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THREAD: Some thoughts on 1 Sam. 5. (For 1 Sam. 4, cf. threadreaderapp.com/thread/1087812….)
In 5.1-2, in the aftermath of Israel’s defeat, the Philistines carry the ark back to their own land. They place the ark beside Dagon in his temple (in Ashdod) as a sign of their triumph over YHWH.
Dagon’s temple evidently functions as a kind of trophy house. In the days to come, the Philistines will behead Saul and place his head in Dagon’s temple in memorial of Dagon’s victory over him (1 Chr. 10.10).
On this occasion, however, it is not Saul’s head which will end up detached from its body, but Dagon’s. (A number of Philistines ‘lose their heads’ too. They do not act very rationally in our text.)
As such, what the Philistines view as a sign of victory will turn out to be their downfall.
With the advent of 5.3, a remarkable turn of events transpires. Our narrator abandons his account of life in Israel and instead decides to describe the ark’s experiences in a foreign land despite the complete absence of Israelites there--a phenomenon unparalleled in Scripture.
This shift in focus should not surprise us. The focus of Scripture is not a particular locale, but the presence of God. The ark has been borne into exile (cf. כבוד גלה in Sam. 4.22), and we as readers of Scripture are borne along with it.
In what follows, we view what happens to the ark from the standpoint of a Philistine in Ashdod.
Note: The last time the Philistines allowed an Israelite presence into one of Dagon’s temples, things did not turn out very well. Samson brought the house down. And things will not turn out much better this time round. God’s enemies do not seem to learn their lessons well.
Indeed, in the years to come, Satan will usher a later and greater Nazirite into his realm (the realm of death), and there the Nazirite in question will collapse Satan’s entire kingdom in on itself.
Our God can turn what looks like defeat into victory. He can turn an exile to אַשְׁדּוֹד into the declaration אֶשְׁדּוֹד = ‘I will destroy (it)’, and the cry of dismay אִכָבוֹד = ‘no glory’ into the declaration אֶכְבּוֹד = ‘I will be glorified’.
The first sign that all is not well in Ashdod does not take long to become evident (5.3-4). The day after their victory, when the Ashdodites enter Dagon’s temple, they find Dagon fallen on his face before the ark of YHWH.
This strikes the Ashdodites as rather a shame, but they decide not to trouble themselves about it too much. Such things happen from time to time. The Philistines simply, therefore, pick old Dagon up and return him to his place (ישבו אותו למקומו).
It will take them some time to realise they would do far better to return the ark to its place (cf. יָשֹׁב למקומו in 1 Sam. 5.11).
The next day, the Ashdodites’ luck takes a further turn for the worse (5.4-6). When they arrive for their morning service, they again find Dagon on his face before the ark. Maybe lightning can strike twice after all.
On this second occasion, however, Dagon’s hands and head are on the temple’s threshold, detached from Dagon’s body, which complicates matters.
Note: Our narrator describes Dagon’s hands with the word כפות, which resonates with 4.3. Israel may have been delivered into כַּף אֹיְבֵינוּ = ‘the hand of their enemies’, but Dagon’s כפות have now been cut off in demonstration of his powerlessness.
In 5.6, the Ashdodites’ problems continue to escalate. An outbreak of tumours afflicts both them and the residents of nearby cities. On this (third) occasion, the penny drops. “The hand of the God of Israel is hard against us”, the Ashdodites declare.
Our narrator describes the Ashdod’s plight in terms of the ‘heaviness’ (כבד) of YHWH’s hand. The employment of the root כבד is significant. The ark was a glory (כבד) to Israel, but is now a heavy (כבד) burden to Israel’s enemies.
The testimony of the Gospel functions in the same way today. One and the same ‘aroma’ brings death to some and yet life to others, just as the cloud at the time of the exodus was a barrier of darkness for the Egyptians, yet a means of salvation for Israel.
In 5.8, the Ashdodites decide to send the ark of YHWH to a different city. Perhaps the ark was simply unhappy in coastal cities like Ashdod and preferred slightly drier climates.
Initially the Philistine try to resettle the ark in Gath, and then in Ekron, but the result is the same in both cases--confusion, tumours, death, and plagues of rats.
In Ekron--the third city to which the ark is sent--, light begins to dawns. The Philistines decide the ark would best be left in Israel after all.
In these events (and the rest of chs. 5-7), the number 5 is particularly prominent.
Ashdod is mentioned 5 times; Ekron is mentioned 5 times; the other Phil. cities are mentioned 5 times between them (Gaza, Ashkelon, & Gath); ‘tumours’ are mentioned 5 times; and, later, 5 images of rats and tumours are made, which correspond to the Philistines’ 5 rulers.
I am not quite sure why and may as well say so. Perhaps it’s relevant that the armour of Goliath the Philistine weighed 5,000 shekels and that Goliath was slain with a man armed with 5 stones?
