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Ekron

• Today Tel Miqne

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History

Ekron is Tel Miqne (Khirbet el-Muqanna), on the inner edge of the southern coastal plain, about 35 km west of Jerusalem and 9 km north of Gath. Trude Dothan and Seymour Gitin excavated it in fourteen seasons from 1981 to 1996. A Canaanite settlement preceded the city; in the twelfth century BC the Philistines founded a fortified city here, whose earliest layers are full of locally made pottery in the Mycenaean style of the Aegean.

Joshua's lists place Ekron on Judah's northern border and also in the lot of Dan, and Judges says that Judah took it. When the captured ark brought plague on Gath, the Philistines sent it on to Ekron, and the Ekronites cried out that it had come to slay them (the Greek text, followed by the Russian Synodal, names Ashkelon here). After David killed Goliath, the Philistines fled to the gates of Ekron. King Ahaziah of Israel sent to ask Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether he would recover from his fall, and Elijah met the messengers and turned them back. Amos, Zephaniah, Jeremiah and Zechariah all name Ekron among the Philistine cities under judgement.

In 701 BC the nobles of Ekron put their king Padi in iron fetters and handed him over to Hezekiah of Judah. Sennacherib of Assyria defeated the Egyptian army that came to their aid, killed the rebel leaders and hung their bodies on towers round the city, brought Padi out of Jerusalem and set him back on his throne. Under Assyrian rule in the seventh century Ekron grew into the largest olive-oil production centre yet found in the ancient Near East, with over a hundred presses. In 1996 an inscription found in its temple recorded that Achish son of Padi, ruler of Ekron, built the house for his lady, a goddess named Ptgyh. It confirmed that Tel Miqne is Ekron, and Esarhaddon names the same king, Ikausu of Ekron, among the kings he summoned to bring building materials for his palace.

The city was burned in Nebuchadnezzar's campaign to the Philistine coast, usually dated to 604 BC, and the great city was never rebuilt. In the second century BC the Seleucid king Alexander Balas gave Ekron and its district to Jonathan the Maccabee. In the fourth century AD Eusebius knew a large Jewish village called Accaron between Azotus and Jamnia.

Scripture: Josh 13:3; Josh 15:11; Josh 15:45–46; Josh 19:43; Judg 1:18; 1 Sam 5:10–12; 1 Sam 17:52; 2 Kgs 1:2–6; Amos 1:8; Zeph 2:4; Jer 25:20; Zech 9:5–7

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

Verses (20)

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 15:11

And the border went out unto the side of Ekron northward: and the border was drawn to Shicron, and passed along to mount Baalah, and went out unto Jabneel; and the goings out of the border were at the sea.

Josh 15:45

Ekron, with her towns and her villages:

Josh 15:46

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

Josh 19:43

And Elon, and Thimnathah, and Ekron,

Judg 1:18

Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.

1 Sam 5:10

Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.

1 Sam 6:16

And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

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;

1 Sam 7:14

And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

1 Sam 17:52

And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until thou come to the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron.

2 Kgs 1:2

And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.

2 Kgs 1:3

But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?

2 Kgs 1:6

And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

2 Kgs 1:16

And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

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.

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 9:5

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.

Zech 9:7

And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.

King James Version