town or village

Ashkelon

Today Tel Ashkelon

Lifetime: … – AD 1270 · In ruins: 604 BC – c. 520 BC

Taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the month of Kislev 604 BC, plundered and turned into a heap of ruins; the mound lay deserted until a Phoenician town was built there under the Persians, about 520–510 BC. Demolished by Saladin in 1191 and refortified by the Crusaders, it was dismantled by the Mamluk sultan Baybars in 1270, its harbour blocked and its people moved inland to al-Majdal; the site has lain in ruins since.

Events

604 BCNebuchadnezzar takes and destroys Ashkelon
AD 1153Baldwin III takes Ascalon, the last Fatimid fortress on the coast of Palestine

In ancient writers

Herodotus, Histories 1.105 — Scythians returning from Egypt plundered the temple of Heavenly Aphrodite at Ascalon, the oldest of all her temples, from which the sanctuaries in Cyprus and Cythera were founded.
Strabo, Geography 16.2.29 — Ascalon is a small town whose country grows excellent onions; the philosopher Antiochus, shortly before Strabo's time, was a native.

History

Ashkelon lay on the Mediterranean shore north of Gaza; its mound, Tel Ashkelon, is now a national park within the modern city. The town is named in Egyptian execration texts of the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BC. In the Middle Bronze Age great earthen ramparts were raised around it, and a mudbrick gate with a vaulted passage, built in the first half of the second millennium BC, is among the oldest arches known. In the fourteenth century BC its ruler Yidya wrote to Pharaoh in the Amarna letters, and about 1208 BC Merneptah's stela names Ashkelon among the places he subdued in Canaan.

In the twelfth century BC, about 1170 BC by the excavators' dating, the Philistines settled here, and Ashkelon became one of their five cities. Samson went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of its men, and David's lament for Saul says: "publish it not in the streets of Askelon". In 701 BC Sennacherib of Assyria deported its king Sidqa with his family and took Joppa and other towns that belonged to him. Amos, Zephaniah and Jeremiah foretold Ashkelon's ruin.

In the month of Kislev 604 BC Nebuchadnezzar captured the city, carried off its king and plundered it; the Babylonian Chronicle says he turned it into a mound and heaps of ruins, and excavators found the burnt destruction layer. Ashkelon was rebuilt in the Persian period as a Phoenician town. Herodotus tells how Scythian raiders plundered its temple of Heavenly Aphrodite, which he calls the oldest temple of that goddess.

Under the Hellenistic kings and Rome Ashkelon was a prosperous Greek city, independent of the Hasmoneans and of Herod, though Herod built baths, costly fountains and colonnades there. When the Jewish revolt broke out in AD 66, Jewish rebels attacked Ashkelon, and soon after two of their assaults on the walled city failed. By the fourth century Ashkelon had a bishop, and it remained a busy port into Byzantine times.

Scripture: Josh 13:3; Judg 14:19; 1 Sam 6:17; 2 Sam 1:20; Amos 1:8; Zeph 2:4; Zeph 2:7; Jer 47:5–7

Sources

Amarna letters EA 320-326 (Yidya of Ashkelon)
Merneptah Stela (Cairo, Egyptian Museum), the closing lines on Canaan
Sennacherib, Chicago (Oriental Institute) Prism, RINAP 3, Sennacherib 22, ii 60b-72
Babylonian Chronicle ABC 5 (Jerusalem Chronicle), obv. 15-20
Herodotus, Histories 1.105
Josephus, Jewish War 1.422-425; 2.457-460; 3.9-28
L. E. Stager, J. D. Schloen and R. J. Voss, Ashkelon 6: The Middle Bronze Age Ramparts and Gates of the North Slope and Later Fortifications (2018)
L. E. Stager, D. M. Master and J. D. Schloen, Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C. (2011)

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

Verses (12)

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:
Judg 1:18: Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.
Judg 14:19: And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.
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 Sam 1:20: Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
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,
Jer 47:5: Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
Jer 47:7: How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
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.
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.
Zeph 2:7: And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.
Zech 9:5: Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

King James Version