Editing Philistines (section)

== Biblical accounts ==
=== Origins ===
In the [[Book of Genesis]], 10:13–14 states, with regard to descendants of [[Mizraim]], in the [[Generations of Noah|Table of Nations]]: "Mizraim begot the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim, the Pathrusim, the [[Casluhim]], and the [[Caphtorim]], whence the Philistines came forth."<ref>{{cite web |title=Genesis 10:13-14 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.10.13-14?lang=en&aliyot=1 |website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref> There is debate among interpreters as to whether Genesis 10:13–14 was intended to signify that the Philistines were the offspring of the Caphtorim or Casluhim.{{sfn|Macalister|1911|p=14}} Some interpreters, such as [[Friedrich Schwally]],<ref>[[Friedrich Schwally]], Die Rasse der Philistäer, in Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Theologie, xxxiv. 103, 1891</ref> [[Bernhard Stade]],<ref>[[Bernhard Stade]], [https://archive.org/stream/geschichtedesvo01holtgoog#page/n172/mode/1up Geschichte des Volkes Israel], 1881</ref> and [[Cornelis Tiele]]<ref>[[Cornelis Tiele]], [https://archive.org/stream/MN40194ucmf_1#page/n259/mode/1up De goden der Filistijnen en hun dienst, in Geschiedenis van den godsdienst in de oudheid tot op Alexander den Groote], 1893</ref> have argued for a third, Semitic origin.

According to rabbinic sources, the name Philistines designated two separate groups; those said to descend from the Casluhim were different from those described in the [[Deuteronomist#Deuteronomistic history|Deuteronomistic history]].{{sfn|Mathews|2005|p=41}}<ref name=Brett/> Deuteronomist sources describe the "Five Lords of the Philistines"{{efn|"Lords" is a translation of {{Transliteration|he|sarnei}} ({{lang|he|סַרְנֵ֣י}}) in Hebrew. The equivalent in the Greek of the [[Septuagint]] is {{Transliteration|grc|[[satraps]]}} ({{lang|grc|σατραπείαις}}).}} 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 (united monarchy)|Kingdom of Israel]]'s most dangerous enemies.<ref name="Fahlbusch and Bromiley, p. 185" /> In the [[Septuagint]], the term {{Transliteration|grc|allophiloi}} ({{langx|el|ἀλλόφυλοι}}), which means simply "other nations", is used instead of "Philistines".

Theologian [[Matthew Poole]] suggests that Casluhim and Caphtorim were brother tribes who lived in the same territory. However, the Capthorim enslaved the Cashluhim and their Philistine descendants, forcing the latter to flee to Canaan, according to Amos 9:7.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2023 |title=Genesis 10 Matthew Poole's Commentary |url=https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/genesis/10.htm |website=Biblehub}}</ref>

=== Torah (Pentateuch) ===
The [[Torah]] does not record the Philistines as one of the nations to be displaced from Canaan. In Genesis 15:18–21,<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|15:18-21|HE}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{bibleverse||Deut|7:1|HE}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Deut|20:17|HE}}</ref> In fact, the Philistines, through their Capthorite ancestors, were allowed to conquer the land from the [[Avvites]].<ref>{{Bibleverse|Deuteronomy|2:23}}</ref> However, their de-facto control over Canaan appears to have been limited. {{Bibleverse|Joshua|13:3}} states that only five cities, Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron, were controlled by Philistine lords. Three of these cities were later overtaken by the [[Anakim]], making them a target for Israelite conquests as seen in {{Bibleverse|Judges|3:3}} and {{Bibleverse|2 Samuel|21:20}}.

