Judges 16:23

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

American King James Version (AKJV)

Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

American Standard Version (ASV)

And the lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

And the chiefs of the Philistines came together to make a great offering to Dagon their god, and to be glad; for they said, Our god has given into our hands Samson our hater.

Webster's Revision

Then the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

World English Bible

The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, "Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand."

English Revised Version (ERV)

And the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

Clarke's Judges 16:23 Bible Commentary

Unto Dagon their god - Diodorus Siculus describes their god thus:

Το μεν προσωπον εχει γυναικος, το δ' αλλο σωμα παν ιχθους;

"It had the head of a woman, but all the rest of the body resembled a fish."

Dagon was called Dorceto among the heathens. Horace, in the following lines, especially in the third and fourth, seems to have in view the image of Dagon: -

Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam

Pingere si velit; et varias inducere plumas,

Undique collatis Inembris; ut turpiter atrum

Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne;

Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici?

De Art. Poet., V. 1.

"Suppose a painter to a human head

Should join a horse's neck; and wildly spread

The various plumage of the feather'd kind

O'er limbs of different beasts, absurdly join'd;

continued...

Barnes's Judges 16:23 Bible Commentary

Dagon was the national idol of the Philistines 1 Chronicles 10:10, so called from Dag, a fish. The description of Dagon, in his temple at Ashdod 1 Samuel 5:4, exactly agrees with the representations of a fish-god on the walls of Khorsabad, on slabs at Kouyunjik, and on sundry antique cylinders and gems. In these the figures vary. Some have a human form down to the waist, with that of a fish below the waist; others have a human head, arms, and legs, growing, as it were, out of a fish's body, and so arranged that the fish's head forms a kind of mitre to the man's head, while the body and fins form a kind of cloak, hanging down behind.

Wesley's Judges 16:23 Bible Commentary

16:23 Dagon - An idol, whose upper part was like a man, and whose lower part was like a fish: probably one of the sea - gods of the Heathens.