as it were, knock at the door of each place, as He did in Sodom before judgment fell there at last. He knocks to see if any there fear Him.
Gath copied Ashdod and passed the ark on again. The next city had a god of its own to fall back on.
In the end they send the ark to Ekron, the home of their idol Baalzebub. That god was credited with the power to heal diseases, so perhaps they hoped he could bring relief from the plague. Vain hope, for here again God's judgment falls with greater severity… So God maintains His glory and shows how powerless demons are to relieve men of their chastening.
- Hand. The hand that struck Ashdod followed the ark to Gath. Moving the ark changed nothing.
- Giants. Gath housed the last of the giants, and human strength counted for nothing against that hand.
- Shifting. The Philistines moved the trouble instead of repenting. They passed the load from shoulder to shoulder, and never bowed.
- Knocking. God knocked at each city in turn, mercy and holiness together, to see if anyone there feared Him.
- Glory. Israel failed to guard God's honour, so God guarded it Himself. Gath's ruin proved His enemies had won nothing.
And they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, when 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.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it kill us not, and our people. For there was deadly alarm throughout the city the hand of God was very heavy there;
Israel's defeat had left the ark of God in enemy hands. City by city, the Philistines now find that holding it is worse than losing a battle. Ekron's cry brings all their lords together for one decision. They will not bow. They will send away the God whose hand is crushing them.
Israel could not defend the ark. God defended it Himself.
What could be a more striking testimony to the living power and to the truth of the God of Israel than this very fact? Yes, Israel deserved to lie in the dust. Yes, they could not strike a single blow. Yes, they were struck hardest when they most dishonoured the ark of the LORD. But God watched over His own ark, which Israel's sin had so recklessly betrayed and lost. The destruction that went out was so marked that all the lords of the Philistines could not help feeling their utter weakness before the God of Israel.
Ekron was the last stop, and the Philistines had a reason for choosing it.
At last they send the ark to Ekron, the home of their idol Baalzebub. This was a god credited with the power to heal diseases, and perhaps they hoped he could bring relief from the plague. It was a vain hope. Here again God's judgment falls with greater severity, for we read, "There was a deadly destruction throughout all the city: the hand of God was very heavy there." So God upholds His glory and shows that demons have no power to free men from their chastening.
(Older translations read "a deadly destruction" here; the ESV has "a deathly panic.")
The ark had already travelled from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron. Each city's solution was to make the next city suffer.
The result is not that they turn to God, but that they send Him away, hoping to rid themselves of Him. Here we also see the selfishness that marks the world. As long as Ashdod escapes, what does it matter that Gath is tormented? As long as Gath escapes, what does it matter that Ekron is tormented? They do not want to die, but that does not stop death, along with deadly dismay, from coming.
Yet the journey itself had a purpose beyond judgment.
Men cannot get rid of their chastening so easily. Shifting the burden of an uneasy conscience will not remove the certainty of judgment. The ark's passage from one Philistine city to another is again a witness to the mercy and the holiness of God. He knocks, as it were, at the door of each place. He did the same at Sodom before judgment fell at last, to see if there would be any who feared Him. And as He passes from one place to another, we may well believe that there was no response except terror. There was no turning to Himself.
The gathered lords ask for one thing: that the ark go away and stop killing them.
They do not know what to do with the throne of God, the mercy seat, the vessel that held the mind of God! Moved by the same spirit, the people of Gadara begged the Lord to leave their region. It makes them uncomfortable because it judges them. For them the question is how to send this disturbing guest away, not whether they ought to send Him away. It does not occur to them to address themselves to Him.
They wanted the ark sent home. It did go back to Israel, but not to the place it had come from.
The enemy and their idol were forced to bow before the vindicating judgments of the LORD. They were only too glad to send the ark away with their guilt-offering. The ark goes to Kirjath-jearim and stays there twenty years. It never returns to the old order.
The Philistines learned by plague what Israel had learned by defeat.
The people of the Philistine cities, like the men of Israel, had to learn one thing. They could not handle the ark of the God of Israel and go unpunished. It is a very solemn matter to have to do with the Christ of God, and all will have to do with Him sooner or later.
- Hand — "The hand of God was very heavy there" is the verse's centre. God defended His own glory when His people could not strike a blow for it.
