Before looking to the data collected in the various excavations of the last few years at Philistine sites, a brief review of the biblical presentation of the Philistines is in order. From the days of Joshua to those of Zechariah the prophet, the Philistines were generally viewed by the Israelites as the enemy. There are some exceptions to this portrayal, but these exceptions frequently haven't been widely recognized because of the several different names biblical writers have used in their references to the people of Philistia.

To begin then, what did the Old Testament writers mean when they wrote the word Philistine? By way of comparison, remember that during the Exodus, the tribes of Israel were joined by non-Israelites, or "aliens" (Exod. 12:38; Num. 11:4; Josh. 8:35). This entire aggregate of people, Israelites and non-Israelites, became known as Israel. At a later time, when David was fleeing from Saul, he too was joined by non-Israelites (1 Sam. 26:6). In 1 Samuel 29:3, David and his entire company nonetheless are called Hebrews. Similarly, throughout the Old Testament the word Philistine is invariably used in its sociopolitical sense rather than with an ethnic or a linguistic meaning.

It is likely that the "Sea Peoples" of the Egyptian records are the Philistines mentioned in the Bible. They had settled along the coast south of the Mount Carmel range and had formed a new federation of five chief city-states: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. This federation took on the name of its dominant group, the Philistines, and that name lives on today in the place name Palestine.

The earliest uses of the word Philistine in the Bible are in Genesis 21 and 26. In Genesis 21 Abimelech and the captain of his host, Phicol, left the land they had shared with Abraham and "returned to the land of the Philistines." In chapter 26, Isaac, due to the duress of a famine, traveled to "Abimelech king of the Philistines."

It is possible the use of the name Philistines in these chapters of Genesis indicates an early wave of raiders who had come by the sea and settled in the area. It is also possible that a copyist some centuries after the writing of the original chapter added or substituted a word he himself had grown accustomed to using with reference to the territory.

Abimelech, whose name is Semitic, was king of the Philistines. His captain, Phicol, had a non-Semitic name. Both are central characters in these early stories. Perhaps Phicol was a foreigner and the commander of a foreign mercenary troop. Clearly, the Bible leaves many questions that it raises unanswered, and questions about the backgrounds of these men also remain. In any event, there were centuries between the Philistines in the stories of Abraham's day and the Philistines with whom the descendants of Joshua were embroiled.

In Exodus 13:17 God did not allow the Israelites, as they left Egypt, to go to the Promised Land "by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer." In Exodus 23:31 God, at Mount Sinai, stated: "I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines." In Joshua 13:1-2, with the Israelites now in Palestine, we read, "Now Joshua was old and advanced in years; and the Lord said to him, `You are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land still remains to be possessed. This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines. . . . '" These indications in the Bible, when taken together with Egyptian historical records of the thirteenth to twelfth centuries B.C., provide a specific starting date for Israel's history of conflict with the Philistines.

The biblical text does not record that Joshua himself directly battled the Philistines. In Joshua 13 and in the succeeding passages, however, we read that the Philistines are present on the coastal plain and are perceived as a threat that needs to be driven out. The five chief cities of the Philistines are cited as cities yet to be captured. They are identified as part of Israel's tribal inheritance. The allotment of land for Judah is described in chapter 15. Verses 10-12 mention Timnah (where Samson's wife came from) and Ekron. Verse 31 mentions Ziklag as part of Judah's southern border, the city later given to David by Achish, king of Philistine Gath. Verses 45-47 mention that Ekron, Ashdod, and Gaza, down to the Mediterranean Sea, were all to belong to Judah, though in fact the territory was never successfully held and the children of Judah have had to share the land "to this day."

In Joshua 19:1-9, the territory that is to be Simeon's is described. Ziklag is included here as well. In chapter 19:43, Timnah and Ekron are again mentioned, though this time as belonging to the tribe of Dan. Because the sons of Dan "had difficulty taking possession of their territory" (19:47 NIV), they later left this their allotted tribal land and moved to an area north of the Sea of Galilee, there capturing Lacish and renaming it Dan (Josh. 19:47; Judg. 18:29). This move probably occurred sometime after the Samson stories described in Judges 18 and following.

