The Philistines

We took a trip to Ashkelon and Tel Qasila the other day. Ashkelon is one of the 5 major cities of the Philistines, who were "sea people." They came from Crete to Egypt, and then migrated to Canaan later on. They established cities on the Mediterranean coast, and the Israelites fought against them frequently throughout their history. (Goliath, for example, was a Philistine.)

In our reading and examination of the account of Samson in Judges 13-16, we have been reading about the Philistines. Judges 13:1 says:

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. (TNIV)

Samson was called to "deliver" Israel from the Philistines, but despite this calling he becomes increasingly enamored of them. He marries a Philistine woman, but when that goes sour (read all about it in Judges 13), he fights against the Philistines. Finally, in what is probably the most famous part of the account of Samson, he falls in love with Delilah, another Philistine woman. You can see all the tragic details in Judges 16.

Ashkelon enters the picture in Judges 14. To pay off a bet, Samson goes to Ashkelon to steal the items he needed. Ashkelon at the time was a large, fortified city. We saw remnants of an ancient wall (though later than the one that existed in Samson's day). We also saw a city-gate that dates to around Samson's time.

Here are a couple of pictures:

This is the city gate that dates to about 1850 BC. (Click to enlarge)


These are parts of the city wall of Ashkelon. Although these particular ruins are much later than Samson's time, the later wall was built on the foundation of the city wall that would have existed then.