Judges 16:23
Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
The lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, saying that their god had delivered Samson their enemy into their hand. Dagon, the god so honored, was a fish-god regarded as protector of the sea. The feast held in his honor drew the people and the rulers together to the temple, where Samson was brought in and exhibited as a trophy of Dagon's supposed power and made a subject of mockery.
By ascribing the victory over Samson to Dagon, the Philistines made their rejoicing a triumph over Israel's God, so that the conflict became a contest between Jehovah and Dagon and furnished an occasion for the Lord to assert His supreme power. The gathering belongs to the history in which Samson's yielding to passion brought shame and disaster and death upon him, standing in contrast to Joseph, for both men faced temptation but Samson gave passion free rein while Joseph chose obedience to God.