1 Samuel 5:1

THE ARK OF GOD AMONG THE PHILISTINES Contrary to what any uninspired writer would have done, the author (whom we believe to have been Samuel) says nothing at all in this chapter concerning the Israelites and their reaction to the terrible defeat they had just suffered. He gives us not a single word about the terrible destruction of Shiloh by the Philistine army; and we are able to know about that only from the later references to it in the Bible.

From Psalms 78:60-64 and from Jeremiah 7:12 and Jeremiah 26:9, it is clear enough that Shiloh was brutally and thoroughly destroyed, remaining a total ruin for centuries afterward. All of the buildings were demolished; the inhabitants were put to the sword, men women and children alike; and the priests, especially, were butchered. This extremely severe destruction was apparently brought about by the injection of the ark of God into the battle plans by the Israelites, thus endowing the struggle with significant religious overtones and endowing the conflict with all of the savage frenzy of religious fanaticism.

The universal custom among ancient pagan peoples was to take any captured idols or other representations of their gods and to display them as trophies of victory in the shrines and temples of their false deities. To some extent, this custom even prevailed among the Israelites, as, for example, when David delivered the sword of Goliath to the priests at Nob.

In the ancient view, a nation's power and its victory in war depended more upon their gods than upon themselves; and the ordinary viewpoint ascribed victory to the stronger god; thus Israel's defeat at Ebenezer was interpreted by the Philistines as a triumph over the God of Israel. It is this theological aspect of what happened that is the chief concern of our sacred author in this section of Samuel. That is why everything else is ignored and the Biblical narrative follows the ark of God into Philistia.

"The reader's attention is focused on the theological significance of Israel's defeat. In the viewpoint of ancient pagan peoples, it appeared that the Lord God Almighty had been defeated by Dagon of the Philistines at Ebenezer."[1]

THE ARK OF GOD GOES TO ASHDOD

"When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they carried it from Ebenezer to Ashdod; then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon."

"Ashdod" This was one of the five principal cities of the Philistines, "located thirty-three miles west of Jerusalem,"[2] "only 3 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, situated on an elevation overlooking the Philistine plain half way between Gaza and Joppa; its importance consisted in the fact of its commanding the high road from Palestine to Egypt."[3] This city is the Azotus of the N.T. (Acts 8:40) and, "the modern Tell Ashdod."[4]

The name Ashdod means "stronghold or fortress";[5] and the history of the place justified the name. "An Egyptian ruler besieged it for 29 years on one occasion (according to Herodotus)."[6] The Jews were finally able to destroy the place when Jonathan finally did it in the times of the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 10:84).

Apparently, the reason for the Philistines' taking the ark of God to Ashdod was the location there of a principal temple of Dagon. Samson had destroyed the one at Gaza (Judges 16), so they by-passed Gaza on the way to Ashdod.

"Dagon" This pagan deity was a Semitic god worshipped as early as the mid-third millennium B.C.[7] The Philistines, originally from Caphtor (Crete), adopted this deity. Scholars give two possible origins of the name (1) [~dag] which means "fish," and (2) [~dagan] which means "corn."[8] Dagon was apparently an agricultural deity, or `corn deity.'[9] His devotees touted him as the `father of the Canaanite god Baal'; and, "The Ras Shamra tablets referred to Baal as `the son of Dagon.'"[10]

One may only imagine what the degree of rejoicing and confidence of the Philistines was when they supposed that the God of Israel had been defeated by their Dagon.

However, the true God had not been defeated at all; Israel indeed had suffered a defeat, but God was still the only One and True God; and he made sure in the developments related in this chapter that the Philistines would soon catch on to this fact. The total length of time it took for God to accomplish that objective was only seven months.

"The Philistines carried it (the ark of God) from Ebenezer to Ashdod" (1 Samuel 5:1). The great leader of the conquest, Joshua, removed the ark from Gilgal to Shiloh which was located within the territory allotted to Ephraim, evidently because Joshua was a member of that tribe.

However unintentional Joshua's actions might have been, "God did not choose the tent of Ephraim; he rejected it; he chose the tribe of Judah" (Psalms 78:67-68). Halley has the following summary of the various locations where, at one time or another, the ark was placed:

"The ark remained among the Philistine cities for seven months. The Philistines returned it to Beth-shemesh, and then to Kiriath-jearim, where it remained twenty years (1 Samuel 7:2). Later it was taken to Jerusalem where David built a tabernacle for it (2 Samuel 6:12; 2 Chronicles 1:4); it remained there until Solomon replaced the tabernacle with the temple. Nothing is known of the history of the ark after the destruction of Jerusalem."[11]

The Philistines' placing the ark in the temple of their god Dagon was the normal procedure for the disposal of the captured `gods' or other trophies of defeated enemies. When they killed Saul, they stripped him of his armor and deposited it in the temple of Ashtaroth (1 Samuel 21:10). "It was no doubt to insult the God of Israel and to insult and terrify his people that they did this."[12]