Difference between revisions of "Ashdod"

<p> Asdod was ten miles north of [[Ashkelon]] and two and a half miles east of the [[Mediterranean]] Sea on the [[Philistine]] plain. It was the northernmost city of the Philistine pentapolis recorded in &nbsp;Joshua 13:3 . [[Ashdod]] occurs in written history first in the Late [[Bronze]] period where it is mentioned in the trade documents of the Ras Shamra tablets discovered at [[Ugarit]] (ancient trade center near the Mediterranean coast in northern Syria). Ashdod is described as a manufacturer and exporter of textiles, specifically purple wool. The city name also occurs in the [[Egyptian]] list of names, <i> Onomasticon of Amanope </i> (263). </p> <p> Old [[Testament]] In the Old Testament Ashdod was a place where some of the [[Anakim]] remained during the time of Joshua (&nbsp;Joshua 11:22 ). See Anakim. As one of the five chief cities of the [[Philistines]] it stood yet to be possessed by Joshua (&nbsp;Joshua 13:3 ), who allocated it to the tribe of Judah (&nbsp;Joshua 15:46-7 ). David subdued the Philistines, implicitly including Ashdod (&nbsp;2 Samuel 5:25; &nbsp;2 Samuel 8:1 ), but it was not described as under Israel's control until [[Uzziah]] (783-742 B.C.) captured it (&nbsp;2 Chronicles 26:8 ). Perhaps the most infamous contact between Ashdod and [[Israel]] is reported in &nbsp;1 Samuel 4-6 when the Philistines defeated the army of Israel in battle, killed the two sons of Eli, [[Hophni]] and Phinehas, and captured the ark of the covenant. </p> <p> Although the city was captured by Uzziah, it did not remain long under Judah's control and regained enough strength to revolt from [[Sargon]] II in 711 B.C. The [[Assyrians]] were able quickly to subdue the Philistines, and they remained under [[Assyrian]] control until captured by the Egyptian [[Pharaoh]] Psammetichus I (664-610) after a 29-year siege as reported by Herodotus. Under [[Nebuchadnezzar]] (604-562 B.C.), [[Babylon]] soon captured this territory and took the king of Ashdod prisoner. </p> <p> The prophets of Israel spoke about the city of Ashdod in various military, political and moral contexts (&nbsp;Nehemiah 13:23-24; &nbsp;Isaiah 20:1-6; &nbsp;Jeremiah 25:20; &nbsp;Amos 1:8; &nbsp;Zechariah 9:6 ). Throughout the [[Persian]] period the city remained a threat to Israel. </p> <p> Extra-biblical Sources In the Greek period Ashdod was known as [[Azotus]] and was a flourishing city until being captured by Israel during the Maccabean period. [[Judas]] Maccabeus destroyed altars and images in Ashdod (&nbsp;1 [[Maccabees]] 5:68 ), and [[Jonathan]] later burned the temple of Dagon, those who took refuge there, and ultimately the city itself (&nbsp;1 Maccabees 10:84-87 ). </p> <p> [[Josephus]] reported that Pompey separated Ashdod from Israel after his victory (63 B.C.), [[Gabinius]] rebuilt the city, and it was joined to the province of Syria. [[Augustus]] granted it to Herod the Great. Herod left it to his sister Salome, who in turn willed it to Julia, the wife of Augustus. Its greatness as a city ended with the Roman destruction of A.D. 67, although it was occupied at least through the sixth century. </p> <p> Archaeological Evidence The major archaeological work on Ashdod was done from 1962-72 under the direction of [[D. N]]  Freedman and others. Some evidence remains from Chalcolithic and Early Bronze times, but the major remains date from Middle Bronze and later including a walled city dating around 1625 [[B.C. A]]  major destruction of the city was indicated by a three foot layer of ash and debris dating about 1250 B.C. Two extensive Philistine occupation levels date from the twelfth and eleventh centuries B.C. The Iron Age showed a flourishing community, and an Iron II temple yielded many cultic artifacts. </p> <p> [[George]] W. Knight </p>

<p> <strong> ASHDOD </strong> (‘fortress’; Greek <strong> Azotus </strong> ). A city in the Philistine Pentapolis; not captured by Joshua (&nbsp; Joshua 13:3 ), and a refuge for the unslaughtered Anakim (&nbsp; Joshua 11:22 ); theoretically assigned to the tribe of Judah (&nbsp; Joshua 15:47 ). [[Hither]] the Phliistines brought the ark, and sent it thence to Gath, on account of an outbreak probably of bubonic plague (&nbsp; 1 Samuel 5:1-8 ). Uzziah attacked the city, destroyed its walls, and established settlements near it (&nbsp; 2 Chronicles 26:6 ). The [[Ashdodites]] joined with [[Sanballat]] in opposing Nehemiah s restoration of Jerusalem (&nbsp; Nehemiah 4:7 ), yet some of the Jews of the period married wives from Ashdod, and their children spoke in its dialect (&nbsp; Nehemiah 13:23-24 ). It was captured by Sargon’s commander-in-chief (&nbsp; Isaiah 20:1 ). Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah speak denunciations against it. It was again captured by Judas Maccabæus ( 1Ma 5:68 ), and again by Jonathan ( 1Ma 10:84 ). The solitary reference to it in the NT is the record of Philip’s departure thither after the baptism of the [[Ethiopian]] (&nbsp; Acts 8:40 ). It is identified with the modern <em> Esdud </em> , a village about two-thirds of the way from Jaffa to <em> ‘Askalan </em> , and some 3 miles from the sea. It is on the slope of a hill, and at its entrance are the remains of a large mediæval <em> khan </em> . There are fragments of ancient buildings to be found here and there in the modern walls. </p> <p> [[R. A. S]]  Macalister. </p>

