2 lines
8.0 KiB
HTML
2 lines
8.0 KiB
HTML
|
<p>The downfall of Dagon (if the people had made a good use of it, and had been brought by it to repent of their idolatries and to humble themselves before the God of Israel and seek his face) might have prevented the vengeance which God here proceeds to take upon them for the indignities done to his ark, and their obstinate adherence to their idol, in defiance of the plainest conviction. <i>Lord, when thy hand is lifted up they will not see, but they shall see</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.26.11" href="/passage/?search=Isa.26.11">Isa. 26:11</a>. And, if they will not see the glory, they shall feel the weight, of God’s hand, for so the Philistines did. <i>The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.5.6" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.5.6">1 Sam. 5:6</a>), and he not only convinced them of their folly, but severely chastised their insolence. 1. <i>He destroyed them</i>, that is, cut many of them off by sudden death, those, we may suppose, that had most triumphed in the captivity of the ark. This is distinguished from the disease with which others were smitten. At Gath it is called <i>a great destruction</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.5.9" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.5.9">1 Sam. 5:9</a>), <i>a deadly destruction</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.5.11" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.5.11">1 Sam. 5:11</a>. And it is expressly said (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.5.12" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.5.12">1 Sam. 5:12</a>) that those who were <i>smitten with the emerods were the men that died not</i> by the other <i>destruction</i>, which probably was the pestilence. They boasted of the great slaughter which their sword had made among the Israelites, <a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.4.10" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.4.10">1 Sam. 4:10</a>. But God lets them know that though he does not see fit to draw Israel’s sword against them (they were unworthy to be employed), yet God had a sword of his own, with which he could make a no less dreadful execution among them, which if he whet, and <i>his hand take hold on judgment, he will render vengeance to his enemies</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.32.41,Deut.32.42" href="/passage/?search=Deut.32.41,Deut.32.42"><span class="bibleref" title="Deut.32.41">Deut. 32:41</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Deut.32.42">42</span></a>. Note, Those that contend with God, his ark, and his Israel, will infallibly be ruined at last. If conviction conquer not, destruction shall. 2. Those that were not destroyed <i>he smote with emerods</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.5.6" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.5.6">1 Sam. 5:6</a>), <i>in their secret parts</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.5.9" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.5.9">1 Sam. 5:9</a>), so grievous that (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.5.12" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.5.12">1 Sam. 5:12</a>) the <i>cry went up to heaven</i>, that is, it might be heard a great way off, and perhaps, in the extremity of their pain and misery, they cried, not to Dagon, but to the God of heaven. The Psalmist, speaking of this sore judgment upon the Philistines, describes it thus: God <i>smote his enemies in the hinder parts</i>, and <i>put them to a perpetual reproach</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.78.66" href="/passage/?search=Ps.78.66">Ps. 78:66</a>. The emerods (which we call the piles, and perhaps it was then a more grievous disease than it is now) is threatened among the judgments that would be the fruit of the curse, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.28.27" href="/passage/?search=Deut.28.27">Deut. 28:27</a>. It was both a painful and shameful disease; a vile disease for vile deserts. By it God would humble their pride, and put contempt upon them, as they had done upon his ark. The disease was epidemical, and perhaps, among them, a new disease. <i>Ashdod was smitten, and the coasts thereof</i>, the country round. For contempt of God’s ordinances, <i>many are weak and sick, and many sleep</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="1Cor.11.30" href="/passage/?search=1Cor.11.30">1 Cor. 11:30</a>. 3. The men of Ashdod were so
|