Philistines

The Philistines were a people of the southern coastal plain of Canaan, organized around five cities: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath (Joshua 13:3; 1 Samuel 6:17). Egyptian texts place them among the Sea Peoples whom Ramesses III defeated in his eighth year, and the Bible says that God brought them from Caphtor (Amos 9:7). Their arrival on the coast is dated to the 12th century BC, the archaeological period called Iron I A, when new cultural features appear at Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ekron. From the days of Samson through the reigns of Saul and David they fought Israel again and again (Judges 13:1-5; 1 Samuel 14:52; 2 Samuel 5:17-25).

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Name and origins

Egyptian texts name them prst (Peleset), Assyrian texts call them Pilišti and Palastu, and the Hebrew name of their land is Peleshet. The Sea Peoples attacked Egypt in the reigns of Merneptah and Ramesses III, who recorded his victory over their coalition on his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu in western Thebes. The Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean ended in a wider collapse, when the Mycenaean palaces of Greece were destroyed about 1200 BC and, most scholars accept, Ugarit fell to the Sea Peoples.

Scripture traces them to Caphtor: Amos sets God's bringing of "the Philistines from Caphtor" beside His bringing Israel up from Egypt, Jeremiah calls them "the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor", and Deuteronomy tells of Caphtorites who came out of Caphtor (Amos 9:7; Jeremiah 47:4; Deuteronomy 2:23). Caphtor is generally identified with Crete, though its location is disputed and some place it in Cilicia. Genesis traces the Philistines to the Casluhites, "from whom the Philistines came", among the descendants of Mizraim (Genesis 10:13-14; 1 Chronicles 1:11-12). The Cherethites, whose name probably meant Cretans, are named alongside the Philistines, and Benaiah commanded David's Cherethites and Pelethites (Ezekiel 25:16; Zephaniah 2:5; 2 Samuel 8:18).

Where they came from before that is still debated, and some scholars explain the Aegean features of early Philistine culture by the spread of ideas rather than by the arrival of a new people. A 2019 ancient DNA study found that infants buried beneath late 12th century BC houses at Ashkelon carried a European-related ancestry, a signal that within two centuries could no longer be detected. The study was conceived by Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute's Department of Archaeogenetics in Jena, and Daniel M. Master, professor of archaeology at Wheaton College and co-director of the Leon Levy Expedition; Michal Feldman of the same department performed the data analyses. Their rulers' title, seren, may be connected with tyrannos, and the Philistines soon adopted a Canaanite dialect, which later gave way to Aramaic.

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The land and the five cities

Philistia was a narrow coastal plain reaching from about Joppa in the north to just south of Gaza, and Joshua describes the land as running "from the Shihor east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north" (Joshua 13:3). Each city had its own ruler, called seren, and the five acted together in council and could overrule any one of their number (Joshua 13:3; Judges 16:5; 1 Samuel 6:16; 29:1-7). Ekron is the mound of Tel Miqne, and Gath is identified with Tell es-Safi.

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From the patriarchs to Samuel

Genesis calls Abimelech of Gerar, with whom Abraham and Isaac made covenants, "king of the Philistines" (Genesis 21:22-32; 26:1, 26-33). In Isaac's day the Philistines, envying him, stopped up the wells dug in Abraham's time, which Isaac reopened (Genesis 26:14-15, 18). Many scholars have treated these accounts, set long before the Philistines' 12th-century arrival, as an anachronism written back by a later writer or editor, while an older reference work argues that they accurately describe a historical situation. At the Exodus, God did not lead Israel along "the road through the land of the Philistines", though it was shorter, lest the people face war, and Exodus 15 foresees that "anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia" (Exodus 13:17; 15:14). When Joshua was old, "all the territory of the Philistines" still remained, left among the nations that would test Israel, and Judges records that Judah captured Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron (Joshua 13:1-3; Judges 3:1-4; 1:18).

Shamgar son of Anath saved Israel by striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad (Judges 3:31). Later the LORD delivered Israel into Philistine hands for forty years, and in Samson's day the Philistines ruled over Israel (Judges 13:1; 14:4). Samson, a Nazirite who was to "begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines", was betrayed by Delilah to their lords, blinded and imprisoned at Gaza, and died pulling down the temple of their god Dagon (Judges 13:5; 16:4-30).

In Eli's time the Philistines were able to take the ark at Ebenezer and killed Eli's sons, but Dagon fell before the ark at Ashdod, tumors struck Ashdod, Gath and Ekron, and after seven months they sent it back with a guilt offering (1 Samuel 4:1-11; 5:1-12; 6:1-16). When the Philistine rulers marched against Israel at Mizpah, the LORD thundered against them, Samuel set up a stone he named Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us", and the towns they had taken from Ekron to Gath were restored to Israel (1 Samuel 7:7-14). When Israel asked for a king "to fight our battles", God told Samuel that the man he was to anoint would save His people "from the hand of the Philistines" (1 Samuel 8:20; 9:16).

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Saul and David

In the reign of Saul (1050-1010 BC) the Philistines kept outposts inside Israel, and despite Jonathan's raid near Michmash, Saul's war with the Philistines stayed fierce throughout his reign (1 Samuel 10:5; 13:3; 14:1-15, 52). No blacksmith could be found in Israel, for the Philistines would not let the Hebrews make swords or spears, so Israelites paid the Philistines a pim to sharpen a plowshare or mattock, and on the day of battle only Saul and Jonathan had weapons (1 Samuel 13:19-22). In the Valley of Elah their champion Goliath of Gath challenged Israel for forty days until David killed Goliath with a sling and a stone, and Israel pursued the Philistines to Gath and Ekron (1 Samuel 17:1-16, 49-52).

