1 Samuel 5
The full text of 1 Samuel 5 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
2 Then they carried the ark into the temple of Dagon and set it beside Dagon.
3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place.
4 But the next morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and both his hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only Dagon's torso remained.
5 That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor anyone else who enters Dagon's temple at Ashdod steps on the threshold.
6 The LORD's hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its surrounding territory; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors.
7 When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god."
8 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" They answered, "Have the ark of the God of Israel moved to Gath." So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.
9 But after they had moved it, the LORD's hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.
10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people!"
11 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the ark of the God of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people." For a deadly panic had gripped the whole city; God's hand was very heavy on it.
12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
Translation notes (7)
- 1 Samuel 5:2a Dagon was the chief god of the Philistines; placing the captured ark beside him was meant to display Dagon's supremacy over the God of Israel.
- 1 Samuel 5:4a 'Only Dagon's torso remained': the Hebrew says 'only Dagon was left to him'; with his head and hands severed, the trunk is meant. Some traditions read 'only the fish-part,' linking the name Dagon to the word for fish.
- 1 Samuel 5:5a This is an etiological note, meaning it explains the origin of a custom: the practice of stepping over the threshold of Dagon's temple traces back to this event; compare Zephaniah 1:9.
- 1 Samuel 5:6a 'Tumors' follows the qere, which is a traditional reading that differs from the written consonantal text; the consonantal text reads a coarser word, rendered 'in their secret parts' in some traditions. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, adds that the LORD also brought a plague of mice or rats on them and their land, anticipating 6:4-5.
- 1 Samuel 5:8a 'Rulers' translates a Philistine term (seranim) for the lords of the five Philistine cities.
- 1 Samuel 5:9a 'Tumors' again follows the qere, the traditional reading; the consonantal text has the coarser word, as in verse 6.
- 1 Samuel 5:12a 'Tumors' follows the qere, the traditional reading, as in verses 6 and 9.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own translation of Scripture, made directly from the original Hebrew rather than revised from an older English Bible. Completed in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation available, and it is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Reading the TBV here on the web is free — the full study edition, with original-language tools and notes on every verse, lives in the Trinity Bible app.
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