Little fish; diminutive from dag = a fish, the fish-god; the national god of the Philistines. This idol had the body of a fish with the head and hands of a man. Definition from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897, public domain), a 19th-century Christian reference work. Where scholarship has since moved on: Later scholarship rejects the fish-god reading. The link to Hebrew dag (“fish”) traces to the medieval commentator Rashi (11th century) rather than to any ancient source, and since the 1920s the name has generally been derived instead from dagan (“grain”), making Dagan a grain and agriculture deity.
Daily life in Bible times
Dagon
The gods of their world
Sources, trace every one
Every cited verse, in full. Tap any reference to open it in the reader.
- Judges 16:23bsb
Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.”
- 1 Samuel 5:1bsb
After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,
On contested questions we show every major view, attributed and cited, and pick no winner. Answers are synthesized from primary sources, truth you can trace, not opinion.