Psalm 83:5-8

 

King James Version

 

Esau, the twin brother of Jacob was the ancestor of the Edomites.  

Moab

King James Version

 

Moab^[a] (/ˈmoʊæb/) is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in the modern state of Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archaeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over an unnamed son of King Omri of Israel, an episode also noted in 2 Kings 3. The Moabite capital was Dibon. According to the Hebrew Bible, Moab was often in conflict with its Israelite neighbours to the west.

 

The Hagarenes;

King James Version

 

 

 

King James Version

 

As a people, the Amalekites were identified as a recurrent enemy of the Israelites.^[7] This role appears in several stories:

• In Exodus 17:8–16, Amalek makes war against Israel in the wilderness. Joshua is ordered by Moses to lead Israel in battle, and Moses watches from a hillside. When Moses' hand is raised, Israel prevails, but when it is lowered, Israel falters. So he keeps his hand raised through the entire battle, even having assistants hold him up, so that the battle will go to Israel.
• In Deuteronomy 25:17–19, The Israelites are specifically commanded to "blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven" once they have taken possession of the promised land in retribution for "what Amalek did to [them] on the way as [they] were coming out of Egypt." Earlier, in Deuteronomy 7:1–16 and Deuteronomy 25:16–18, they are commanded to utterly destroy all the inhabitants of the idolatrous cities in the promised land and their livestock; scripture purports that King Saul ultimately loses favor with Yahweh for failing to kill King Agag and the best livestock of the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15 in defiance of these commandments.
• In 1 Samuel 15:1–9, Samuel identifies Amalek as the enemy of Israelites, saying "Thus says the Lord of hosts: I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt."^[18] God then commands Saul to destroy the Amalekites.^[19] In 1 Samuel 15:33, Samuel identifies king Agag of Amalek as an enemy and killer, saying "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.”
• According to 1 Samuel 30:1–2, the Amalekites invaded the Negev and Ziklag in the Judean/Philistine border area towards the end of the reign of King Saul, burning Ziklag and taking its citizens away into captivity. The future king David led a successful mission against the Amalekites to recover "all that the Amalekites had carried away".^[20]
• In 2 Samuel 1:5–10, an Amalekite tells David that he found Saul leaning on his spear after the battle of Gilboa. The Amalekite claims he euthanized Saul, at Saul's request, and removed his crown.^[21] David gives orders to his men to kill the Amalekite for killing the anointed king, using his own testimony as reference.^[22]

 

 

Philistines

 

History[edit]

During the Late Bronze Age collapse, an apparent confederation of seafarers known as the Sea Peoples are recorded as attacking ancient Egypt and other Eastern Mediterranean civilizations.^[13] While their exact origins are a mystery, and probably diverse, it is generally agreed that the Sea Peoples had origins in the greater Southern European area, including western Asia Minor, the Aegean, and the islands of the Mediterranean.^[14] Egypt, in particular, repelled numerous attempted invasions from the Sea Peoples, most famously at the Battle of the Delta, where the pharaoh Ramesses III defeated a massive invasion force which had already plundered Hattusa, Carchemish, Cyprus, and the Southern Levant. Egyptian sources name one of these implicated Sea Peoples as the pwrꜣsꜣtj, generally transliterated as either Peleset or Pulasti. Following the Sea Peoples' defeat, Ramesses III allegedly relocated a number of the pwrꜣsꜣtj to southern Canaan, as recorded in an inscription from his funerary temple in Medinet Habu,^[15] and the Great Harris Papyrus.^[16][17] Though archaeological investigation has been unable to correlate any such settlement existing during this time period,^[18][19][20] this, coupled with the name Peleset/Pulasti and the peoples' supposed Aegean origins, have led many scholars to identify the pwrꜣsꜣtj with the Philistines.^[21]

Typically "Philistine" artifacts begin appearing in Canaan by the 12th century BCE. Pottery of Philistine origin has been found far outside of what would later become the core of Philistia, including at the majority of Iron Age I sites in the Jezreel Valley; however, because the quantity of said pottery finds are light, it is assumed that the Philistines' presence in these areas were not as strong as in their core territory, and that they probably were a minority which had assimilated into the native Canaanite population by the 10th century BCE.^[22]

There is little evidence that the Sea Peoples forcefully injected themselves into the southern Levant; and the cities which would become the core of Philistine territory, such as Ashdod,^[23] Ashkelon,^[24] Gath,^[25] and Ekron,^[26] show nearly no signs of an intervening event marked by destruction. The same can be said for Aphek where an Egyptian garrison was destroyed, likely in an act of warfare at the end of the 13th century, which was followed by a local Canaanite phase, which was then followed by the peaceful introduction of Philistine pottery.^[27] The lack of destruction by the Sea Peoples in the southern Levant should not be surprising as Canaan was never mentioned in any text describing the Sea Peoples as a target of destruction or attack by the Sea Peoples.^[28] Other sites such as Tell Keisan, Acco, Tell Abu Hawam, Tel Dor, Tel Mevorak, Tel Zeror, Tel Michal, Tel Gerisa, and Tel Batash, have no evidence of a destruction ca. 1200 BCE.^[29]

