תהלים, פרק ע״ח, פסוק ס״ו

A crushing military defeat and a humiliating blow stand at the center of this historical event, marking a punishment that left behind a permanent legacy of shame. The primary approach among commentators [רש״י, אבן עזרא, מאירי ואלשיך] identifies the targets of this strike as God's enemies, specifically the Philistines. In this view, the punishment was a highly physical and degrading affliction to their bodies, specifically a plague of hemorrhoids. God intentionally kept these enemies alive rather than killing them, ensuring they would endure the deep public disgrace of this condition [אלשיך]. A simpler understanding of the battle suggests that God struck these foreign enemies with such force that they were completely repelled, forced to retreat and flee [ביאור שטיינזלץ].

In sharp contrast, another perspective [רד ק ומצודת דוד] suggests that the targets of the blow were not foreign enemies, but rather the sinners and transgressors within the Israelites themselves. As a punishment for their wrongdoings, God caused the Israelites to turn their backs in battle and run from the Philistines. In their desperate retreat, the fleeing Israelites were struck from behind by their pursuers.

These differing views directly shape the understanding of the eternal shame that followed the battle. For those who see the Philistines as the targets of the physical affliction, the eternal shame was the humiliating plague itself, which remained a permanent source of mockery and disgrace for them [רש״י, אלשיך ומאירי]. However, according to the view that the Israelites were the ones who fled, the eternal shame refers to a profound national tragedy: the capture and exile of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines, an event that scarred the people of Israel with lasting historical disgrace [רד ק ומצודת דוד].