SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:5
Por esta causa los sacerdotes de Dagón, y todos los que en el templo de Dagón entran, no pisan el umbral de Dagón en Asdod, hasta hoy.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 5:5
Verse 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 chap. i. 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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 5. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house , etc.] 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 f99 , the Philistine Venus, or Astarte, was worshipped in this place; though perhaps she may be no other than Atergatis, or Adergatis, which with Selden 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: (see Gill on “ Judges 16:23”).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-5 - See the ark's triumph over Dagon. Thus the kingdom of Satan wil certainly fall before the kingdom of Christ, error before truth profaneness before godliness, and corruption before grace in the heart of the faithful. When the interests of religion seem to be ready to sink, even then we may be confident that the day of their triumph wil come. When Christ, the true Ark of the covenant, really enters the heart of fallen man, which is indeed Satan's temple, all idols wil fall, every endeavour to set them up again will be vain, sin will be forsaken, and unrighteous gain restored; the Lord will claim an possess the throne. But pride, self-love, and worldly lusts, thoug dethroned and crucified, still remain within us, like the stump of Dagon. Let us watch and pray that they may not prevail. Let us seek to have them more entirely destroyed.
Original Hebrew
על 5921 כן 3651 לא 3808 ידרכו 1869 כהני 3548 דגון 1712 וכל 3605 הבאים 935 בית 1004 דגון 1712 על 5921 מפתן 4670 דגון 1712 באשׁדוד 795 עד 5704 היום 3117 הזה׃ 2088
