The name and worship of D. were upon either theory imported into Pal. from Babylonia. The name is held to have been originally Sumerian, but a Semitic derivation was found for it in con- nexion with its use to designate the god of aijri- culture. D. was identified with dagan, the iJeb. word for com, when corn is thought of as an agricultural product.
Presumably, D. was worshipped in Phoenicia as well as in Philistia. There is a Phoen. cylindrical seal of crystal now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, on which, according to Sayce, the name Baal-dagon is written in Phoen. letters, with an ear of com engraved near it, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, a gazelle, and several stars, but no figure of a fish. Eusebius {Prcep. Evang. i. 6) quotes Philo Byblius of the 2nd cent. A.D. as citing the ancient Phcen. legends that go under the name of Sanchoniathon, to the efiiect that Ouranos (Anu) married his sister the earth, 'and by her had four sons, Ilus (El), who is called Kronos, and Betylus, and D., which signifies "com," and Atlas.' 'I)., after he had discovered bread-corn and the plough, was called Zens Arotrios.'
The Phoen. Dagon, then, like the Bab., is properly Zeus of the plough.' With this agree all the notices found m OT in regard to the Phil. Dagon. He had temples in Gaza and Ashdod (Jg 16^, 1 S 5'-'), and presumably in the other PhU. cities. His worship among the Philistines was national, and not merely local (I Ch 10'", 1 S 5'-6'»). His worship did not exclude that of other Baals (2 K I'-'). The Philistines regarded him as giWng them victory over their enemies, rejoicing before liini when Samson was in their power, and placing Saul's head in his temple (Jg 16^, 1 Ch lO'"). But he was eminently the god of agriculture ; they acknowledged J"'s victory over him through the mice that marred their fields, and offered golden mice in token of the acknowledgment (I S 6'-').
Apparently, the worship of D. among the Philis- tines was conducted with a highly developed and technical ritual. We may infer this from the elaborate discussions and arrangements for return- ing the ark, as described in 1 S 5. 6, the golden mice and golden tumours as a guilt-otfering, the new cart, the new milch kine with their calves shut up at home. The worship of D. at Gaza con- tinued to a late period. During the Maccabasan wars Jonathan destroyed the temple of D. there (1 Mac 10«"« 11*; Jos. ArU. XUI. iv. 4, 5).
LiTKRATUEB.— Sayce, BCM 326-327 ; Sayce in S5 Timet, May 27, 1893 ; Smith, HQHL 164 ; Moore, Judga, 368 1. ; Wellh. and Driver on 1 8 6< ; Oj/. Beb. Lex. $.v. W. J. BeECHER.
DAISAN (B Aaicrar, A A«<r-), 1 Es 5".— Called Rezin, Ezr 2«, Neh 7". The form in 1 Eb is due to confusion of i and l.
DALAN (A AaXdr, B 'K<ri.r, AY Ladan), 1 Es 6** =Delaiah, Ezr 2*'.
DALE.— See EiNO's Dale.
DALETH (n).— Fourth letter of Heb. alphabet, and as such used in the 119th Psalm to designate the 4th part, each verse of which begins with this letter.
DALLY. — Only Wis 12" ' correction, wherein he dallied with them.' By a bold anthropomorphism God is described as only sporting with the Egyptians in the lighter plagues that fell on them. The Gr. is iraiyvlois ^iriTi^iijfffwt, lit. ' play-games of correction' ; Vulg. ludibriia et increpationibus, Cov. ' scornes and rebukes,' Geneva 'scornful rebukes,' RV ' a mocking correction as of children.' ' Dally ' has now chiefly tlie sense of 'delay,' which easily arose from the older sense of ' sport,' as in Milton, Of Reformation (Prose Works, li. 410), 'Let us not dally with God when he offers us a full blessing ' j and Bunyan, Heavenly Footman (Clar. Press ed. p. 270), ' it is not good dallying with things of so great concernment, as the Salvation or Damnation of thy Soul.' J. Hastings.
DALMANDTHA (laKimrovei.) is mentioned only in Mk 8'". The corresponding statement of Alt (15^ RV) gives Magadan. In Tatian, Vuitessarun (Hill's ed. p. 134), it is Magheda. Rendel Harris (Study of Codex Bezce, p. 178) suggests that Dal- manutha may be simply a corruption from the Syriac ; but see Chase, Bezan Text of the Acts, p. 145 n'. On the variants in Mk see Chase, Syro- Latin Text of the Gospels, p. 97 f. The common reading Magdala is probably a substitution of a better for a less known place. Ewald suggested that Magadan stands here for Megidon = Megiddj; but Eusebius says this Magadan was near Gera.sa. Thomson placesDalmanutha at Ed-Delemtyeh, one mile N. of the Jarmflk, at the S.E. comer of the Sea of Galilee. As the scene of the second Feeding of the Multitude is uncertain, and as there is nothing said to indicate in what direction the boat into which our Lord went was steered, ilie site of Dalmanutha cannot be determined with certainty. Tristram sufjgests a site IJ mile from Migdel (Magdala), and Sir C. Wilson thinks it was not far from that.
LiTKRATURB. — Besides the worlts mentioned above, consult Keiin. Jesux of A'a2ara(Kng. Tr.), iv. 23«ri.; Ederaheim, JesuM the Mfjsiah' (1887), ii. 07 fl. : Andrews. Life of our Lord, ed. 1»1)2, p. 338 ; Herz and Nestle m Expot. Times, viii. 663, ix. 45, 96.