PHIL'S TINES (L X., alloplculoi, strangers), a word either derived from a root phalasa (tEllt.), to emigrate, wander about, or identified with Pelasgi (q.v.), or com pared by others with shefela (Itch.), lowlanders; designates a certain population men tioned in the Bible as being in frequent contact with the Jews, and who lived on the coast of the Mediterranean. to the s.w. of Judtea, from Ekron toward the Egyptian frontier, bordering principally on the tribes of Dan, Simeon, and Judah. Our informa tion about the origin of the Philistines is extremely obscure and contradictory. The genealogical table in Genesis x. 14 counts them among the Egyptian colonies (time "Calushitn, out of whom came Philistim "); according to Amos ix. 7, Jeremiah xlvii. 4, and .Deuteronomy ii. 23, they came from Caplitor. But supposing that the Caslultim were some separate tribe, and yet Caphtorian colonists, the question still remains, whether Caphtor can be identified with Cappadocia in Asia Minor, as the early versions Mfg., Pestr., Vulg.) have it; or whether it be Pelusium, Cyprus, or the isle of Crete. The latter opinion seems not the least probable among them. At what time they first immi grated, and drove out the Canaanitish inhabitants, the Avvim, is difficult to conjecture. They would appeal' to have been in the country as early as the time of Abraham; and in the history 01 Isaac. Abinwlech, king of Geritr, is distinctly called king of the Philis tines. Yet, even supposing that in Genesis the country is designated by the name which it bore at a later period, there can yet be no doubt of the people being firmly established at the time of Moses (Exodus xv., 14, etc.). Thus the date of their immigration would have to he placed at about 1800 it.c. At the Exodus Moses, evidently fearing an encounter with the warlike colony for his undisciplined band, did not choose the shorter way to Canaan through their territory, hut preferred the well-known circuitous route. At a later period, however, Joshua, having triumphed over 31 Canaanite princes, also conceived the plan of making himself master of the possessions of the Philistines; but his intended disposal of their country for the benefit of the tribe of Judah was never earned out. At this tinw, they Were subject to five princes (Seranim = axles, pivots), who ruled over the provinees of Gaza, Ashdod, Askalon, Gath, and Ekron. Not before the period of the Judges did they come into open collision with the Israelites; and the strength and importance in which they suddenly appear then, contrast so strangely AVM' their insignificance at the time of the patriarchs, that many theories—a double immigra tion principally—have been Tiropounded to explain the circumstance. We find them daring powerful nations like the Sidon in us, Whom, about 1209 B.C., they forced to transfer their capital to a more secure position on the island of Tyre; or the Egyptians, with whom they engaged in naval warfare at the same time, under Ilainesas III. With the Israelites their war assumed the air of guerrilla raids, sometimes into the very heart of the country. nnler Shalimar (about 1370 mc.), they were repulsed, with a loss of 600 men; however, about 200 years later, the Israelites were tributary to them, and con tinued to groan under their yoke, with occasional pauses only, until Samson first com menced to humiliate them. But they were so still so powerful at the time of Eli, that they carried away the ark itself. Under Samuel, their rule was terminated by the battle of Mizpalt. Saul was constantly engaged iu warding off their new encroachments, and at Gilboa, lie and his SOI1S fell in a disastrous battle against them. At this time, they seem to have returned to their primitive form of a monarchy, limited, however, by a powerful aristocracy, the king's formal title again being " AThimelech" = "father-king," as we find it in Genesis. David succeeded in routing them repeatedly; and under Solo
mon their whole country seems to have been incorporated in the Jewish empire. The internal troubles of Judrea emboldened the Philistines once more to open resistance. Under Joram, in union with the Arabians. they invaded Judwa, and not only carried away the royal property. but also the serail and the royal children. Uzziali. however, recovered the lost ground; he overthrew them. and dismantled some of their most power ful fortresses—Gath, Yahne, and Ashdod, and erected forts in different parts of their country. Under Ahaz. they rose again, and attacked the border-cities of the "plain" on the s, of Judah; and a few years later• renewed their attacks, in league with the Syrians and Assyrians. Hezekiah, in the first years of his reign, subjected their whole country again, by the aid of the Egyptians, whom we find in the possession of five cities. The Assyrians, however, took Ashdod, under Tartan, which was retaken again by Psammetich, after 29 years' siege. About this time, Philistwa was traversed by a Scythian horde on their way to Egypt, who pillaged the temple of Venus at AsItalon. In the terrible st niggles for supremacy which raged between the Chaldreans and Egyp tians, Philistea was the constant battle-ground of hoth—her fortresses being taken and retaken by each of them in turn; so that the country soon sank into ruin and insignifi cance. Yet a shadow of independence seems to have been left it, to judge from the threats which Zechariah (ix. 5), after the exile, Inters against Gaza and Askalon, and their pride. In the time of the Maccabees, the Philistines were Syrian subjects, and had to stiffer occasionally from the Jews, although intermarriages between the two nations were of no rare occurrence. Alexander atlas transferred part of the country to Judrea: another part was taken by Alexander Janumrens; Pompey incorporated some of the cities with Homan Syria; Augustus transferred another portion to Herod; and finally, Salome. his sister, received a smell principality of i1, of Jamnia, Ashdod. and Askalon. Ihit by this time the name of the country had long been lost in that of Palestine, which designated all the territory between Lebanon and Egypt.
Of choir• state of culture, institutions, etc., we know very little indeed. They appear as a civilized, agricultural, commercial, and warlike nation. They traded largely. and their wares seem to have been nitwit sought after. Their worship was much akin to that of the Pheni•ians—a nature-religion, of which Da.gon, Asidaroth, Beelzebub, and De•ceto were the chief deities. Priests and soothsayers abounded; their oracles were consulted even by people from afar. They earried their charms about their persons, and their deities had to accompany them to the wars. They do not seem to have prac ticed eir•umcision. As to their language, so little is known about it. that conjectiires seem more than usually vain. Those who take them to have been Semites, conclude that their buignagc. too. was Semitic; others, Who would identify them with the Pelas glans, differ also respecting their language. Thus much is certain, that their proper names, as they arc recorded in the Bible, are mostly Semitic, and that there always remained a difference of dialect between the Hebrew and the Phil'slean idiom.
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