‘ And when the people saw him, they praised their god for they said, “Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country who has killed many of us.” '
The order in which the verse comes is not strictly chronological. They would see him first when he was led bound through the streets in triumph, and then when they visited the prison house to gloat over him, and finally when they called for him to be brought to the temple of Dagon. Blinded and fettered he appeared to be a triumph for them and for their god, for they remembered how he had burned their crops and olive orchards and how he had slain their dead. Note how the rejoicing and celebration is stressed. They made a great show of it and this is in fact a victory song which we might render:
“He has given, our God,
Into our hands, our enemy,
Ravager, of our land,
Multiplier, of our slain.