Regarding the general character, the social, poli tical, commercial, religious, and other institutions of the Philistines, our information is scanty enough. That they were an enterprising, warlike, indus trious people, is clear enough throughout their his lory. Agriculture and commerce— for • both of which, as we saw, their country offered extraordi nary facilities—flourished among them at an early period. Corn, wine, oil, cattle : the products of their own land ; linen, spices, and other imported goods—among which are also to be reckoned slaves—formed the staple of their trade by land and sea. Nor were their own manufactures unim portant. The skill of their smiths, armourers, builders, founders, workers in gold and silver, etc., must have reached a very high degree, and their wares were sought after in countries less advanced in the arts of peace or war. Of their political in stitutions we know little save what has been men tioned already, that they at first seem to have formed a monarchy, afterwards a confederacy of five—respectively four—principalities, and finally a kind of limited monarchy. What was the exact status of the n+71V, Seranim (= Axles ; ebr. Prince ; or garana, Sanscr.=Refuge), their rights and duties, we can only conjecture by analogy. Probably theirs was a kind of chief-governorship in times of peace, and the chief-commandership in times of war, over their special provinces and their armies. Their fully-developed military organisation, their dexterous administration of troops (for whose full armour we may refer tor and 2 Sam. passim), and their fortresses, enabling them to take the field at any moment, and almost against any combination of enemies, are astounding. But this admirable sys tem of defence must also have had its drawbacks. An enormous army had to be kept in a state of effi ciency even in times of peace, at the expense of the nation. Even if the extraordinary number in I Sam. xiii. 5* is much reduced, enough must have remained to make them a heavy burden to the commonwealth. Many of their soldiers took foreign service like David's Krethi ' (heavily armed) and Plethi ' (lightly mounted) bodyguard._ We have already stated the utter absence of reliable information re. specting their language ; and, unwilling to substi tute hazy speculations for wanting facts, we shall at once turn to their religion, referring at the same time for more detailed information on their various deities to the special articles devoted to them. It was, in its general character, principally a worship of nature and its phenomena, and very much akin to that of the Phoenicians (q. v.) The general
term for the Godhead was Elohim ; and only those of them who are in foreign service swear by ' Jehovah' (2 Sam. xv. 2o). Both their own in dividual gods, as Astaroth, Dagon, etc., and the Israelitish Jehovah, are denominated Elohitn in seve ral places, and by the same name are also known those representations of their deities which were either carried on the person as a kind of amulet or in larger figures taken into the battle. From the material in which they were wrought, they are also called Azabim (yAvrra. I Maccab. v. 68), and it is in the ' houses of the Azabim' that the tidings of victory are 'proclaimed. As the principal individual deity appears Dagon, who had a sanctuary in almost every Philistine city, and principal sanctuaries in Gaza and Ashdod. Several places were called after him (Bethdagon, Kaphar dagon). He was represented with a human face and two hands, otherwise his body was that of a fish. His female counterpart was the goddess Derketo (Atergatis), 'Ipuccren Aav 7ta.q5, ra Se 6x6aee el( els deport rSoas, °SA air aL (Lucian, de Dea Syr., 14). The fishes were sacred to both, and were therefore not to be eaten. sides these, they revered chiefly Astaroth (Aphro dite) = Alilath, the Queen of Heaven (Jer. vii. 58, etc.), and Baal, the Lord of Heaven (Baal Samin), who was worshipped in PhilistTa principally as Baal Zebub (2 Kings i. 2), or the God of Flies (Mrs 'A ir6,utgos, Myiagrus Deus), creator and de stroyer of the pestiferous swarms of flies in the hot season (the Deus Achor of Pliny, Hist. Arat., x. 28). He was worshipped on high mountains illumined by the morning sun, and he may thus also be taken as Sun- and Mountain-God. [BAAL.] The usual apparatus of oracles, priests, sorcerers, etc., was not wanting, and their aid was frequently enough invoked even by the Israelitish people and kings in their dire distress. The Philistines carried charms about their persons, and took their deities with them to the wars. Altogether there appears, as we said before, a great affinity between their religious callus and that of the Phoenicians, although the scantiness of our information on that head is not sufficient entirely to abolish the hypothesis of their being Pelasgians, and their gods being Indo-Ger manic gods, modified by Shemitic surroundings and traditions (cf. Knobel, Volkertafel ; Ewald, Bertheau, Geschichte; Hitzig, Urgeschichte ; Stark, Gem ; Movers, Phwnkier ; Reland, Palastina, etc.)