What Does 1 Samuel 5:5 Mean in the King James?

Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.

1 Samuel 5:5 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Dagon cannot keep his own head and hands, yet his threshold still commands the feet of everyone who enters his house.

THE MEANING

A power can keep directing your movements even after it has proved unable to act for itself. Here, the feet obey a taboo at the very threshold where Dagon’s defeat lies. The place preserves the humiliation even as the ritual tries to contain it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that whatever commands reverence must be powerful breaks here: Dagon cannot keep his own head and hands, yet his threshold still governs those who enter.

THE ROOT

יִדְרְכוּ

yidrekhu

GROWS FROM

ד־ר־ך

D-R-K

To tread, step upon, or march.

“tread” in this verse is yidrekhu. The verb comes from the same root as ⁨דֶּרֶךְ⁩ (derek), “way” or “path.” The priests’ refusal to step over the threshold turns Dagon’s place of defeat into a boundary that directs every body entering his house.

ALSO GROWS

derek: Way, road, or path.

דֶּרֶךְ

The literal step forbidden here shares its root with the word for a path, so the taboo sets the route through Dagon’s house.

midrakh: Footstep, footprint, or place to tread.

מִדְרָךְ

This related word makes the root’s physical sense visible: a footstep leaves a mark, and here the threshold carries the mark of Dagon’s defeat.

THE PATTERN

An image can fail to act while people continue to organize their bodies and customs around its supposed power.

They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

Psalm 115:5 · KJVThe image has the organs of action but cannot use them, exposing the helplessness that the ritual can conceal.

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.

Isaiah 46:7 · KJVThe people must carry and position the image, while their cries receive no answer.

And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

1 Kings 18:27 · KJVThe worshippers keep calling to a god who does not respond, while the verse exposes the distance between their ritual and his power.

THE THREAD

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 1:6 · KJV

The “tread” in this verse and the “way” in Psalm 1:6 share the root ⁨ד־ר־ך⁩ (D-R-K). Here, a path is policed at a threshold; in the psalm, the way itself reveals where a path leads.

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