Judges 1:18 says of the Philistines and their cities: "Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory." Although a capture of these cities occurred, their occupation was problematic, as the following verse reveals: "but [Judah] could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron." It seems that Israel was unable to hold on to these Philistine territories for any length of time.

Judges 4 and 5 record the well-known battle of Deborah against Jabin, king of Hazor, which is in northern Israel. Perhaps most intriguing with regard to this piece of history is the question that also may serve as an index to the life and times of that era: Who was this general of Jabin called Sisera? Who was this man known even today for his iron chariots? Linguists tell us that Sisera is neither a Hebrew nor a Canaanite name. It is suggested he might have been one of the Sea Peoples of whom the Philistines were a part. We do know that some of the Sea Peoples had settled along the coast north of the Mount Carmel range (M. Dothan 1989, 63). In his iron chariots, Sisera at least possessed their technology. Additionally, he is said to have been from Harosheth Haggoyim, which means Harosheth of the Gentiles. This is believed to have been somewhere in the Sharon Plain, near where he gathered his forces to do battle with the Israelites and the place to which his surviving charioteers fled in terror after the battle.

In Judges 10, as background to the Jephthah story, the Philistines are mentioned again, though they and their gods are not the center of consideration. The writer of Judges here lists the enemies to whom the Lord delivered the Israelites for a period of eighteen years, because they had fallen away from serving him, because they had "served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines" (10:6 RSV). Though the Ammonites were Jephthah's direct enemy according to the story, verse 7 reads: "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the Ammonites" (RSV).

In Judges 13, the story of the Philistines is picked up again in the Samson saga. Placed in the time prior to the move of the tribe of Dan north of the Sea of Galilee (Judg. 18), the story shows Samson living in proximity to the Philistines and able to move freely among them (Judg. 14:1, 5; 16:1). Very likely this freedom of movement was possible because the Hebrews were subjects of the Philistines (14:4; 15:11). For some reason, not all five of the chief Philistine cities are mentioned in this account. Even Ekron, the city closest to Timnah, is not named directly. However, Delilah is said to have been from the valley of Sorek (Judg. 16:4). The scenes with her may have occurred near or in Ekron, which is in this valley. In addition, the Philistine lords, presumably including the lord of Ekron, did come to Delilah, and therefore Ekron would have been involved. Ashkelon lost thirty of its young men at the end of Samson's wedding party in Timnah, and Gaza lost its gates to Samson after he was locked inside. The story concludes with Samson asking the Lord God, "Let me die with the Philistines" (16:30), and Samson then kills more Philistines in his death than he had slain during his lifetime. With the demise of Samson, the Philistines exited from the biblical picture until the Samuel stories.

In 1 Samuel 4 the Philistines captured the ark of the covenant in the second of two consecutive battles with the Israelites. "So the Philistines fought; Israel was defeated, and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers" (4:10). Israel's ark of the covenant went on a seven-month tour of Philistine cities. The five chief cities of the Philistines or their rulers are mentioned here and in following chapters, as are the numerous encounters that Samuel and Saul had with the Philistines. These struggles led to David's encounter with Goliath, recorded in 1 Samuel 17. After the death of Goliath, the Philistines were chased "as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron" (v. 52).

All but three of the remaining chapters in 1 Samuel contain references to the Philistines and detail their encounters with Saul, Jonathan, and David. We read how David eventually sought refuge with the Philistine Achish, ruler of Gath, and evidently swore loyalty to him. The city of Ziklag was given to David as a reward for this loyalty. From this city fortress, David made his many forays against the enemies of Israel, the Philistines in particular, and in all of these ventures he left no survivors who might report back to Achish. Other Philistine rulers, however, did not trust David, and in preparation for their battle against Saul sent David back to Ziklag. Upon his return there, he found that his Philistine city had been sacked by the Amalekites, who had also taken his wives and children captive.

