The Ark Afflicts the Philistines 1 And the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 1. What does it mean that the ark is carried away from the Stone of Help, except that the heralds of truth take away the mysteries of the Scriptures from that Christ whom the Jews await with a false expectation?
Bede · AD 735 The Philistines took the Ark of God, etc. The Gentiles received the word of the Gospel from Judea, where the Lord was born in the flesh, lived, and suffered, leaving the places of His dispensation sacred to the mysteries to this day.
2 And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it up beside Dagon.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 In short, if you believe the place is holy because the law and the books of prophets are there, then it is time for you to believe that idols and the temples of idols are holy. Once, when the Jews were at war, the people of Ashdod conquered them, took their ark and brought it into their own temple. Did the fact that it contained the ark make their temple a holy place?
Bede · AD 735 And they set it beside Dagon. And they erected the churches of Christ among the nations, while in some places the worship of idols still remained.
3 And the Ashdodites rose early the next day — and look, Dagon fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 This was so that the foreigners might know that God had neither been defeated through the Israelites, nor had they conquered him by their own power, but that the sins and impieties of the Jews had brought about the defeat. And Dagon fell before the ark, not in order to worship — for he was not worthy — but in order to be crushed; which indeed also came to pass.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 2. That is, in the temple, where the ark of God had been placed. What then does it mean to restore Dagon to his place, if not, in light of the already known truth of spiritual sacraments, to examine the state of idolatry with subtle consideration?
Bede · AD 735 And when they rose early in the morning, etc. The signs of miracles becoming clear through the heralds of faith, the worship of idolatry fell away among those who were able to be converted to Christ; but, although it was betrayed and exposed, which is vanity, it was recovered among those who moved the weapons of perfidy against the truth.
4 And they rose early in the morning the next day — and look, Dagon fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD, with the head of Dagon and the two palms of his hands cut off, on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left on him.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 They rise again at dawn: because toward the love of the goodness they have heard, they now raise themselves with the certainty of deliberation. The first day, therefore, is one of testing, the next of recognition, and the third of deliberate certainty and offered profession.
Bede · AD 735 But the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands, etc. The head of all sin, the pride of the devil, and the work of idolatry; which, as if with two palms, was conducted by the profession of impiety, the ceremonies of praises and sacrifices, already separated from the related body, that is, the crowds of seducers adhering to it, was now, and about to be cast out, prepared b…
5 Therefore the priests of Dagon, and all who come into the house of Dagon, do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, to this day.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 4. For they present themselves as priests of Dagon, who do not tread upon the threshold. In these words it must be carefully observed that he did not say "the threshold," but "upon the threshold," so that the head and hands of Dagon are taught to be what must be trampled upon, which are reported to have been cut off upon the threshold.
Bede · AD 735 For this reason, the priests of Dagon do not tread, etc. For the reason that the devil is to be cast out and condemned in the end, all those who perversely follow him either by teaching or acting, prompted by him, shun considering and guarding against the time of his sentence and condemnation.
6 And the hand of the LORD was heavy on the Ashdodites, and he devastated them; and he struck them with tumors — Ashdod and its territories.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 5. The hand of the Lord is the power of divine might. And because in the Azotians the beginnings of paganism are signified, what does it mean that the hand of the Lord is said to have been made heavy upon the Azotians? But He made His hand heavy upon Azotus when He moved the hearts of the Gentiles to conversion by the power of His might.
Bede · AD 735 But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the Ashdodites, etc. Those who, having taken up the ark of God, grieve for Dagon's destruction and set up his ruin, are struck in their hind parts, and their land is ravaged by mice.
7 And the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, and they said, “The ark of the God of Israel shall not stay with us — for his hand is hard on us and on Dagon our god.”
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 7. For when they saw temples destroyed, sacrifices ceasing, wives separated from husbands and husbands from wives, sons separated from parents and fathers from sons, what else could they think but that the hand of the Lord was heavy both upon them and upon their superstition?
Bede · AD 735 Seeing the men of Ashdod had such a plague, etc. Upon seeing the idol worshippers experience the power of Christ against their gods, they refuse to accept his faith, lest on account of this they might be compelled to renounce their whole host of gods.
8 And they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they said, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” And they brought the ark of the God of Israel around.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 8. Because it is said that the satraps of the Philistines gathered together, but why they gathered is not stated. Yet because the satraps are said to have responded and to have given counsel about carrying the ark around, it is clearly understood that they had been summoned to give counsel regarding that same ark.
Bede · AD 735 And the Gittites replied: Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried around, etc. And this carrying around of the ark suits the present time of our age, where each of the weak desires the difficult words of the Lord to be fulfilled by others rather than by themselves.
9 And it was, after they had brought it around, that the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great panic; and he struck the men of the city, from small to great, and tumors broke out on them.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 9. For the ark is carried around when the mysteries of the faith are preached openly and without fear. And because in the beginnings of the faith countless people were converted, a very great slaughter is reported to have been made throughout each of the cities.
Bede · AD 735 And their prominent entrails spoiled. And the meditation of their inner heart fell back into blind and dirty matters of the present life, full of foul dung and blood of vices, appearing before all; a type of affliction to which the madness of the heretics can be compared, as shown even by the death of Arius; who, with his bowels pouring out through his backside, miserably found…
10 And they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it was, when the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought around to me the ark of the God of Israel, to kill me and my people!”
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 11. The satraps, as we have said, are understood as the holy preachers. The Ekronites, who are interpreted as "barren," designate the unconvertible Gentiles.
11 And they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its place, so that it does not kill me and my people.” For there was a deadly panic throughout the whole city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
Bede · AD 735 They sent therefore, and gathered all the satraps of the Philistines, etc. Many believers of the nations today, though not in words, say: Abandon the faith, and let it return to the children of Israel, so that at last, having cut us off, they may be grafted according to nature into their own olive tree.
12 And the men who did not die were struck with the tumors; and the cry of the city went up to the heavens.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 13. Concerning the striking of the buttocks indeed, because we spoke of it above, it would not need to be discussed here, if nothing different were said here than was said there. What then is the meaning of what it says: "The men also who had not died were struck"? Were those who had died supposed to be bitten again as punishment for the ark?
Bede · AD 735 And the wailing of each city went up to heaven. And the murmur and impatience and the clamor of Sodom, falsely significant among the faithful, in whichever places, or persons, or certainly senses of the body, which are five for the cities of the Philistines, can never escape the strict judge, who foretelling such times with a dreadful sentence says: Nevertheless, when the Son o…