Ashdod

Biblical References

• Joshua: Joshua 11:22 lists Ashdod, together with Gaza and Gath, as a place where Anakim remained. In 13:3 it appears as one of the cities ruled by the five lords of the Philistines. In 15:46-47 it is included in the inheritance of the tribe of Judah.
• 1 Samuel: The Philistines placed the captured ark of the covenant in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. The next morning the image of Dagon was found fallen on its face before the ark, and on the following morning its head and both hands had been cut off (1 Samuel 5:1-5). When the people of Ashdod were then afflicted with emerods (tumors or boils), they moved the ark to Gath (1 Samuel 5:6-8). First Samuel 6:17 records that a golden emerod was offered on behalf of Ashdod.
• The monarchy and the prophets: Uzziah broke down the wall of Ashdod and built cities in its territory (2 Chronicles 26:6). Isaiah 20:1 dates a symbolic act performed by the prophet Isaiah to the year in which Tartan, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, took Ashdod. Amos 1:8, Jeremiah 25:20, Zephaniah 2:4, and Zechariah 9:6 pronounce judgment on Ashdod.
• After the return from exile: The Ashdodites were among those who opposed the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 4:7). Nehemiah 13:23-24 records that Jews had married women of Ashdod and that their children spoke the speech of Ashdod but could not speak the Jews' language.
• New Testament: After baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, Philip the evangelist "was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea" (Acts 8:40).

Background

Together with Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath, Ashdod made up the five cities of the Philistines. The Hebrew form of the name is Ashdod, and its original meaning is uncertain. The ancient site is generally identified with Tel Ashdod, near the modern Israeli coastal city of Ashdod. Ashdod's subjection to an Assyrian campaign in the late eighth century BC is generally regarded as consistent with Assyrian records. In the Hellenistic period the city was called Azotos (Azotus). The apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees records that during the intertestamental period Judean forces burned the temple of Dagon there.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

First Samuel 5 is read as a narrative that, through events in the temple of a foreign god, reveals that the God of Israel is greater than the objects of idolatry. In the prophetic books Ashdod is a target of judgment as a Gentile city that oppressed God's people. Zechariah 9:6-7, however, also depicts a remnant of the Philistines turning to God. For this reason some interpreters read Acts 8:40, in which Philip preaches the gospel at Azotus in former Philistine territory, as part of the gospel's expansion into Gentile regions.

Interpretations and Debates

• The form of Dagon: A widespread explanation portrays Dagon as a "fish god." This, however, is not stated in the biblical text but derives from later commentary tradition. Many scholars today regard Dagon as a Semitic deity associated with grain, though the question remains unsettled.
• The nature of the emerods: Because golden mice also appear in 1 Samuel 6, some hold that the affliction was a rodent-borne plague. Others understand it as boils or hemorrhoids; the text alone does not allow a definitive conclusion.

In the Korean Church

The account in 1 Samuel 5 of the fallen image of Dagon is used as a sermon text on the theme that idols collapse before the presence of God.