1 Samuel 5:4
And 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.
On the second morning the idol was found fallen face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord, with his head and both palms cut off upon the threshold, so that only the stump was left to him. What had been removed were the parts resembling a human body, the head and the hands, leaving only the trunk, the fishlike body of Dagon remaining. God's angels brought down the lifeless idol and mutilated it.
The fall proves that the living God is above all gods, and that heathen idols are nothing, powerless, and unable to stand before Him, with Dagon humbled before the ark. Idols could not stand before the sacred ark of God. God's presence still attended the ark even after Israel lost it, so the Philistines were not permitted to treat it as an ordinary object. For it is the symbol of the divine presence and the pledge of victory in battle, containing the tables of the law.
God used the ark to punish the Philistines for transgression and for dishonoring His holy law, so that affliction and destruction followed the people in the cities where it was taken and showed His power over them. The Philistines' temporary triumph did not spare them from divine judgment, for wherever iniquity is cherished God's judgments follow. The Philistines took the mutilation as a sign and bad omen that they and their gods would be dishonored, subdued, defeated, and destroyed before the God of Israel.
They recognized that the Lord's hand was against them and Dagon. They feared to touch the ark or keep it near them, removed it from the temple, and concluded from their god's fate and the following destruction that Israel's God had power over them and that the ark belonged to Israel.