Second Samuel contains few references to the Philistines. These report David's final battles against them in his efforts to subjugate the traditional enemies of his people.

First Chronicles provides some additional detail. First Chronicles 11:15-19 records the story of a Philistine garrison at Bethlehem at a time when David, fleeing from Saul, was out in the wilderness. David longed for water from his hometown well, the well at Bethlehem's gate, and three of his warriors risked their lives by breaking through the Philistine camp in order to get some of that water. We read in later chapters that after David was anointed king over all Israel the Philistines attacked him, evidently fearing his new independence. David defeated them, and the Chronicler adds, "and at David's command they [the captured Philistine gods] were burned." While capturing Gath and Gezer, David fought and killed their giants, some of whom were reported to have six fingers and toes (1 Chron. 14:8-17; 18:1; 20:4-8).

But 1 Chronicles also allows a view of the Philistines often overlooked. The Cherethites, Pelethites, Gittites, and Carites were all somehow part of the Philistine federation. Nonetheless, they formed David's personal bodyguard, the bodyguard that remained loyal to him even when almost all others had deserted him for various reasons. In 2 Samuel 15:18ff., when Absalom forced his father to flee from Jerusalem, this bodyguard fled with David. Some one hundred years later, this same royal bodyguard, in loyalty to King David's family, helped install the seven-year-old Joash on David's throne in Jerusalem in place of King Ahab's daughter, Athaliah (2 Kings 11).⁴

The references to the Philistines in 1 and 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and several of the prophetical books covering the period of the kings after David are few in number. First Kings 8:9 and 2 Chronicles 5:10 may contain the first references in this period, although they are indirect. They concern Solomon and his moving the ark of the covenant into the great temple he constructed in Jerusalem. Both verses mention that by then the ark contained only the two stone tablets. In mentioning what the ark contained the writers obliquely remind their audience of the missing articles -- the golden container of manna and Aaron's staff. In this way, they subtly remind readers of the Israelites' long, troubled history with the Philistines who had captured this ark in the days of Eli and Samuel.

In these passing sentences, the writers might also be reminding their audience why the people of Israel in that day intuitively despised the Philistines.⁵ Not only had these pestilent neighbors killed their judge Samson, but also during those final days of the judges they had captured the ark of the covenant and may have either kept or destroyed the golden pot of manna and Aaron's staff -- the artifactual reminders of how the Lord God provided for his people while they wandered through the wilderness. To be reminded of this much was to remember additionally that it was also the Philistines who in effect killed their first king, Saul, and desecrated his body on the walls of Beth-shean.

The specific references to the Philistines in the books of the Kings show that the writers had learned to recognize a separate Philistine territory. At times this territory was under the control of Israel or Judah, and at times it was seen as an obviously independent region (1 Kings 4:21; 15:27; 2 Kings 8:2-3). Solomon ruled at least to the borders of Philistia (2 Chron. 9:26), but, some sixty years later (c. 870 B.C.), we see the Philistines listed as one of the groups bearing tribute to King Jehoshaphat of Judah (2 Chron. 17:11). Of singular interest is the passage in 2 Kings 1:2-17, where King Ahab's successor, Ahaziah, a contemporary of Jehoshaphat of Judah, sent men to the Philistine city of Ekron to consult the god Baal-zebub. Ahaziah was grievously ill and wished to ask of the Philistine god whether he would recover. This passage is significant because it illustrates the influence of the Philistines in Israel at that time and because it demonstrates the validity of the Lord, Israel's God, against a powerless and unavailing Philistine god, Baal-zebub. (This will be discussed further in chapter 6.)

In 2 Chronicles 21 we read that Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram of Judah (849-843 B.C.), the king who married Athaliah, King Ahab's and Queen Jezebel's daughter, had difficulties with numerous enemies during his reign. Among the enemies that the Lord raised up against him were the Philistines (21:16). Some fifty years later, during the eighth century B.C., King Uzziah of Judah was able to defeat the Philistines of Gath and Ashdod (2 Chron. 26:6-7), and Gath is not mentioned again in biblical history after 2 Chronicles 26. King Uzziah (783-742) reigned during the period of the prophet Amos, circa 750 B.C., whose stark and memorable prophecy warrants a more thorough discussion in a later chapter (see pp. 194-98).

