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with a degree of calmness, for he had reason to expect it. But when
the messenger added, “And the ark of God is taken,” Eli wavered in
anguish upon his seat, and fell backward and died. He shared the wrath
of God which came upon his sons. He was guilty in a great measure
of their transgressions, because he had criminally neglected to restrain
them. The capture of the ark of God by the Philistines was considered
the greatest calamity which could befall Israel. The wife of Phinehas,
as she was about to die, named her child Ichabod, saying, “The glory
is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken.”
God permitted his ark to be taken by their enemies to show Israel
how vain it was to trust in the ark, the symbol of his presence, while
they were profaning the commandments contained in the ark. God
would humble them by removing from them that sacred ark, their
boasted strength and confidence.
The Philistines were triumphant, because they had, as they thought,
the famous God of the Israelites, which had performed such wonders
for them, and had made them a terror to their enemies. They took the
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ark of God to Ashdod, and set it in a splendid temple, made in honor
of their most popular god, Dagon, and placed it by the side of their
god. In the morning the priests of these gods entered the temple, and
they were terrified to find Dagon fallen upon his face to the ground
before the ark of the Lord. They raised Dagon and placed him in
his former position. They thought he might have accidentally fallen.
But the next morning they found him fallen as before upon his face
to the ground, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were cut
off. The angels of God, who ever accompanied the ark, prostrated the
senseless idol god, and afterward mutilated it, to show that God, the
living God, was above all gods, and before him every heathen God
was as nothing. The heathen possessed great reverence for their god,
Dagon, and when they found it ruinously mutilated, and lying upon its
face before the ark of God, they were sad, and considered it a very bad
omen to the Philistines. It was interpreted by them that the Philistines
and all their gods would yet be subdued and destroyed by the Hebrews,
and the Hebrews’ God would be greater and more powerful than all
gods. They removed the ark of God from their idol temple, and placed
it by itself.
The men of Ashdod began to be greatly afflicted. The Lord de-
stroyed them, and they remembered the plagues brought upon Egypt,