When they arose early on the morrow. — Strange to say, on the next day a new and startling circumstance aroused and disturbed the exultant Philistines. The idol was again fallen, but this time broken. No mere accident could account for what had happened. The head and hands were severed from the image, and thrown contemptuously on the threshold of the temple, upon which the foot of every priest or worshipper as he passed into the sacred house must tread.
Only the stump of Dagon. — The Hebrew, rendered literally, would run, only Dagon was left to him: that is to say, only “the fish,” the least noble part of the idol image, was left standing; the human head and hands were tossed down for men as they passed in to trample on; “only the form of a fish was left in him.” — R. D. Kimchi.