The Lord's presence went along into the land of the Philistines with the returning victorious Philistine warriors. A detachment of Philistines troops pursued the Israelites to Shiloh where the Tabernacle of Moses was burnt to the ground and Shiloh was sacked and destroyed in a violent conflagration (documented by Jeremiah 7:12 and archaeology.)

The Philistines had five major cities each with a king (Ashdod, Gath, Ekron, Gaza, Ashkelon – Joshua 13:3). The head city was Ashdod about 30 miles southwest of the battle scene at Ebenezer. In a pagan temple to Dagon the Ark of the Covenant was set in front of Dagon's image as a trophy of Dagon’s victory over Israel and as Dagon's share of the plunder.

In the morning when the priests of Dagon opened his temple for services they found Dagon on his face before the Ark of the Lord. The message seems to be clear: Dagon had bowed his head to the Lord, and the Philistines should follow their "god's" lead or they would be defeated by the Lord. The priests of Dagon stood their god back up, and resumed their activities.

But, the next day they found Dagon again fallen prostrate in worship, but this time his image was decapitated and dismembered. Kings and troops conquered by their enemies in the battle field where often decapitated so that their head could be displayed as a trophy (1 Chron. 10:10). Likewise, the hands were also removed as a symbol of the defeated foes being left powerless.

Since Dagon's hands were holy to the Philistines the threshold that he had touched also became holy in the Philistine culture. So, instead of submitting to the Lord of Israel, the Philistines took this symbol of the Lord God Almighty's supreme authority and twisted it to mean that Dagon had chosen to touch the thresholds of the all the doors in Ashdod in order to sanctify them, making the thresholds sacred. (Zephaniah 1:9 condemns those who followed this teaching 400 years later in 625 BC.)