God also directed the Israelites away from the Philistines upon their [[The Exodus|Exodus]] from Egypt, according to Exodus 13:17.<ref>{{bibleverse||Exodus|13:17|HE}}</ref> In Genesis 21:22–27,<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|21:22-27|HE}}</ref> [[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.<ref>{{bibleverse||Genesis|26:28-29|HE}}</ref>

Unlike most other ethnic groups in the [[Bible]], the Philistines are almost always referred to without the [[definite article]] in the Torah.<ref name="Macalister1">{{harvnb|Macalister|1911}}: "There is a peculiarity in the designation of the Philistines in Hebrew which has often been noticed, and which must have a certain significance. In referring to a tribe or nation, the Hebrew writers as a rule either (a) personified an imaginary founder, making his name stand for the tribe supposed to derive from him—e. g. 'Israel' for the Israelites; or (b) used the tribal name in the singular, with the definite article—a usage sometimes transferred to the Authorized Version, as in such familiar phrases as 'the Canaanite was then in the land' (Gen. xii. 6); but more commonly assimilated to the English idiom which requires a plural, as in 'the iniquity of the Amorite[s] is not yet full' (Gen. xv. 16). But in referring to the Philistines, the plural of the ethnic name is always used, and as a rule, the definite article is omitted. A good example is afforded by the name of the Philistine territory above mentioned, 'ereṣ Pelištīm, literally 'the land of Philistines': contrast such an expression as 'ereṣ hak-Kena'anī, literally 'the land of the Canaanite'. A few other names, such as that of the Rephaim, are similarly constructed: and so far as the scanty monuments of Classical Hebrew permit us to judge, it may be said generally that the same usage seems to be followed when there is question of a people not conforming to the model of Semitic (or perhaps we should rather say Aramaean) tribal organization. The Canaanites, Amorites, Jebusites, and the rest, are so closely bound together by the theory of blood-kinship which even yet prevails in the Arabian deserts, that each may logically be spoken of as an individual human unit. No such polity was recognized among the pre-Semitic Rephaim, or the intruding Philistines so that they had to be referred to as an aggregate of human units. This rule, it must be admitted, does not seem to be rigidly maintained; for instance, the name of the pre-Semitic Horites might have been expected to follow the exceptional construction. But a hard-and-fast adhesion to so subtle a distinction, by all the writers who have contributed to the canon of the Hebrew scriptures and by all the scribes who have transmitted their works, is not to be expected. Even in the case of the Philistines, the rule that the definite article should be omitted is broken in eleven places. [Namely Joshua xiii. 2; 1 Sam. iv. 7, vii. 12, xiii. 20, xvii. 51, 52; 2 Sam. v. 19, xxi. 12, 17; 1 Chron. xi. 13; 2 Chron. xxi. 16]"</ref>

===Deuteronomistic history===
[[File:Tissot Samson Slays a Thousand Men.jpg|thumb|[[Samson]] slays a thousand men with the jawbone of an [[Donkey|ass]] (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by [[James Tissot]]).]]

Rabbinic sources state that the Philistines of Genesis were different people from the Philistines of the [[Deuteronomist|Deuteronomistic history]] (the series of books from [[Book of Joshua|Joshua]] to [[Books of Kings|2 Kings]]).<ref name="Brett">{{citation|title=Ethnicity and the Bible|editor=Mark G. Brett|first1=David|last1=Jobling|author-link1=David Jobling|first2=Catherine|last2=Rose|chapter=Reading as a Philistine|publisher=Brill|year=1996|isbn=978-0-391-04126-4|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfFRhC4FpZkC&pg=PA404|page=404|quote=Rabbinic sources insist that the Philistines of Judges and Samuel were different people altogether from the Philistines of Genesis. ([[Midrash Tehillim]] on Psalm 60 (Braude: vol. 1, 513); the issue here is precisely whether Israel should have been obliged, later, to keep the Genesis treaty.) This parallels a shift in the Septuagint's translation of Hebrew ''pĕlištim''. Before Judges, it uses the neutral transliteration ''phulistiim'', but beginning with Judges it switches to the pejorative ''allophuloi''. [Footnote 26: To be precise, Codex Alexandrinus starts using the new translation at the beginning of Judges and uses it invariably thereafter, Vaticanus likewise switches at the beginning of Judges, but reverts to phulistiim on six occasions later in Judges, the last of which is 14:2.]}}</ref>

