1 Samuel 5:4

cut off upon the threshold i.e. cut off and lying upon the doorsill, probably not of the main entrance to the temple, but of the chapel or recess in which the statue stood. In this position they would be liable to the indignity of being trampled upon by the priests and worshippers who entered the shrine.

only the stump of Dagon was left to him Lit., only Dagon was left upon him. Either some word for -trunk" or -body" has been lost in the original, or -Dagon" is used to denote the fish-shaped body of the idol, from which the god derived his name.

"Next came one

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark

Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopped off

In his own temple, on the grunsel edge,

Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshippers."

Paradise Lost, I. 457.