When they arose early on the next day morning, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands [lay] cut off on the threshold; only [the stump of] Dagon was left to him.
"The received text here has `only Dagon was left,' which is manifestly impossible."[13]  To remedy this ` impossibility' the text was emended in all the versions to read,' only the trunk of Dagon was left.  However, the principal factor in Dagon's name ([~dag]) means ` fish,' and Keil described this old idol as, "A bearded man, wearing the ordinary conical tiara of royalty ...and the lower part resembling the body of a fish."[14] Therefore, we wonder if the Hebrew text of the O.T. (the received text) might be interpreted to mean that the head and hands (all the human parts of the idol) were cut off and only the fish part was left.  "Thus he lay there in his true ugliness."[15]