David fled to Achish king of Gath, later lived under him in Philistine territory for a year and four months, first in Gath and then at Ziklag, and was sent back when the Philistine commanders would not let him go into battle with them (1 Samuel 21:10-15; 27:1-7; 29:1-11). On Mount Gilboa the Philistines overthrew Saul: they killed his sons, he fell on his own sword, and they hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan (1 Samuel 31:1-10). Once king, David (1010-970 BC) defeated the Philistines at Baal-perazim and in the Valley of Rephaim and later subdued them (2 Samuel 5:17-25; 8:1).

At 2 Samuel 21:19 the Hebrew text says that Elhanan killed "Goliath the Gittite", with no word for "brother" at Goliath's name; the English translation used here supplies "the brother of", and 1 Chronicles calls the man "Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite" (2 Samuel 21:19; 1 Chronicles 20:5). The difference is explained either as a copying error in the text of 2 Samuel 21:19 or as Chronicles harmonizing that verse with 1 Samuel 17. Six hundred Gittites who had followed David from Gath marched with him, and their leader, Ittai the Gittite, swore to stay with the king "whether it means life or death" (2 Samuel 15:18-22).

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Kings and prophets

When Ahaziah, king in Samaria (853-852 BC), sent to inquire of "Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron", Elijah announced that he would die (2 Kings 1:2-17). Hazael king of Aram fought against Gath and captured it, then turned toward Jerusalem (2 Kings 12:17). At Tell es-Safi, excavations directed by Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University found a destruction of the mid to late ninth century BC and a large siege system surrounding the city, which Maeir associates with Hazael's siege and conquest of Gath.

Uzziah (767-740 BC) tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod and built towns among the Philistines (2 Chronicles 26:6-7). In the year King Ahaz (732-716 BC) died, an oracle in Isaiah told the Philistines not to rejoice that the rod that struck them was broken (Isaiah 14:28-32). Hezekiah (716-687 BC) defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders (2 Kings 18:8). Amos, Joel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zephaniah pronounced judgment on the Philistine cities (Amos 1:6-8; Joel 3:4-8; Jeremiah 25:20; 47:1-7; Ezekiel 25:15-17; Zephaniah 2:4-7). In Nehemiah's day Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab, and half their children spoke "the language of Ashdod" or of the other peoples and could not speak the language of Judah (Nehemiah 13:23-24).

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Religion

Scripture names Dagon as the god of the Philistines, with temples at Gaza and Ashdod, and their lords gathered at Gaza to sacrifice to "their god Dagon" (Judges 16:21-30; 1 Samuel 5:2-5; 1 Chronicles 10:10). Pinhas Artzi describes Dagon as a god of seed, crops and vegetation worshiped in Syria and Canaan. The popular idea of Dagon as a fish-god rests on a mistaken etymology. The Philistines put Saul's armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths (1 Samuel 31:10). Israel called the Philistines "the uncircumcised", a term of derision, for unlike the Israelites and almost all the surrounding peoples they did not practice circumcision (Judges 14:3; 15:18; 1 Samuel 17:26).

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Archaeology

Pottery, made locally from the beginning, has long been treated as the hallmark of the Philistines; its typical forms include beer jugs with strainer spouts, painted in red and black. Pig bones are abundant at Iron Age I Ekron, but Justin Lev-Tov, whose 2000 doctoral study at the University of Tennessee examined Ekron's animal bones, cautions that "abundant pig bones should not be used as ethnic markers". At Tell Qasile, excavations directed by Amihai Mazar for the Eretz Israel Museum uncovered a Philistine temple whose roof rested on two cedar columns set on round stone bases.

The Ekron Inscription, found at Tel Miqne in 1996, records that Akhayus son of Padi, "ruler of Ekron", built the temple; Padi and his son, called Ikausu, are kings of Ekron also named in the Assyrian annals, and the inscription identifies the site as Ekron.

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Assyria, Egypt and Babylon

When Iamani of Ashdod drew Philistia, Judah, Edom and Moab into an alliance, Sargon II king of Assyria (722-705 BC) attacked and in 711 BC captured Ashdod and Gath; fragments of a basalt victory stele he set up have been found at Ashdod. Isaiah 20 is set in the year Ashdod was captured, when Isaiah went naked and barefoot as a sign against Egypt and Cush (Isaiah 20:1-6). The people of Ekron handed their king Padi to Hezekiah in iron fetters, and in 701 BC Sennacherib king of Assyria (705-681 BC) captured Ashkelon, had Padi released from Jerusalem and restored as ruler of Ekron, and gave the kings of Ashdod, Ekron and Gaza a strip of Judahite territory in the foothills (2 Kings 18:13).

Egypt under Pharaoh Necho overran Philistia and conquered Gaza. Jeremiah's oracle about the Philistines came "before Pharaoh struck down Gaza" (Jeremiah 47:1-2). In the winter of 604 BC Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) took Ashkelon; a Babylonian chronicle records that he captured its king, plundered the city and "turned the city into a mound and heaps of ruins". The Leon Levy Expedition found the destruction layer of 604 BC across the whole site, evidence that the Babylonians reached the heart of the city. Ekron too was largely burned in that campaign, and Nebuchadnezzar deported rulers and people alike, extinguishing what was left of Philistine independence.

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Later history

The name Palestine derives from the name of the Philistines. Herodotus, in the mid-fifth century BC, is the first writer to use it for a geographical region, and the Greeks, who knew the coast first, gradually applied it to the whole country. After the Romans crushed the Jewish revolts, they renamed the area Syria Palaestina.