During the reign of Uzziah's grandson, the wicked Ahaz (735-715), the Philistines were able to capture several towns of Judah (2 Chron. 28:18-19). The writer of the Chronicles makes dramatically clear that the Lord allowed this to happen as the result of Ahaz's wickedness: "And the Philistines had made raids on the cities in the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages; and they settled there. For the Lord brought Judah low because of King Ahaz of Israel. . . ."

These were the days of Isaiah, who uttered several messianic messages during this tempestuous reign (e.g., Isa. 7:14). In 2:6, Isaiah presents a negative portrait of the Philistines when he refers to "soothsayers like the Philistines." In 9:12, after we encounter the well-known messianic passage "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given" (v. 6 RSV), Isaiah emphasizes that the Lord has used the Philistines to punish Israel for its wickedness. There is another shift in chapter 11. Here Isaiah states that both Israel and Judah together with the Messiah will "swoop down on the backs of the Philistines in the west" (11:14). In 14:28-32, a message to the Philistines is specifically dated to the year King Ahaz died, circa 715 B.C.: "Wail, O gate; cry, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in its ranks" (Isa. 14:31).

The final references to the Philistines in Chronicles concern Judah's King Ahaz. Ahaz is followed by the good king, Hezekiah, circa 700 B.C., and in 2 Kings 18:8 we read that Hezekiah was able to defeat the "Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory." (See chapter 7 for further discussion.) This is the latest obvious mention of the Philistines in the Old Testament history of the kingdoms.

The Book of Jeremiah, covering the final years of Judah's existence as an independent nation, circa 600 B.C., becomes our next focus. In a descriptive passage detailing the wrath of the Lord, Jeremiah 25:17ff., the Philistines and their cities Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod are mentioned in the catalogue of peoples destined for annihilation. Chapter 47 describes specifically the manner in which destruction will come to the Philistines. Perhaps this chapter in Jeremiah underscores the event that occurred during the reign of King Josiah, whose death is described in both 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 35. An Egyptian army led by Pharaoh Neco was enroute to wage war against Carchemish to the north in an effort to aid Assyria against the rising power of Babylon. Josiah not only was unsuccessful in his efforts to stop Neco, but also was fatally wounded by Egyptian archers. His death prefigures the loss of independence that Judah was about to suffer. Jeremiah is reported by the writer of the Chronicles to have composed a lament for Josiah (2 Chron. 35:25) and to have prophesied the destruction of Philistia by Babylon (Jer. 47).

The writings of Zephaniah and Ezekiel could only have been produced during this time of despair so poignantly introduced in the lamentations of Jeremiah. Judah and Jerusalem were going to be destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel in his complaint explains that because the Philistines had sought the destruction of Judah, they would be destroyed as well. Zephaniah, prophesying during the days of Josiah (ca. 620 B.C.), corroborates this prophecy of Ezekiel, saying that the Philistine cities would be destroyed and their lands would become the pasture land for the remnant of Judah: "For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod's people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted. Ah, inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left. And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures, meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks" (Zeph. 2:4-6).

The final reference to the Philistines in the Old Testament is found in the writing of Zechariah, a prophet who lived and worked circa 520 B.C. It is likely that he was a contemporary of the prophet Haggai. In chapter 9 of Zechariah's work, the destruction of the remaining Philistine cities is graphically and matter-of-factly foretold. Zechariah's words summarize what had become the dominant biblical sensibility regarding the Philistines:

From this brief outline of the Old Testament use of the word Philistine from the thirteenth to the sixth centuries B.C. we turn to a synopsis of the archaeological record at Tel Miqne-Ekron which covers roughly the same period. After a discussion of the origins of the Philistines (chap. 3), I will examine how the archaeological record of various Philistine sites sheds light on and meshes with the biblical record.