Beth-dagon

Biblical Text

Beth-dagon appears twice in the land-allotment records of the book of Joshua.

• A town of the tribe of Judah: Joshua 15:41 lists Beth-dagon, together with Gederoth, Naamah, and Makkedah, among the towns of the lowland (the Shephelah, or foothill region) allotted to the tribe of Judah.
• The border of the tribe of Asher: Joshua 19:27 records that the border of Asher's territory "turneth toward the sunrising to Bethdagon, and reacheth to Zebulun."

Both passages give only the name; no event is recorded as having taken place there. Because the two sites lie far apart, they are generally regarded as different places that happen to share the same name.

Background

The name combines the Hebrew beth ("house") and Dagon, meaning "house of Dagon," that is, a temple of Dagon. In the Bible, Dagon appears as a god worshiped by the Philistines, but ancient Near Eastern texts attest that he was worshiped in Mesopotamia and Syria at an earlier period. The place name is therefore understood as evidence that the worship of Dagon had spread through the region before Israel entered Canaan. Some derive the name Dagon from a word for grain and others from a word for fish, but its etymology remains unsettled.

Scholars differ on the exact location of both sites. The records of the campaign of the Assyrian king Sennacherib mention a "Beth-dagon" near Joppa, and the name also survives in Beit Dagan, a place name in present-day central Israel. Whether this site can be identified with the town of Joshua 15 is disputed.

Significance in the Bible as a Whole

The place name Beth-dagon itself does not appear elsewhere. A "house of Dagon," however, appears again in 1 Samuel 5:2–5. There, after the Philistines placed the captured ark of the covenant in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod, the image of Dagon fell on its face before the ark and was broken. First Chronicles 10:10 records that the Philistines "fastened his head," that of Saul, "in the temple of Dagon." These passages are not directly connected with the place name Beth-dagon, but they are mentioned alongside it because they concern a temple devoted to the same god. Neither Beth-dagon nor Dagon appears in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Issues

• That a place name bearing the name of a foreign god remained unchanged in the territorial lists of the tribes of Israel is treated as an example of old place names persisting through the process of settlement in Canaan.
• Sermons illustrating the futility of idolatry more often cite the account of the image of Dagon in 1 Samuel 5 than the Beth-dagon passages. That account, however, concerns the temple at Ashdod and is not part of what the text of Joshua says about the place name Beth-dagon.
• The temple of Dagon in 1 Samuel 5:2 is sometimes equated with the Beth-dagon of Joshua. The former, however, was a temple within the Philistine city of Ashdod, whereas the latter is a place name belonging to tribal territory.