<p> (Heb. Ashdod', '''''אִשְׁדּוֹד''''' , a ''Stronghold;'' Sept. and N.T. '''''῎Αζωοτς''''' ), the Azotus of the Greeks and Romans, and so called in &nbsp;1 Maccabees 4:15; &nbsp;Acts 8:40 (see also Plin. Hist. Nat. v, 14; Ptolem. v, 16); a city of the Philistine Pentapolis, on the summit of a grassy hill (Richardson, Travels, ii, 206), near the Mediterranean coast (comp. Joseph. Ant. 14:4, 4), nearly mid. way between Gaza and Joppa, being 18 geographical miles north by east from the former (270 stadia north, according to Diod. Sic. 19:85), and 21 south from the latter; and, more exactly, midway between [[Askelon]] and Ekron, being 10 geographical miles north by east from the former, and south by west from the latter (see Cellar. Notit. ii, 599; Mannert, VI, i, 261 sq.). Ashdod was a city of the Philistines, and the chief town of one of their five confederate states (&nbsp;Joshua 13:3; &nbsp;1 Samuel 6:17). It was the seat of the worship of Dagon (&nbsp;1 Samuel 5:5; &nbsp;1 Maccabees 11:4), before whose shrine in this city it was that the captured ark was deposited and triumphed over the idol (&nbsp;1 Samuel 5:1-9). Ashdod was assigned to Judah (&nbsp;Joshua 15:47); but many centuries passed before it and the other Philistine towns were subdued (&nbsp;1 Kings 4:24), (See Philistines); and it appears never to have been permanently in possession of the Judahites, although it was dismantled by Uzziah, who built towns in the territory of Ashdod (&nbsp;2 Chronicles 26:6). It is mentioned to the reproach of the Jews after their return from captivity that they married wives of Ashdod; the result of which was that the children of these marriages spoke a mongrel dialect, compounded of [[Hebrew]] and the speech of Ashdod (&nbsp;Nehemiah 13:23-24). It was a place of great strength; and being on the usual military route between Syria and Egypt, the possession of it became an object of importance in the wars between Egypt and the great northern powers. Hence it was secured by the Assyrians under Tartan (B.C. 715) before invading Egypt (&nbsp;Isaiah 20:1 sq.); and about B.C. 630 it was taken by Psammetichus, after a siege of twenty-nine years, the longest on record (Herodot. ii, 157). That it recovered from this blow appears from its being mentioned as an independent power in alliance, after the exile, with the [[Arabians]] and others against Jerusalem (&nbsp;Nehemiah 4:7). </p> <p> The destruction of Ashdod was foretold by the prophets (&nbsp;Jeremiah 25:20; &nbsp;Amos 1:8; &nbsp;Amos 3:9; &nbsp;Zephaniah 2:4; &nbsp;Zechariah 9:6), and was accomplished by the Maccabees (&nbsp;1 Maccabees 5:68; &nbsp;1 Maccabees 10:77-84; &nbsp;1 Maccabees 11:4). It is enumerated among the towns which Pompey joined to the province of Syria (Joseph. ''Ant. 14:'' 4, 4; ''War,'' i, 7, 7), and among the cities ruined in the wars, which Gabinius ordered to be rebuilt ''(Ant. 14:'' 5, 3). It was included in Herod's dominion, and was one of the three towns bequeathed by him to his sister Salome ''(War, 17:'' 8, 1; 11:5). The evangelist Philip was found at Ashdod after he had baptized the Ethiopian eunuch (&nbsp;Acts 8:40). Azotus early became the seat of a bishopric; and we find a bishop of this city present at the councils of Nice, Chalcedon, A.D. 359, Seleucia, and Jerusalem, A.D. 536 (Reland, Palestina, p. 609). Ashdod subsisted as a small unwalled town in the time of Jerome. It was in ruins when [[Benjamin]] of [[Tudela]] visited Palestine (Itin. ed. Asher, i, 79); but we learn from [[William]] of [[Tyre]] and Vitriacus that the bishopric was revived by the Latin Christians, at least titularly, and made suffragan of Treves. Sandys (Travailes, p. 151) describes it "as a place of no reckoning;" and Zuallart (Voyage, 4:132) speaks of it as an [[Arab]] village (comp. [[Van]] Troilo, 1666, p. 349). Irby and Mangles (p. 180) describe it as an inhabited site marked by ancient ruins, such as broken arches and partly-buried fragments of marble columns; there is also what appeared to these travellers to be a very ancient khan, the principal chamber of which had obviously, at some former period, been used as a [[Christian]] chapel. The place is still called Esdud (Volney, Trav. ii, 251; Schwarz, Palest. p. 120). The name occurs in the cuneiform inscriptions (q.v.). The ancient remains are few and indistinct (Hackett, Illustra. of Script. p. 185). The ruined khan to the west of the village marks the Acropolis of the ancient town, and the grove near it alone protects the site from the shifting sand of the adjoining plain, which threatens, at no distant day, entirely to overwhelm the spot (Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 319). </p> <p> The inhabitants are styled ( '''''אִשְׁדּוֹדִי''''' '','' &nbsp;Nehemiah 5:7; ''"Ashdothites,"'' &nbsp;Joshua 13:3; the dialect is the Pim. '''''אִשְׁדּוֹדִית''''' , ''Ashdodith','' Sept. '''''Ἀζωτιστί''''' , Vulg. ''Azotice,'' [[A. V]]  "in the speech of Ashdod," &nbsp;Nehemiah 13:24). </p>