BETH DAGON bĕth dā’ gən (בֵּת דָּגָן, B.\"YT-D.FGO71WN, Βηθδαγών, shrine of (the god) Dagon or house of corn). 1. A site in the Shephelah, or lowlands of Judah mentioned in Joshua 15:41. The exact location of the site is unknown though it would appear that it originally was related to a temple named for this ubiquitous ancient northeastern deity. Rameses III mentions a Beth Dagon (vowels unknown in Egyp.) in his lists of conquered areas (see no. 72 in J. Simons’ list in Handbook For Study of Egyptian Topographical Lists Relating to Western Asia [1937]), as did the Assyrian King Sennacherib in 701 b.c. calling it Bit-Dagannu.

2. A border city in the tribe of Asher and E of Mt. Carmel (Josh 19:17). The precise location is unknown.

3. 1 Maccabees 10:83, 84 refers to a temple of the god Dagon in Azotus (Ashdod).

4. Josephus (Antiq. XII, viii, I) also knows of a fortress called Dagon near Jericho.

All these references suggest that many cities and villages had shrines devoted to this god whose name first appears throughout Mesopotamia from 2500 b.c. onward and is esp. noticed in Canaan at Ugarit, Phoenicia, and the Philistine pentapolis.