Judges 16:23

THAT GREAT FESTIVAL IN THE TEMPLE OF DAGON

"And the lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country who hath slain many of us. And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison-house; and he made sport before them. And they set him between the pillars: and Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer for me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house resteth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport."

"The lords ... gathered ... to offer ... sacrifice to Dagon" (Judges 16:23). "The god Dagon had been worshipped along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean long before the coming of the Philistines, but, like the Israelites who adopted the worship of the Baals, the Philistines adopted that of Dagon."[20] There were temples erected to Dagon at Gaza and at Ashdod; and that deity was worshipped by the Philistines throughout their country. Margolis tells us that all of the ancient classical writers described this idol as, "half man and half fish."[21] "He was a male deity, the corresponding female deity being Atargatis or Derceto."[22] The superstition of the Philistines ascribed great honor to Dagon, whom they hailed as, "The father of Baal."[23] The occasion mentioned here must have been attended by at least 10,000 persons, there having been three thousand on the roof alone. There were many towns throughout Palestine that were named after Dagon, including, "Beth-dagon in Judah (Joshua 15:42), and Caphar-dagon in Asher (Joshua 19:17), showing that the worship of Dagon was widespread.[24]

"Our god hath delivered into our hand our enemy" (Judges 16:24). There are a number of lines in the Hebrew in this place which have the same ending, apparently indicating some kind of a chant or song which the multitude were singing in honor of Dagon. Dalglish has attempted an English equivalent of this in the following:

"He has given, the god of us,

Into our hands the enemy of us,

Ravager of the land of us,

Multiplier of the slain of us."[25]

The great thing in this passage, as pointed out by Hervey, is that the true God was blasphemed by this huge festival in honor of Dagon, in which they, "Made Dagon superior to Jehovah."[26] Milton picked up this tremendous significance in his immortal lines from "Samson Agonistes":

"All the contest is now twixt God and Dagon. He, be sure, will not connive, or linger, thus provoked, but will arise and his great name assert."

God did indeed assert his superiority immediately.

"And he made sport before them" (Judges 16:25). It has been supposed that Samson did this by performing unusual demonstrations of physical strength, but, as Jehovah had not yet come upon Samson, we are inclined to doubt that explanation. God would indeed use Samson again on that occasion, but it would come after Samson returned in his heart to the Lord and began to pray. Evidently, some kind of physical activity was involved in his entertaining the throng, inasmuch as he PRETENDED to be tired. His desire to rest upon the pillars was honored by the lad that led him.

"Now the house was full of men and women" (Judges 16:27). The purpose of this verse is to stress the size of the crowd. It was a "capacity" audience and then some. The three thousand people on the roof seems to have been a very unusual accommodation for such a number of people, and it no doubt contributed very substantially to the number of fatalities following the collapse of the temple.