ASENATH (As'e-rilth or ri-se'nath), (Hub. aw-se-Italh'.(1c(licatvd to Neill, daughter of Poti pherah, priest of On, whom the king of Egypt be stowed in marriage upon Joseph, with a view prob ably of strengthening his position in Egypt by this high connection. (See Jusimi.) Attntion is here required only to the name, which in commint with other words of foreign origin, has attracted consid erable notice. No better etymology of Asenath has been proposed than that by Jablonski, who (Pant/i. E..015/ i: 56, and Ofourrid. regards the forms Asenath and A seneth as representative of a Coptic compound A sshenert, she who is of Nei/h. (See Gen. xli45, so; xlvi 20.) ASER (a'ser), Greek form of ASHER (which see) (Dike ii:Vo; Rev. vii 6).
Aga (asu). See ORES.
ASHDOD (l rav ager), the Azotus of the Greeks and Romans, and so called in t Mace. iv :1 s; Acts (see also Plin. //H. Nat. v ho)em. v:16); a city on the summit of a grassy hill, near the Mediterranean coast, nearly midway between Gaza and Joppa, being 18 grog. miles N. by E. from the former, and 21 S. from the latter. Ashdod was a city of the philistiors, and chief town of one of their five states (Josh. xiii:3; t Sam. %.i:17). It was the seat of the worship of flagon 11 Sam. v:i-S; Mace. xi:1), before whose shrine in this city it was that the captured ark was deposited and tri umphed over the idol (i Sam. va-o). Ashdod was assigned to Judah; but many centuries passed before it and the other Philistine towns were sub dued (see PiwasTiNes); and it appears never to have been permanently in possession of the Judah hes, although it was dismantled by who built towns in the territory of Ashdod (t Citron.
xxvi:61. It is to the reproach of the Jews after their return from captivity that they married wives of Ashdod, the result of which was that the children of these marriages spoke a mon grel dialect, compounded of Hebrew and the speech of Ashdod (Nell. xiii:23, 24). These facts indicate the ancient importance of Ashdod. It was indeed a place of great strength; and being on the usual military route between Syria and Egypt, the possession of it became an object of importance in the wars between Egypt and the great northern powers. Hence it was secured by the Assyrians before invading Egypt (Is. xx:1, sq.); and at a later date it was taken by Psammetichus, after a siege of twenty-nine years, the longest on record (Herodot. ii:157). The destruction of Ash dod was foretold by the prophets (Jer. xxv:2o; Is. xx:i; Amos i:8; iii:9; Zeph. u:4; Zach. ix:6); and was accomplished by the Maccabees (i Macc. v:68; x:77-84; xi:4). It is enumerated among the towns which Pompey joined to the province of Syria (Joseph. A ntlq. xiv:4, 4; De Bell. 'zed. i:7, 7), and among the cities ruined in the wars, which Gabinius ordered to he rebuilt (Antiq. xiv :5, 3). It was included in Herod's dominion, and was one of the three towns bequeathed by him to his sister Salome (De Bell. Jud. vii:8, i). The evangelist Philip was found at Ashdod after he had baptized the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts viii:4o). Azotus early became the seat of a bishopric; and we find a bishop of this city present at the councils of Nice, Chalcedon, A.D. 359, Seleucia and Jerusalem, A. D. 536 (Reland Palastina, p. 609).