Dagon

Biblical Text

Dagon was a god worshiped by the Philistines. He appears in three places in the Old Testament.

• Judges 16:23-30: Near the end of the narrative of the judges, the Philistines, having captured Samson, offer sacrifice to Dagon, saying, "Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand." Samson then pushes against the two pillars of the temple, bringing it down, and dies together with the people gathered there.
• 1 Samuel 5:1-7: The Philistines place the captured Ark of the Covenant beside Dagon in his temple at Ashdod. The next day Dagon is found fallen on his face before the ark. After he is set up again, on the following day his head and both palms are found cut off upon the threshold. The text explains that for this reason the priests of Dagon do not tread on the threshold (5:5). The people of Ashdod are then afflicted with tumors (KJV "emerods"), and the ark is moved to other Philistine cities.
• 1 Chronicles 10:10: The Philistines fasten the head of Saul in the temple of Dagon.

In addition, the place name Beth-dagon ("house of Dagon") appears in Joshua 15:41 and 19:27. First Maccabees, which is included in Catholic Bibles and in the Korean Common Translation, tells how Jonathan burned the temple of Dagon at Ashdod (Azotus). Protestants regard this book as apocryphal.

Background and Meaning of the Name

Dagon (Dagan) was not originally a Philistine deity. He is known as a Semitic god worshiped in ancient Mesopotamia and Syria long before the Philistines. The Philistines appear to have adopted this regional god after settling on the coast of Canaan.

Two explanations of the name have been proposed.

• One connects it with the Hebrew dag ("fish") and regards Dagon as a sea god, half man and half fish. Some medieval Jewish commentators interpreted the name this way, and the view was widespread for a long time.
• The other connects it with the Hebrew dagan ("grain") and regards Dagon as a god of grain and fertility. Since the modern period, many scholars have favored this view on the basis of research into ancient texts.

The biblical text itself does not directly support either explanation.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Both narratives depict Dagon being brought down at the very moment the Philistines credit him with their victory. Because the God of Israel overthrows the enemy's god within that god's own temple, these accounts are read in the same vein as the Ten Plagues, in which God judged the gods of Egypt. Dagon does not appear in the New Testament. However, the teaching that an idol is nothing and that there is one true God (1 Corinthians 8:4-6; 1 John 5:21) carries this theme forward.

Interpretation and Issues

Images depicting Dagon with a fish's tail are frequently used in Sunday school materials and Bible illustrations. This depiction, however, rests on only one of the interpretations described above; the Bible does not describe Dagon's appearance. Interpretations of the events in 1 Samuel 5 differ. Some read them as a historical event demonstrating God's sovereignty and the powerlessness of idols, while others focus on the narrative's satirical portrayal of the Philistine god.

In the Korean Church

The scene of Dagon fallen before the ark is frequently addressed in sermons and Sunday school lessons warning against idolatry. In preaching it also serves as a metaphor for idols that take root in the believer's heart.