² then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and placed it beside Dagon.^(A)

Samson’s Death

²³ Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to rejoice, for they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.”^(A)

²³ You have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven! The vessels of his temple have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose power is your very breath and to whom belong all your ways, you have not honored.^(A)

² Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar commanded that they bring in the vessels of gold and silver that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.^(A)

¹⁰ They put his armor in the temple of their gods and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.^(A)