According to the [[Talmud]], [[Chullin]] 60b, the Philistines of Genesis intermingled with the [[Avvites]]. This differentiation was also held by the authors of the [[Septuagint]] (LXX), who translated (rather than [[transliteration|transliterated]]) its base text as "foreigners" ({{langx|grc-x-koine|ἀλλόφυλοι|allóphylloi|other nations}}) instead of "Philistines" throughout the [[Book of Judges|Books of Judges]] and [[Books of Samuel|Samuel]].<ref name=Brett/><ref name="Drews49">{{harvnb|Drews|1998|p=49}}: "Our names 'Philistia' and 'Philistines' are unfortunate obfuscations, first introduced by the translators of the LXX and made definitive by Jerome's Vulgate. When turning a Hebrew text into Greek, the translators of the LXX might simply—as Josephus was later to do—have Hellenized the Hebrew {{lang|he|פְּלִשְׁתִּים}} as {{lang|grc|Παλαιστίνοι}}, and the toponym פְּלִשְׁתִּ as Παλαιστίνη. Instead, they avoided the toponym altogether, turning it into an ethnonym. As for the ethnonym, they chose sometimes to transliterate it (incorrectly aspirating the initial letter, perhaps to compensate for their inability to aspirate the sigma) as φυλιστιιμ, a word that looked exotic rather than familiar, and more often to translate it as ἀλλόφυλοι. Jerome followed the LXX's lead in eradicating the names, 'Palestine' and 'Palestinians', from his Old Testament, a practice adopted in most modern translations of the Bible."</ref> Based on the LXX's regular translation as "foreigners", [[Robert Drews]] states that the term "Philistines" means simply "non-Israelites of the [[Promised Land]]" when used in the context of Samson, Saul and David.<ref name="Drews51">{{harvnb|Drews|1998|p=51}}: "The LXX's regular translation of {{lang|he|פְּלִשְׁתִּים}} into {{lang|grc|ἀλλόφυλοι}} is significant here. Not a proper name at all, allophyloi is a generic term, meaning something like 'people of other stock'. If we assume, as I think we must, that with their word allophyloi the translators of the LXX tried to convey in Greek what p'lištîm had conveyed in Hebrew, we must conclude that for the worshippers of Yahweh p'lištîm and b'nê yiśrā'ēl were mutually exclusive terms, p'lištîm (or allophyloi) being tantamount to 'non-Judaeans of the Promised Land' when used in a context of the 3rd century BCE, and to 'non-Israelites of the Promised Land' when used in a context of Samson, Saul and David. Unlike an ethnonym, the noun {{lang|he|פְּלִשְׁתִּים}} normally appeared without a definite article."</ref>

[[Judges 13]]:1 tells that the Philistines dominated the Israelites in the times of Samson, who fought and killed over a thousand. According to [[1 Samuel 5]], they even [[Philistine captivity of the Ark|captured the Ark of the Covenant]] and held it for several months; in [[1 Samuel 6]], the return of the Ark to the Israelites of [[Tel Beit Shemesh|Beth Shemesh]] is described.

A few biblical texts, such as the Ark Narrative and stories reflecting the importance of Gath, seem to portray Late Iron I and Early Iron II memories.<ref>{{harvnb|Finkelstein|2002|pp=131–167}}.</ref> They are mentioned more than 250 times, the majority in the [[Deuteronomistic history]],{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} and are depicted as among the arch-enemies of the Israelites,<ref name="Alter">{{cite book |last1=Alter |first1=Robert |author-link1=Robert Alter |title=The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel |date=2009 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-07025-5 |page=xvii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4xkcFXVZ5zgC&q=the%20arch-enemies%20of%20the%20Israelites%2C%20Philistines&pg=PR6 |access-date=6 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref> a serious and recurring threat before being subdued by David. Not all relations were negative, with the [[Cherethites and Pelethites]], who were of Philistine origin,<ref name="JeEncyCherethites">{{JewishEncyclopedia|title=Cherethites|last=Hirsch|first=Emil G.|last2=Muller|first2=W. Max|last3=Ginzberg|first3=Louis|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4303-cherethites}}</ref><ref>Cheyne and Black, [[Encyclopedia Biblica]]</ref> serving as David's bodyguards and soldiers.<ref name="JeEncyCherethites" />

