What does 1 Samuel 5:5 mean?

The Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant when they defeated Israel in battle (1 Samuel 4:1–11). Keeping with the custom of the time, they brought the ark to the temple of their false god, Dagon, to demonstrate what they saw as their defeat of Israel's God. But the following morning, the statue of Dagon lay prostrate in front of the ark. They reset the statue only to return the next day to find it thoroughly desecrated: face down in front of the ark with head and hands cut off and lying on the floor to be walked on. These events reflect more than victory; they imply utter contempt.

The threshold of the doorway into a temple was often thought to be an important dividing line between what was common and what was sacred. That the head and hands of the idol were on the "threshold" increased the humiliation of what the Lord had done. The Philistines' sacred idol had been shown in submission to Yahweh, defeated before Him, forced into proximity with the common world, stripped of power and authority, shamed and humbled, literally in pieces on the floor.

Instead of deciding Dagon must not be worthy of worship since he had been dismembered by the Lord, the Philistines in Ashdod did the opposite and continued to revere their idol. They declared the spot where his head and hands were found to be a kind of holy ground that they must now step over instead of walking on. The writer says they were still observing this practice when the book of Samuel was written. Depending on exactly which "threshold" was meant, this implies they either never entered that building again, or that they began treating that part of the temple as especially sanctified.

Soon the Lord went even further to demonstrate to the Philistines in Ashdod that He was no empty god like Dagon. They would know the power of the God of Israel to be real and terrible (1 Samuel 5:6–8).