By Iron Age II, the Philistines had formed an ethnic state centered around a pentapolis consisting of Gaza (Hazat), Ashdod (Asdudu), Ashkelon (Isqaluna), Ekron (Amqarruna) and Gath. Whether or not historians are inclined to accept the historicity of the old canonical books of the Hebrew nation, their writers describe a series of conflicts between the Philistines and the Israelites during the period of the Judges, and, allegedly, the Philistines exercised lordship over Israel in the days of Saul and Samuel the prophet, forbidding the Israelites from making iron implements of war.^[30] According to their chronicles, the Philistines were eventually subjugated by David,^[31] before regaining independence in the wake of the United Monarchy's dissolution, after which there are only sparse references to them. The accuracy of these narratives is a subject of debate among scholars.^[32]

The Philistines seemed to have generally retained their autonomy, barring a few periods of partial Israelite and Judahite suzerainty, up until the era of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.^{[weasel words][citation needed]} In the mid-8th century BCE, Tiglath-Pileser III marched into the southern Levant, conquering Aram-Damascus, and occupying the remaining kingdoms in the area, including Philistia. Decades later, Egypt began agitating its neighbors to rebel against Assyrian occupation. A revolt in Israel was devastatingly crushed by 722 BCE, resulting in the kingdom's total destruction. In 712 BCE, a Philistine named Iamani ascended to the throne of Ashdod, and organized another failed uprising against Assyria with Egyptian aid. The Assyrian King Sargon II invaded Philistia, which effectively became annexed by Assyria, although the kings of the five cities, including Iamani, were allowed to remain on their thrones.^[33] In his annals concerning the campaign, Sargon II singled out his capture of Gath, in 711 BCE.^[34] Ten years later, Egypt once again incited its neighbors to rebel against Assyria, resulting in Ashkelon, Ekron, Judah, and Sidon revolting against Sargon's son and successor, Sennacherib. Sennacherib squashed the revolt, and destroyed much of the cities in Phoenicia, Philistia, and Judah, though he was unable to capture the Judahite capital, Jerusalem. As punishment, the rebel nations paid tribute to Assyria, and Sennacherib's annals report that he exacted such tribute from the kings of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron, but Gath is never mentioned, which may indicate that the city was actually destroyed by Sargon II.

The Philistines disappear from written record following the conquest of the Levant by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II towards the end of the 7th century BCE, when Ashkelon, Ekron and many other cities from the region were completely destroyed.^[35]

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Here are some facts about the Philistines:

• Breweries and wineries were found in Ancient Philistine ruins. The Philistines produced and consumed alcoholic beverages like beer and wine.
• Known for their innovative use of iron, the Philistines used this superior material to bronze, which was used by the Israelites for weaponry and more. This allowed the Philistines to be invincible on the battlefield.
• In the 8th-7th century B.C., starting with Tilgath-Pileser III, the Assyrians rule in Philistia. In 604 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Philistine cities of Ashdod, Akron and Ashkelon.
• A tiny pottery shard with an engraving containing two names that linguistically resembles "Goliath" was found in the ruins of Gath in late 2005, establishing the history of the biblical Goliath story.

Source: Philistine Iconography: A Wealth of Style and Symbolism, by David Ben-Shlomo

 

 

 

Biblical accounts[edit]

In the Book of Genesis, the Philistines are said to descend from the Casluhites, an Egyptian people.^[36] However, according to rabbinic sources, these Philistines were different from those described in the Deuteronomistic history.^[37] Deuteronomist sources describe the "Five Lords of the Philistines"^[e] as based in five city-states of the southwestern Levant: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath, from Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north. This description portrays them at one period of time as among the Kingdom of Israel's most dangerous enemies.^[12] In the Septuagint, the term allophuloi (Greek: ἀλλόφυλοι), which means simply "other nations", is used instead of "Philistines".

Torah (Pentateuch)[edit]

With regard to descendants of Mizraim, the biblical progenitor of the Egyptians, the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 states in Hebrew: "ve-et Patrusim ve-et Kasluhim asher yats'u mi-sham Plištim ve-et Kaftorim." Literally, it says that those whom Mizraim begat included "the Pathrusim, Casluhim, out of whom came the Philistines, and the Caphtorim."

There is some debate among interpreters as to whether this verse was originally intended to signify that the Philistines themselves were the offspring of the Casluhim or the Caphtorim. While the Casluhim or the Caphtorim origin was widely followed by some 19th-century biblical scholars,^[38] others such as Friedrich Schwally,^[39] Bernhard Stade,^[40] and Cornelis Tiele^[41] argued for a Semitic origin. Interestingly, the Caphtorites were considered to derive from Crete^[42] while Cashluhim derived from Cyrenaica,^[43] which was part of the province Crete and Cyrenaica in Roman times, which alludes to the similarities between them.

