Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 5:1 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 1. 1And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Moves the captured ark from Eben-ezer into Philistine Ashdod.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 5:1–5:5
Verse 5:1 belongs to “Dagon falls before the captured ark.” It moves the captured ark from Eben-ezer into Philistine Ashdod; detached from the full unit, that contribution can be mistaken for the unit's whole claim.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 5:1, the scene moves the captured ark from Eben-ezer into Philistine Ashdod. That movement matters to “Dagon falls before the captured ark” while the unit's uncertainty and ethical boundary continue to govern application.
What Remains True
Moves the captured ark from Eben-ezer into Philistine Ashdod. Within 1 Samuel 5:1–5:5, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: Leadership and loyalty remain answerable for the effects traced here: The Philistines place the ark beside Dagon in Ashdod, but the image falls face down and then appears broken, leaving a remembered threshold practice. The scene does not authorize vandalizing worship sites, mocking living religions, or treating ancient divine rivalry as permission for modern religious violence.
How It Can Shape Life
- Moves the captured ark from Eben-ezer into Philistine Ashdod. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: Let worship produce truthful dependence, care for people, and accountable conduct rather than treating sacred language, ritual, or objects as leverage over God or others. The scene does not authorize vandalizing worship sites, mocking living religions, or treating ancient divine rivalry as permission for modern religious violence.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 5:1–5:5 — Dagon falls before the captured arkSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 5:1–5:5, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 5:1–5:5; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 5:1–5:5
Open source ↗