1. from Eben-Ezer to Ashdod. The Ark is carried down from Eben-Ezer, in the western part of the territory of Ephraim (roughly ten miles from the coast and just a little to the north of present-day Tel Aviv) to Ashdod, on the Mediterranean, in the heart of Philistine territory.

2. Dagon. This god is now generally thought to be a vegetation or fertility god, its name cognate with the Hebrew dagan, “grain” (and not, as was once widely imagined, with the Hebrew dag, “fish”).

set it up alongside Dagon. Either to amplify the power of their own deity or to express the subservience of the God of Israel to Dagon.

3. and, look, Dagon was fallen forward to the ground. This clause and the parallel one in the next verse reflect the visual perspective of the Ashdodites when they come into the temple early in the morning and make their shocking discovery. Tyndale’s translation gets into the spirit of the scene, although with a certain creative license, by rendering this as “lay grovelling upon the ground.”

4. his trunk alone remained on him. The Masoretic Text has, cryptically, “Dagon alone remained on him,” but several of the ancient translations appear to have used a version which read geivo, “his trunk,” instead of Dagon. Dagon’s first downfall might be attributed to a natural, accidental cause—the idol’s somehow slipping from its pedestal. This second incident, in which the hands and head of the idol have been chopped off, offers to the Philistines clear proof of divine intervention. Hacking the hands and feet off war prisoners was a well-known barbaric practice in the ancient Near East, and similar acts of mutilation are attested in the Book of Judges.

5. Therefore. This is the introductory formula for etiological explanations. An observed Philistine practice of skipping over the sanctuary threshold, as a special measure for entering sacred space, is reinterpreted as a reminiscence of the victory of Israel’s God over Dagon.

6. the hand of the LORD was heavy upon the Ashdodites. The word kaved, previously associated with Eli’s corpulence and linked by root with kavod, “glory,” recurs here in a clause that introduces the first of several echoes of the plagues against Egypt.

tumors. Many translations render this as “hemorrhoids,” and there is a little confusion in the Masoretic Text: the consonantal written version (ketiv) has “tumors,” but the tradition for reciting the text (qeri) indicates “hemorrhoids.” This confusion is compounded because the Septuagint, seconded by Josephus, includes a plague of mice not in evidence in the Masoretic version, and the golden mice of the next chapter look very much like a response to just such a plague. The fact, moreover, that hemorrhoids are a humiliating but not lethal disorder and are not spread by epidemic, whereas the Philistines protest that they are dying, gives support to an interpretation at least as old as Rashi: the plague in question is bubonic plague, carried by rats (metamorphosed in this story into mice, and associated with the epidemic but perhaps not clearly understood as the bearers of the disease); the tumors are the buboes of bubonic plague, which might especially afflict the lower body, including the rectal area.

8. overlords. The Hebrew term seranim is a Philistine loanword and is applied only to Philistines as a touch of local color (like calling Spanish aristocrats “grandees”). Some scholars have linked the word with the Greek tyrranos. Since there is only one seren for each Philistine city, they are clearly more than just “lords.”

Gath. The Ark is carried around to three of the five Philistine cities. The other two are Gaza and Ashkelon.

9. the hand of the LORD was against the town—a great panic. This apposition reflects the Hebrew syntax, which sounds a little peculiar, but there is not convincing evidence of a defective text here.

they had tumors in their secret parts. The verb yisatru is peculiar. This translation follows Rashi, Kimchi, and the King James Version in linking it with seter, “secret place.”

12. the town’s outcry rose to the heavens. This clause balances on the edge of an ambiguity. “The heavens” (hashamayim) can be simply the sky or the abode of God. Is God, Who has been present in the story through His acts, His heavy hand—but not, as it were, in person—listening to the anguished cries of the Philistines, or is this merely an image of the shrieks of the afflicted Philistines echoing under the silent vault of the heavens?