Ashkelon

Ashkelon in the Bible

Ashkelon was one of the cities governed by the five lords (regional rulers) of the Philistines. The other four were Gaza, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron (Joshua 13:3). The city appears in the following passages of Scripture.

• Judges: Judges 1:18 records that the tribe of Judah took Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron. In Judges 14:19, Samson goes down to Ashkelon, kills thirty men, and gives their garments to those who had solved his riddle.
• 1 Samuel: 1 Samuel 6:17 lists the golden emerods (gold objects shaped like tumors) that the Philistines offered when they returned the Ark of the Covenant, and one of them is listed for Ashkelon.
• 2 Samuel: In 2 Samuel 1:20, David, lamenting the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, says, "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon." The words express his fear that Israel's defeat would be celebrated in enemy territory.
• The Prophets: In Jeremiah 25:20 and 47:5–7, Amos 1:8, Zephaniah 2:4–7, and Zechariah 9:5, Ashkelon appears together with the other Philistine cities as an object of judgment.

Background

Ashkelon was a port city on the Mediterranean coast, situated on the coastal road linking Egypt and Syria. In the late eighth century BC it was subjected to Assyrian military campaigns, and it is known to have been destroyed in the late seventh century BC by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It was later resettled. Josephus records that Herod the Great erected public buildings there. The ancient remains lie near the modern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon and have been excavated on several occasions. The etymology of the Hebrew name is uncertain.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Ashkelon serves as a representative city of the Philistines, Israel's longstanding adversaries. When the prophets speak of the city's downfall, they also convey a promise of restoration. Zephaniah 2:7 says that the remnant of Judah will lie down in the evening in the houses of Ashkelon, and Zechariah 9:7 says that the remnant of the Philistines "shall be as a governor in Judah." The name Ashkelon does not occur in the New Testament, although Gaza and Azotus (Ashdod), located in the same region, appear in Acts 8.

Interpretive Issues

• The record of conquest in Judges 1:18 stands in tension with the very next verse (Judges 1:19), which states that Judah could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain. The Septuagint renders 1:18 to mean that Judah did not take these cities. Interpreters are therefore divided between those who see a temporary occupation and those who attribute the difference to variation in the textual tradition.
• Many Christian interpreters read the promise in Zechariah 9:7, which includes the Philistines, as foreshadowing the entry of the Gentiles into the people of God. Other scholars place greater weight on the text's primary historical setting.
• The claim that Herod the Great was born in Ashkelon appears only in later tradition and is not found in the Bible.