The Torah does not record the Philistines as one of the nations to be displaced from Canaan. In Genesis 15:18-21,^[44] the Philistines are absent from the ten nations Abraham's descendants will displace as well as being absent from the list of nations Moses tells the people they will conquer, though the land in which they resided is included in the boundaries based on the locations of rivers described.^[45] In fact, the Philistines, through their Capthorite ancestors, were allowed to conquer the land from the Avvites.^[46] God also directed the Israelites away from the Philistines upon their Exodus from Egypt according to Exodus 13:17.^[47] In Genesis 21:22-17,^[48] Abraham agrees to a covenant of kindness with Abimelech, the Philistine king, and his descendants. Abraham's son Isaac deals with the Philistine king similarly, by concluding a treaty with them in chapter 26.^[49]

Unlike most other ethnic groups in the Bible, the Philistines are almost always referred to without the definite article in the Torah.

 

 

Battles between the Israelites and the Philistines[edit]

^{Illustration depicting a Philistine victory over the Israelites (1896)}

The following is a list of battles described in the Bible as having occurred between the Israelites and the Philistines:^[65]

• The Battle of Shephelah^[66]
• Israelites defeated at the Battle of Aphek, Philistines capture the Ark^[67]
• Philistines defeated at the Battle of Eben-Ezer^[68]
• Some Philistine military success must have taken place subsequently, allowing the Philistines to subject the Israelites to a localised disarmament regime. 1 Samuel 13:19-21 states that no Israelite blacksmiths were permitted and they had to go to the Philistines to sharpen their weapons and agricultural implements.^[69]
• Battle of Michmash, Philistines routed by Jonathan and his men^[70]
• Near the Valley of Elah, David defeats Goliath in single combat^[71]
• The Philistines defeat Israelites on Mount Gilboa, killing King Saul and his three sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malkishua^[72]
• Hezekiah defeats the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory.^[73]

Origin[edit]

Several theories are given about the origins of the Philistines. The Hebrew Bible mentions in two places that they originate from a geographical region known as Caphtor (possibly Crete/Minoa),^[74] although the Hebrew chronicles also state that the Philistines were descended from Casluhim, one of the 7 sons of Ham's second son, Miṣrayim.^[75] The Septuagint connects the Philistines to other biblical groups such as Caphtorim and the Cherethites and Pelethites, which have been identified with the island of Crete.^[76] This, among other things, has led to the modern theory of Philistines having an Aegean origin.^[77] In 2016, a large Philistine cemetery was discovered near Ashkelon, containing more than 150 dead buried in oval-shaped graves. A 2019 genetic study found that, while all three Ashkelon populations derive most of their ancestry from the local Semitic-speaking Levantine gene pool, the early Iron Age population was genetically distinct due to a European-related admixture; this genetic signal is no longer detectable in the later Iron Age population. According to the authors, the admixture was likely due to a "gene flow from a European-related gene pool" during the Bronze to Iron Age transition, which supports the theory that a migration event occurred.^[78] Philistine DNA shows similarities to that of ancient Cretans, but it is impossible to specify the exact place in Europe from where Philistines had migrated to Levant, due to limited number of ancient genomes available for study, "with 20 to 60 per cent similarity to DNA from ancient skeletons from Crete and Iberia and that from modern people living in Sardinia."^[78]

Scholarly consensus[edit]

Most scholars agree that the Philistines were of Greek origin,^[79][80] and that they came from Crete and the rest of the Aegean Islands or, more generally, from the area of modern-day Greece.^[81] This view is based largely upon the fact that archaeologists, when digging up strata dated to the Philistine time-period in the coastal plains and in adjacent areas, have found similarities in material culture (figurines, pottery, fire-stands, etc.) between Aegean-Greek culture and that of Philistine culture, suggesting that they were originally one and the same people.^[82] A minority, dissenting, claims that the similarities in material culture is only the result of acculturation, during their entire 575 years of existence among Canaanite (Phoenician), Israelite, and perhaps other seafaring peoples.^[83]

The "Peleset" from Egyptian inscriptions[edit]

^{Peleset, captives of the Egyptians, from a graphic wall relief at Medinet Habu, in about 1185-52 BCE, during the reign of Ramesses III}

Since 1846, scholars have connected the biblical Philistines with the Egyptian "Peleset" inscriptions.^{[84][85][86][87][88]} All five of these appear from c.1150 BCE to c.900 BCE just as archaeological references to Kinaḫḫu, or Ka-na-na (Canaan), come to an end;^[89] and since 1873 comparisons were drawn between them and to the Aegean "Pelasgians."^[90][91] Archaeological research to date has been unable to corroborate a mass settlement of Philistines during the Ramesses III era.^[18][19][20]

^[50]