The Aramean, Assyrian and Babylonian threat eventually took over, with the Philistines themselves falling victim to these groups. They were conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the [[Achaemenid Empire]], and disappeared as a distinct ethnic group by the late 5th century BC.<ref name="Meyers 1997 313"/>

===The Prophets===
[[Amos (prophet)|Amos]] in 1:8 sets the Philistines / ἀλλοφύλοι at Ashdod and Ekron.<ref>{{bibleverse||Amos|1:8|HE}}</ref> In 9:7 God is quoted asserting that, as [[The Exodus|he brought Israel from Egypt]], he also brought the Philistines from [[Caphtor]].<ref>{{bibleverse||Amos|9:7|HE}}</ref><ref>These particular Amos verses are earliest-witnessed in the Minor-Prophets scroll found in Wadi Murabbaat, "MurXII"; but both are decayed such that whatever stands in for "PLSTYM" is conjectural. [http://documents.mx/documents/c07-dss-wadi-murabbaat-mp-murxii-full.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312010452/http://documents.mx/documents/c07-dss-wadi-murabbaat-mp-murxii-full.html|date=12 March 2016}}</ref> In the Greek this is, instead, bringing the ἀλλόφυλοι from [[Cappadocia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academic-bible.com/en/online-bibles/septuagint-lxx/read-the-bible-text/bibel/text/lesen/stelle/30/90001/99999/ch/fee2a940127648d2b9c8fdbaba9d328c/|title=Read the Bible text :: academic-bible.com|website=www.academic-bible.com|access-date=11 March 2016|archive-date=15 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215094957/https://www.academic-bible.com/en/online-bibles/septuagint-lxx/read-the-bible-text/bibel/text/lesen/stelle/30/90001/99999/ch/fee2a940127648d2b9c8fdbaba9d328c/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Bible books of [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]], [[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]], [[Book of Amos|Amos]] and [[Book of Zephaniah|Zephaniah]] speak of the destruction of the Philistines.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jeremiah 47:4 |website=Mechon-Mamre |url=https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1147.htm |access-date=2021-11-23 |archive-date=2 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211002125405/https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1147.htm }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ezekiel 25:16 |website=Mechon-Mamre |url=https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1225.htm |access-date=2021-11-23 |archive-date=26 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726202142/https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1225.htm }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Amos 1:8 |website=Mechon-Mamre |url=https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1501.htm |access-date=2021-11-23 |archive-date=3 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303061717/https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1501.htm }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Zephaniah 2:5 |website=Mechon-Mamre |url=https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2102.htm |access-date=2021-11-23 |archive-date=23 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123230359/https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2102.htm }}</ref> Jeremiah 47:4 describes the Philistines as the remnant of the Caphtorim because the latter were mysteriously destroyed, either by divine or man-made means.<ref name=":1" />

==={{vanchor|Battles between the Israelites and the Philistines|Battles between Israel and the Philistines}}===
[[File:The art Bible, comprising the Old and new Testaments - with numerous illustrations (1896) (14780360444).jpg|thumb|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:<ref>{{harvnb|Herzog|Gichon|2006}}.</ref>
* The Battle of [[Shephelah]]<ref>{{bibleverse|2|Chronicles|28:18|HE}}</ref>
* Israelites defeated at the [[Battle of Aphek]], Philistines capture the Ark<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|4:1–10|HE}}</ref>
* Philistines defeated at the [[Battle of Eben-Ezer]]<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|7:3–14|HE}}</ref>
*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 implement]]s.<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|13:19–21|NKJV}}</ref>
* [[Battle of Michmash]], Philistines routed by [[Jonathan (1 Samuel)|Jonathan]] and his men<ref>[[1 Samuel 14]]</ref>
* Near the [[Valley of Elah]], [[King David|David]] defeats [[Goliath]] in single combat<ref>[[1 Samuel 17]]</ref>
* The Philistines defeat Israelites on [[Mount Gilboa]], killing King Saul and his three sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malkishua<ref>[[1 Samuel 31]]</ref>
* [[Hezekiah]] defeats the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory.<ref>{{bibleverse|2|Kings|18:5–8|HE}}</ref>