WATCHMAN33
The ark stands in a Philistine temple as the stone idol Dagon lies shattered face-down before it and frightened priests recoil at dawn.
KING JAMES VERSION

1 SAMUEL 5

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CHAPTER VISUAL

1 Samuel 5 — Dagon falls before the ark, and affliction follows it from Ashdod to Gath and Ekron.

About this illustration

Dagon’s broken statue provides the chapter’s clearest visual contrast between the idol and the ark. The bodily affliction is represented through alarm and an emptied city, not explicit medical detail.

Scripture basis: 1 Samuel 5:1–12
  1. 1And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod.
  2. 2When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
  3. 3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
  4. 4And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
  5. 5Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.
  6. 6But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
  7. 7And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
  8. 8They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.
  9. 9And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
  10. 10 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
  11. 11So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
  12. 12And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom

EXPLORE THE MESSAGE

Related Watchman 33 Resources

Archaeological Evidence

ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
First half of the seventh century BC, before Ekron’s destruction in 603 BC

The Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription

A five-line limestone dedication found in Temple Complex 650 names Ekron, King Ikausu, four royal ancestors, and a goddess, securely identifying Tel Miqne and linking a local Philistine dynasty with Assyrian records.

Joshua 13:3 · 1 Samuel 5:10–12 · 2 Kings 1:2–6
Open evidence file
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCECult & worship
Twelfth–tenth century BC

Tell Qasile Philistine Temple Sequence

Three superimposed Iron Age sanctuaries at Tell Qasile preserve changing architecture, offering installations, animal remains, and cult vessels in context while exposing how complex the label Philistine becomes at a culturally connected Yarkon settlement.

1 Samuel 5:1–5 · Judges 16:23–30 · 1 Chronicles 10:9–10
Open evidence file
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArtifact
Iron Age I, especially twelfth-eleventh centuries BC

The Ashdoda Figurine

A distinctive Iron Age I Philistine female figure whose body merges with a four-legged throne. Found first at Ashdod and known from related fragments elsewhere, the type illuminates Philistine cultic imagery without securely identifying the represented deity.

1 Samuel 5:1–7 · Judges 16:23–30 · 1 Samuel 31:9–10
Open evidence file
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCECult & worship
Ninth century BC, Iron Age IIA

The Yavneh Philistine Temple Repository Pit

A ninth-century BC repository at Yavneh held thousands of deliberately broken cult objects, including more than 120 decorated stands, revealing ritual performance and sacred disposal in Philistia.

Joshua 15:11 · 2 Chronicles 26:6 · 1 Samuel 5:1–5
Open evidence file