1 Samuel 5:3, commentary and pictures

Dagon was the Philistines' idol, and he lay fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord in his own temple. The Philistines and his priests took him and set him upright again in his place. After being set upright, he fell again before the ark the next morning and was mutilated. After the first fall, the priests thought the idol might have fallen by accident.

The ark before which Dagon fell was no common object; it was the ark of the covenant containing the tables of the law, the symbol to Israel of the divine presence and the pledge of victory in battle. Dagon's fall displays that the living God is above all gods and that heathen idols are powerless and cannot stand before Him. The verse shows that the Lord had not wholly cast aside Israel and would not long suffer the exultation of the heathen over them.

God had used the Philistines as His instrument to punish unfaithful Israel, and He then employed the ark to punish the Philistines. The Lord often employs His bitterest enemies to punish the unfaithfulness of His professed people, the wicked may triumph for a time as they see Israel suffering chastisement, but they too must meet the sentence of a holy, sin-hating God, and wherever iniquity is cherished swift and unerring divine judgments will follow. The same divine presence that is strength, salvation, and glory to God's obedient people brings punishment, terror, and destruction to transgressors who defy God's holy law. The afflictions in the cities to which the ark was taken further show that God's presence brings judgment on those who treat the sacred ark with contempt. Dagon's fate before the ark made the Philistines afraid to touch the ark or keep it near them.