1 Samuel 5
The Philistines place the captured ark in Dagon's temple. Each morning the statue of Dagon is found prostrate before it.
Summary
Chapter 5 narrates the ark's time in Philistine custody as a series of disasters that demonstrate the Lord's independence from Israel's military fate. The Philistines take the ark to Ashdod and install it beside the statue of their god Dagon in Dagon's temple — the gesture of a conquering people placing the captured deity among their own. The next morning Dagon has fallen face down before the ark of the Lord. They set him back upright. The following morning Dagon has fallen again, and now his head and both hands are cut off and lying on the threshold; only the torso remains. The narrator notes that to this day the priests of Dagon will not step on the threshold of Dagon's temple in Ashdod — an aetiological aside folded into the comedy of the prostrate idol.
The hand of the Lord is described falling heavily on the people of Ashdod and its region, striking them with tumours. The Philistines of Ashdod summon the lords of the five cities and decide to move the ark to Gath. The tumours break out in Gath as well. They send it to Ekron. The people of Ekron cry out before it even arrives: they have brought the ark of the God of Israel around to kill us and our people. The city fills with death and disease; those who do not die are struck with tumours, and the outcry of the city goes up to heaven. After seven months in Philistine territory the chapter closes with the Philistines beginning to recognize that the ark must go back. What seemed like a trophy of conquest has become a weapon aimed at its captors.
- 1 Samuel 1Chapter 1 opens at the sanctuary at Shiloh, where Elkanah of Ephraim brings his household each year to worship.
- 1 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens with the Song of Hannah, one of the most influential poems in the Hebrew Bible — my heart exults in the Lord, the mighty brought low, the hungry fed, the barren bearing seven.
- 1 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most carefully paced call narratives in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 4Chapter 4 is the disaster that the previous chapters have been building toward.
- 1 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the ark narrative in Philistine territory, told with something close to sardonic comedy.
- 1 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is the ark's return to Israel, engineered by Philistine priests who want to know whether their afflictions are the Lord's doing or mere coincidence.
- 1 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the closing movement of the Samuel-as-judge arc.
- 1 Samuel 8Chapter 8 is the pivot of the entire book.
- 1 Samuel 9Chapter 9 introduces Saul, and the introduction is built on irony.
- 1 Samuel 10Chapter 10 is Saul's anointing and public selection.
- 1 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is Saul's first military action and the only chapter of his reign where he functions without any reservation or failure.
- 1 Samuel 12Chapter 12 is Samuel's formal farewell as Israel's judge, a speech that occupies the whole chapter.
- 1 Samuel 13Chapter 13 begins the decline.
- 1 Samuel 14Chapter 14 is a chapter of action and its costs.
- 1 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the final disqualification.
- 1 Samuel 16Chapter 16 is the introduction of David and one of the most carefully constructed scenes of divine election in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the book's most famous chapter.
- 1 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is where the book's two great relationships crystallize.
- 1 Samuel 19Chapter 19 is the escalation from hostility to overt murderous intent.
- 1 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the central scene of the David-Jonathan friendship and one of the great parting scenes in ancient literature.
- 1 Samuel 21Chapter 21 is a chapter of disguise and desperation.
- 1 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is one of the darkest chapters in the book.
- 1 Samuel 23Chapter 23 is a chapter of pursuit and one extraordinary meeting.
- 1 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the first of two episodes in which David has Saul's life in his hands and refuses to take it.
- 1 Samuel 25Chapter 25 opens with Samuel's death — mourned by all Israel — and then turns to a story of David's near loss of self-control and the woman who stops it.
- 1 Samuel 26Chapter 26 is the second episode in which David refuses to kill Saul and, like chapter 24, it is structured to make the refusal as emphatic as possible.
- 1 Samuel 27Chapter 27 is the chapter of David's double game among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 28Chapter 28 is one of the strangest and most debated passages in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 29Chapter 29 is the resolution of a problem the narrative has been building toward: David, marching with Achish and the Philistine forces to fight against Israel.
- 1 Samuel 30Chapter 30 is the crisis of David's time among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 31Chapter 31 is the last chapter of 1 Samuel and the end of Saul's story.