Why this story matters

(commentary on 1 Samuel 4-6)

(Page 2 of 4)

Yahweh vs. Dagon

Next, the writer of the story attempts to demonstrate the superiority of his deity compared with the gods of other cultures. The Philistines place the ark in their temple next to their god called Dagon. Dagon is represented as half man half fish. One explanation of this is that the word Dag means fish-like, and the Philistines are one of the sea peoples who supposedly migrated from Crete to settle in Canaan. Other scholars dispute this, however. They point to the Hebrew word dagan, meaning corn, and consider Dagon to be a god of agriculture. Whichever Dagon is, he's no match for Yahweh, and Dagon is discovered the next day prostrate before the Hebrew god. They put him back upright, but the following day they find him prostrate again. This time, though, his hands and head have broken off. This parallels the practice of warring Ancient Near East peoples of cutting off the hands and head of fallen enemies in order to provide an accurate account of the dead.

The claim of Yahweh’s superiority is hardly subtle and neither is Yahweh’s response to the capture of the ark. The Bible says, "The Lord's hand was heavy on the people of Ashod and its vicinity”. It sure was. It's a heavy hand that would choose this kind of plague. There are two main ideas about the nature of the plague and both are really nasty.

The plague

Some commentators argue that Yahweh gave the people hemorrhoids. The word used in the King James Bible is “emerods” which is an archaic form of hemorrhoids. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states that the original Hebrew word "relates specifically to hemorrhoids". And, the Pulpit Commentary, a favorite resource for preachers, says it refers to “either boils or hemorrhoids, bleeding piles.” Just so we’re sure precisely where the disease is located, the Latin Vulgate somewhat amusingly translates 1 Sam. 5:6 as "And He smote them in the more secret parts of their posteriors." Adam Clarke’s commentary on the Bible goes into gory detail saying that the bleeding piles “appears to have been accompanied with dysentery, bloody flux, and ulcerated anus.” As if that wasn't bad enough, Clark continues, “I suppose them to have been affected with enlargements of the haemorrhoidal veins, from which there came frequent discharges of blood.” The pain sounds horrific, but it's worse than that. The Holman Bible Dictionary points out that, “Whatever its precise nature, the disease was regarded as incurable and fatal.” Fatal hemorrhoids? Lovely.

But it's not certain that it was hemerrhoids. As the Holman dictionary also points out, most modern Bible versions translate the passage as referring to tumors, specifically bubonic plague. The term for this plague comes from the Greek "boubon" meaning groin or swollen groin. From this we get the word “buboes” which are enlarged lymph nodes in the groin. Another reason for translating this as bubonic plague comes from the inclusion of mice (actually rats) in the plague. Bubonic plague is caused by bacteria called Yersinia pestis. The bacteria are transmitted from infected rats to people by fleas. The growths can appear in the neck and armpits but primarily affect the groin because that’s easier for fleas to reach. They can grow as large as an orange and, if not properly treated, as in this case, the mortality rate from the tumors is very high.

The ark and the plague make the rounds

Understandably, the people in Ashod are terrified and gather round their leaders to decide what to do. For some reason they think that if they move the ark to the town of Gath, nothing will happen there. After the same thing happens there, they try the town of Ekron. Apparently they're a little slow to catch on. The people of Ekron suffer so greatly that their cries supposedly go all the way up to heaven: "And the men who did not die were smitten with tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven" (1 Samuel 5:12 NASB).

After seven months of this, the chiefs of the towns finally decide to get rid of the ark. They consult priests to find out how best to accomplish this, and the priests explain that the Ark must be returned with a “guilt offering”.

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