the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Ashdod
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or ASHDOD (‘fortress’; Greek Azotus ). A city in the Philistine Pentapolis; not captured by Joshua ( Joshua 13:3 ), and a refuge for the unslaughtered Anakim ( Joshua 11:22 ); theoretically assigned to the tribe of Judah ( Joshua 15:47 ). Hither the Phliistines brought the ark, and sent it thence to Gath, on account of an outbreak probably of bubonic plague ( 1 Samuel 5:1-8 ). Uzziah attacked the city, destroyed its walls, and established settlements near it ( 2 Chronicles 26:6 ). The Ashdodites joined with Sanballat in opposing Nehemiah s restoration of Jerusalem ( Nehemiah 4:7 ), yet some of the Jews of the period married wives from Ashdod, and their children spoke in its dialect ( Nehemiah 13:23-24 ). It was captured by Sargon’s commander-in-chief ( Isaiah 20:1 ). Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah speak denunciations against it. It was again captured by Judas Maccabæus ( 1Ma 5:68 ), and again by Jonathan ( 1Ma 10:84 ). The solitary reference to it in the NT is the record of Philip’s departure thither after the baptism of the Ethiopian ( Acts 8:40 ). It is identified with the modern Esdud , a village about two-thirds of the way from Jaffa to ‘Askalan , and some 3 miles from the sea. It is on the slope of a hill, and at its entrance are the remains of a large mediæval khan . There are fragments of ancient buildings to be found here and there in the modern walls.
R. A. S. Macalister.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Ashdod'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/a/ashdod.html. 1909.