- Heavier — The hand grew heavier as the ark moved on. Ekron had a healing god of its own, and it suffered worst of all.
- Handed on — Each city's remedy was to burden the next. Self-interest shifts a trouble; it never removes the judgment behind it.
- Hardened — The lords gathered to ask how to send God away, never whether they should. The people of Gadara later made the same choice, begging the Lord to leave their region.
- Home — The ark returned to Israel, but never to the old order it had left. Sin can lose what is never given back.
and the men that died not were smitten with the hemorrhoids; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
The Philistines have captured God's ark and carried it from city to city, and God strikes each city in turn. Ekron is the last stop, and there the suffering peaks: death for some, shameful disease for the rest, and a whole city crying out to heaven.
God needs no help from His people to defend His name.
God allowed the ark to be removed from Shiloh and taken captive by the Philistines. In this He vindicated the holiness of His character. Now He will show its very captors that His power and majesty are unchanged. We need never be afraid that God will fail to vindicate either His holiness or His power. Our only fear should be that we are not in the condition in which we can be vessels of testimony for Him.
The Philistines had a reason for sending the ark to Ekron.
Finally the ark is sent to Ekron, the seat of their idol Baalzebub — a god credited with the power to heal diseases. Perhaps they hoped their god could bring relief from the plague. It was a vain hope. Here again God's judgment falls with increased severity, for we read, "there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there." So God maintains His glory and shows how powerless demons are to relieve people of chastisement.
The disease was not random. It matched a warning God had already put on record.
The presence of the ark also brings judgment down on the men who thought they had overcome God. For the Philistines there is misery and death. Anguish, secret pain and a shameful sore fall on them — the result of divine wrath (compare Deuteronomy 28:27).
Commentators differ on how to read the final phrase of the verse. One takes it as a cry that finds nothing above it:
"The cry of the city went up to heaven." But that heaven was empty for them. God was among them without their realising it, judging them on earth. The result is not that they turn to God, but that they send Him away, hoping to be rid of Him. Here too we see the selfishness that marks the world. As long as Ashdod is undisturbed, what does it matter if Gath is tormented? As long as Gath is undisturbed, what does it matter if Ekron is tormented?
Another reads the same words as a sign that the Creator hears even people sunk in idolatry:
If man, in his folly, tries to tie the glory of God to idols, God will maintain His glory by judgment. Yet in judgment God remembers mercy. God is the Creator, and though His creatures may be sunk in darkness and idolatry, when they cry to Him in their distress their cry will reach "up to heaven." Yet how often man uses the providential character of God's dealings in judgment as an occasion to harden his heart against God. So it was with the Philistines.
The Philistines never ask God for forgiveness. Their plan is simply to pass the ark on and hope the pain stops.
At last, desperation drives the lords of the Philistines to a conference. There they decide that what they thought was a victory over the Lord was only a defeat for themselves. The victory cost far too much to be endured any longer. So they take the world's way of finding relief — sadly, the only way the world will take. They will get rid of God. The men of Decapolis did the same when they begged our Lord to leave their region, though before their very eyes stood the proof of His love and power in setting the poor demon-possessed man free. Yes, the world will try to get rid of God. It may seem to succeed for a season, until the final day.
Why did the same ark bring no such disaster on Israel?
All this was new; the ark's presence in Israel had caused no such effects. God's presence among a redeemed people can produce blessing. His presence among the unredeemed can only bring judicial dealing. Morally there was nothing to choose between Israel and the Philistines. But the first were redeemed; the second were not.
- Captured, not conquered. Israel lost the ark, but God lost nothing. He showed His power to the very people who thought they had beaten Him.
- Heavy hand. Ekron was the seat of a god credited with healing. There the judgment fell hardest, showing how powerless idols are to lift what God has laid on.
- Shameful sore. The tumors were no accident of nature; they were the wrath God had already named in Deuteronomy 28:27.
- A cry upward. One writer hears the cry hitting an empty heaven. Another hears it reaching a Creator who remembers mercy. Either way, the Philistines hardened instead of turning.
- Removal, not repentance. Their answer was to send God away — what the Decapolis crowd also asked of Jesus, and the world's answer still.