town or village

Ashdod

• Today Tel Ashdod

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Events

1. c. 711 BCAssyria under Sargon II takes Ashdod

History

Ashdod lay in the southern coastal plain a few kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, between Jabneh and Ashkelon; its mound, Tel Ashdod, stands south of the modern city, and its harbour, Ashdod-Yam, lay on the shore. Excavations directed by Moshe Dothan from 1962 to 1972 uncovered a Canaanite town of the Bronze Age, and Ashdod is named in trade texts from Ugarit. Destroyed at the end of the Late Bronze Age, it was settled by the Philistines in the twelfth century BC and became one of their five cities.

When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it to Ashdod and set it beside Dagon in his temple; the image of Dagon fell down before it, the people were struck with plague, and the ark was sent on to Gath. Uzziah of Judah later broke down Ashdod's wall. When its king Azuri plotted against Assyria, Sargon II deposed him and set up his brother Ahimiti; the people then raised a usurper, Yamani, and Sargon took Ashdod, Gath and Ashdod-Yam, about 711 BC. Isaiah dates a prophecy to the year that the Assyrian commander, the Tartan, took Ashdod. Herodotus says the Egyptian king Psammetichus besieged Azotus for twenty-nine years, longer than any other city he knew of.

In Nehemiah's day the people of Ashdod were among those angered by the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls, and Nehemiah rebuked Jews whose children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod. In the Hellenistic age the town, now Azotus, was a Greek city. Judas Maccabeus pulled down its altars, and about 147 BC Jonathan burned Azotus together with the temple of Dagon and those who had fled into it. Pompey freed the city from Jewish rule in 63 BC, Gabinius had it rebuilt, and Herod left it to his sister Salome.

After baptising the Ethiopian official, Philip was found at Azotus and preached in all the towns on his way to Caesarea. During the Jewish revolt Vespasian took Azotus and placed a garrison there. Eusebius calls it a famous city of Palestine in his day, and its bishop Silvanus attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. The sixth-century Madaba map shows both inland Azotus and Azotus by the sea.

Scripture: Josh 13:3; 1 Sam 5:1–8; 2 Chr 26:6; Isa 20:1; Neh 4:7; Neh 13:23–24; Acts 8:38–40

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (21)

Josh 11:22

There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.

Josh 13:3

From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites:

Josh 15:46

From Ekron even unto the sea, all that lay near Ashdod, with their villages:

Josh 15:47

Ashdod with her towns and her villages, Gaza with her towns and her villages, unto the river of Egypt, and the great sea, and the border thereof:

1 Sam 5:1

And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod.

1 Sam 5:3

And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

1 Sam 5:5

Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.

1 Sam 5:6

But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.

1 Sam 5:7

And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.

1 Sam 6:17

And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;

2 Chr 26:6

And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines.

Neh 4:7

But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,

Neh 13:23

In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:

Neh 13:24

And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.

Isa 20:1

In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;

Jer 25:20

And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,

Amos 1:8

And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord GOD.

Amos 3:9

Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

Zeph 2:4

For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.

Zech 9:6

And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.

Acts 8:40

But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Cæsarea.

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Samuel and the ark →
• Philip the evangelist →