What Does 1 Samuel 5:4 Mean in the King James?
And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A power that must be stood back up cannot stand as a god: here its face is in the dust, its head and hands are cut away, and only its body remains.
THE MEANING
The authority you fear as untouchable is shown unable to stand or act; its head and hands lie severed at the threshold. The verse exposes the difference between a power’s claim and what it can actually sustain in the LORD’s presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that what presents itself as ultimate can support and defend itself; Dagon cannot even remain upright, and its head and hands are cut away.
THE ROOT
פָּנָיו
panav
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah
The root פנה (panah) means to turn or face toward; פָּנִים (panim) means face or presence, and לִפְנֵי (lifnei) means before, in the presence of.
“face / before” in this verse is panav. Hebrew places Dagon’s face on the ground and then says he is לִפְנֵי (lifnei), “before” the Ark, in its face or presence. English separates “face” from “before,” while the Hebrew links them in one image of collapse into the LORD’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
panim: face; presence
פָּנִים
Dagon’s face is pressed to the ground, making his posture plain.
lifnei: before; in the presence of
לִפְנֵי
The KJV’s “before the ark” echoes the face-language and locates the fall in the Ark’s presence.
panah: turn; face toward
פָּנָה
The root’s sense of facing toward underlies the verse’s repeated face-and-presence image.
כְּרוּתוֹת
kerutot
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
The root כרת (karat) means to cut or cut off.
“cut off” in this verse is kerutot. The same verb describes Dagon’s severed hands and the Hebrew expression כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), “cut a covenant.” The body-cut and covenant are distinct uses, but both grow from the same verb of cutting.
ALSO GROWS
karat: cut; cut off
כָּרַת
This is the verb behind the KJV’s description of Dagon’s severed parts.
karat berit: cut a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The root also names the act of making a covenant, revealing another branch of the same verb.
הָרֹאשׁ
harosh
GROWS FROM
ראשׁ
rosh
The root ראשׁ (rosh) means head, top, or chief.
רֹאשׁ (rosh) names both a body’s head and what is chief or at the top. Dagon’s physical head is gone, while its palms, the means of handling, are also cut off, leaving only a body at the threshold.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: head; chief
רֹאשׁ
The severed head is also the word’s image for what is foremost or chief.
reshit: beginning; first part
רֵאשִׁית
This related form carries the sense of what comes first or stands at the head.
THE PATTERN
A power fashioned by human hands cannot carry, answer, or rescue the one who depends on it.
They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.THE THREAD
And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.The same face-and-presence wording appears one verse earlier: Dagon falls face-down before the Ark, is set upright again, and falls once more. The repeated root connection makes the second fall a deeper exposure, the image cannot stand in the presence before which it lies.
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