Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · 1 Samuel Capitolo 5

The next morning the Ashdodites found Dagon lying on his face upon the ground before the ark of Jehovah, and restored him to his place again, evidently supposing that the idol had fallen or been thrown down by some accident.

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The visitation of God was not restricted to the demolition of the statue of Dagon, but affected the people of Ashdod as well. “ The hand of Jehovah was heavy upon the Ashdodites, and laid them waste.” השׁם , from שׁמם , when applied to men, as in Micah 6:13, signifies to make desolate not only by diseases, but also by the withdrawal or diminution of the means of subsistence, the devastation of the fields, and such like. That the latter is included here, is evident from the dedicatory offerings with which the Philistines sought to mitigate the wrath of the God of the Israelites (1 Samuel 6:4-5, 1 Samuel 6:11, 1 Samuel 6:18), although the verse before us simply mentions the diseases with which God visited them.

(Note: At the close of 1 Samuel 5:3 and 1 Samuel 5:6 the Septuagint contains some comprehensive additions; viz., at the close of 1 Samuel 5:3: Καὶ ἐβαρύνθη χεὶρ Κυρίου ἐπι τοὺς Ἀζωτίους καὶ ἐβασάνιζεν αὐτους , καὶ ἐπάταζεν αὐτους εἰς τάς ἕδρας αὐτων , τὴν Ἄζωτον καὶ τὰ ὅρια αὐτῆς ; and at the end of 1 Samuel 5:4: Καὶ μέσον τῆς χώρας αὐτῆς ἀνεφυησαν μύες καὶ ἐγένετο σύγχυσις θανάτου μεγάλη ἐν τῇ πολει . This last clause we also find in the Vulgate, expressed as follows: Et eballiverunt villae et agri in medio regionis illius, et nati sunt mures, et facta est confusio mortis magnae in civitate . Ewald 's decision with regard to these clauses ( Gesch. ii. p. 541) is, that they are not wanted at 1 Samuel 5:3, 1 Samuel 5:6, but that they are all the more necessary at 1 Samuel 6:1; whereas at 1 Samuel 5:3, 1 Samuel 5:6, they would rather injure the sense. Thenius admits that the clause appended to 1 Samuel 5:3 is nothing more than a second translation of our sixth verse, which has been interpolated by a copyist of the Greek in the wrong place; whereas that of 1 Samuel 5:6 contains the original though somewhat corrupt text, according to which the Hebrew text should be emended. But an impartial examination would show very clearly, that all these additions are nothing more than paraphrases founded upon the context. The last part of the addition to 1 Samuel 5:6 is taken verbatim from 1 Samuel 5:11, whilst the first part is a conjecture based upon 1 Samuel 6:4-5. Jerome, if indeed the addition in our text of the Vulgate really originated with him, and was not transferred into his version from the Itala, did not venture to suppress the clause interpolated in the Alexandrian version. This is very evident from the words confusio mortis magnae , which are a literal rendering of σύγχυσις θανάτου μεγάλη ; whereas in 1 Samuel 5:11, Jerome has given to מות מהוּמת , which the lxx rendered σύγχυσις θανάτου , the much more accurate rendering pavor mortis . Moreover, neither the Syriac nor Targum Jonath. has this clause; so that long before the time of Jerome, the Hebrew text existed in the form in which the Masoretes have handed it down to us.)

“ And He smote them with עפלים , i.e., boils:” according to the Rabbins, swellings on the anus, mariscae (see at Deuteronomy 28:27). For עפלים the Masoretes have invariably substituted טחרים , which is used in 1 Samuel 6:11, 1 Samuel 6:17, and was probably regarded as more decorous. Ashdod is a more precise definition of the word them, viz., Ashdod, i.e., the inhabitants of Ashdod and its territory.

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But when the ark was brought to Gath, the hand of Jehovah came upon that city also with very great alarm. גּדולה מהוּמה is subordinated to the main sentence either adverbially or in the accusative. Jehovah smote the people of the city, small and great, so that boils broke out upon their hinder parts.

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