The Philistines vexed the Israelites time and time again in the Old Testament. They were known by other ancient cultures as the "Sea People" and were successful in attacking several regions until they attempted an invasion of Egypt. The Egyptians repelled the Philistine forces, after which the Philistines settled along the coast of what is now Palestine. They were not Arabs, however, but are believed to have originated somewhere in the Aegean or Mediterranean region. The territory they occupied in Old Testament times stretched from what is modern-day Tel Aviv to Gaza. The five major cities of the Philistines were Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath. We will see all these cities, with the exception of Gath, mentioned in today's text.
The Philistines weren't content to occupy just the territory between Tel-Aviv (known as Joppa in Biblical times) and Gaza so they began expanding outward, encroaching upon other tribes in Canaan and even taking by force what they wanted. They also began encroaching upon and taking control over regions belonging to Israel. Being excellent iron workers, the Philistines possessed weaponry that was superior to that of most of their neighbors who were mainly still using bronze weapons. This allowed the Philistines to take over portions of the Judean hill country and they managed to prevent anyone in the areas they subjugated from working as a blacksmith, which is why we were told in 1 Samuel 13:19 that, "Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, 'Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!'" The Philistines had gained such an upper hand that they were forcing the Israelites to come to their own blacksmiths to have their farm implements sharpened and they were charging exorbitant prices for this service. Because of the way the Philistines had taken control of metalworking, on the day of a major battle in the book of 1 Samuel, only King Saul and his son Jonathan---out of the entire army of Israel---had swords in their hands.
The Philistines continually threatened the nation of Israel for a period of about two hundred years. The Lord began subduing the Philistines during Samuel's tenure as chief prophet to Israel. After regaining the Ark of the Covenant, which the Philistines had stolen in a battle with the Israelites, the people rededicated their hearts to the Lord and the Lord provided them with successful battle strategies through the prophet Samuel so that during the remainder of Samuel's lifetime the Philistines were not able to regain the upper hand over Israel. This doesn't mean the Philistines didn't try to reestablish dominance; it was in a battle with the Philistines that King Saul was mortally wounded. But this event set the stage for the Lord to fulfill His promise to David that He would make him king of Israel. After David became king, the Lord enabled him to defeat the Philistines soundly enough that they were unable to continue being a threat to the nation.
But the Lord has not forgotten the many acts of cruelty the Philistines perpetrated upon His people. "This is what the Lord says: 'For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not relent. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses.'" (Amos 1:6-7) We don't know the precise details of the incident in which the Philistines captured and sold Israelites to the Edomites but it appears that the Philistines were among those nations the Lord accused of selling His people when we studied the book of Joel. He said He would judge the nations who had traded young Israelite males for prostitutes and who had exchanged young Israelite women for wine. (Joel 3:3) The very next verse in the book of Joel named Philistia along with Tyre and Sidon as some of the nations involved in this slave trading.
There was also an incident that occurred during our study of the kings when the Edomites, who had been subject to Judah since the days of David, rebelled against King Jehoram of Judah. Jehoram was not able to quash the rebellion and the Edomites, along with the people of Libnah, continued to refuse to pay tribute to him. When the Philistines learned that the Edomite forces had fought off Jehoram's forces, they decided it was a good time to attack, and they captured and carried away all of King Jehoram's wives and all of his children except his youngest son. We don't know how many wives and children he had but it was typical in those days for a king to have as many wives as he could afford to support; this was especially true of idolatrous kings, which Jehoram was. Some scholars believe the Philistines sold Jehoram's wives and sons to the Edomites and that this is the incident spoken about by Amos the prophet.
The Lord said in verse 7 that He was going to send fire on the walls of Gaza that would consume the fortresses. He goes on to pronounce judgment against three other major Philistine cities. "'I will destroy the king of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn My hand against Ekron, til the last of the Philistines are dead,' says the Sovereign Lord." (Amos 1:8)
The fifth major city of the Philistines, which was Gath, isn't mentioned here but this doesn't mean any of the cities of Philistia were exempt from judgment. Gath's claim to fame was that it was the hometown of that great champion of the Philistine army: the giant known as Goliath. Many archaeologists and historians believe that Gath was destroyed by King Hazael of Syria. You'll recall that Hazael was mentioned in yesterday's portion of Amos' prophecy. Hazael was an evil man who was either the top general or the second-in-command (sort of like a vice-president) to King Ben-Hadad of Syria but he assassinated him and took the throne. Yesterday we briefly talked about the heinous crimes against humanity that Hazael committed against the Israelites. So sometime before the prophecy against ancient Syria (called Aram in the Bible) came true, the Lord must have used the wicked Hazael as an instrument of judgment against the city of Gath.
The Philistines lost their independence to the Assyrian Empire when it began attacking and subjugating various nations of the region and then, when the Assyrian Empire was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Philistia was one of the nations absorbed into the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Philistia was never again a sovereign nation after it came under the control of Assyria, for it then came under the control of Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, then Rome.
The Philistines lost their identity as a people, just as the Lord said they would when he stated He would turn His hand against them until "the last of the Philistines are dead". This does not necessarily mean there are no people in the world today who are genetically related to them but that there is no group of people with this national identity. This is in contrast to the fact that there is still a nation of Israel and a distinct group of people who can trace their lineage all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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