Judges 16:23 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Then 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. The lords of the Philistines gathered... to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon. It was a common practice in pagan nations, on the return of their solemn religious festivals, to bring forth their war prisoners from their places of confinement or slavery, and in heaping on them every species of indignity, offer their grateful tribute to the gods by whose aid they had triumphed over their enemies. A vast temple was there erected to Dagon, who was a sea-idol, usually represented as having the head and upper parts human, while the rest of the body resembled a fish.