PHILISTINES (Lat. Phi/istini. from Help. PNIShii, Philistine). The designation in the Bible of a people who lived on the coast of the :Mediter ranean. to the southwest of Judea. from Ekron toward the Egyptian frontier. with their eastern limit at Beth-Shemesh. Aside from a few notices in Assyrian and Egyptian inscriptions, we have no knowledge of the early history of the Philis tines, except what may he gathered from the Old Testament, in which their relations to the Trehrew;'are set forth in the course of the histori cal narratives. The people called Philistines were immigrants who came into Canaan from Caplan]. (probably Crete). They are probably identical with the Pist of the Egyptian inscrip tions. who invaded Egypt from the north in the time of Rameses In. and. being repelled. settled on the Syrian coast. Their settlement in Western Palestine present:. therefore. a parallel to the Hebrew conquest of Canaan. In both ca-es the new comers dispossessed an older population. and adopted the language and to a large extent the customs of the con quered race. But. while the Hebrews and Ca naanite:: belonged to the Caine Semitic stock, the P:iilistines are aliens in a racial sense. At the time of the Hebrew conquests. they were already in Palestine. and their five central cities, Ashdod, Gaza. Ashkelon, Gath. and Ekron, orotund which their history. as far as we know it, centres, were presumably already in existence. Hebrew tradi tion contains a reminiscence of an unsuccessful attempt to drive the Philistines out of their set tlements (Jud. i. 1S-191.
We reach more certain historical ground in the account of Shamgar's stand against the Philis tines (Jud. iii. 31), but evidently the latter re tained the supremacy. for we find them subse quently in possession of a sacred palladium of the Hebrews—the chest which was the symbol of Yahweh (T. Sam. iii. 10 sqq.). The story of Samson i. of value as shoving what were the relations between the and Philistines. A victory is signalized for the Hebrews at .1liz pali (1. Sam. vii. 10), but if the account is his torical. the result was not decisive, for we Mid that Saul was constantly engaged in warding off their new encroachments. and at Gilboa he and his sons fell in a disastrous battle against them. David, however, though in the early part of his reign obliged to pay tribute to the Philistines, succeeded in routing them in several expedition:. Under Solomon they gave no further trouble, though it is doubtful whether they were ever actually tributary to the Hebrew kingdom. The internal troubles of dudea emboldened the Philis tines once more to open resistance. Under Joram
they invailed Judea and did considerable Uzziah, however. recovered the lost ground: he overthrew them and dismantled some of their most powerful fortresses Gatti, Jaime. and Ash dod—and erected forts in different parts of their country. Almz, they rose again, and at tacked the border cities of the •plain' on the south of Judah: and a few years later renewed their attacks, in league with the Syrians and the Assyrians. Hezekiah. in the first years of his reigm. subjugated their whole country again, by the aid of the Egyptians, whom we find in pos session of five cities. The were fre quently engaged in conflicts with the Philistines. who at times joined the other Palestinian princi palities in opposing the advance of Assyrian arms In the struggles for supremacy which raged be tween the Nen-Babylonian monarchy and the Egyptians, Philistia was the constant battle ground of both—her fortresses being taken and retaken by each of them in turn: so that the country soon sank into ruin and insignificance. In the time of the Maccabees the Philistines were subjects of the Selencid rulers and liad to suffer occasionally from the Jews, although intermar riages between the two nations were of no rare occurrence. Alexander transferred part of the t-onntry to Judea; another part was taken In' Alexander Jamucus: Pompey incorporated sonic of the cities with Roman Syria; Augustus trans ferred another portion to Herod: and. finally. Salome received a small fragment of it as a prin cipality. consisting of Jamnia, Ashdod. and Ashke lon. But by this time the name of the country had long been lost in that of Palestine. which designated all the territory between Lebanon and Of the state of culture. institutions, etc.. of the Philistines we know very little. They appear as a civilized. a7rimiltural. commercial. and warlike nation. They traded largely. and their wares seem to have been much sought after. Their wor ship was much akin to that of the Phoenicians and Canaanite,. Dagon, Ashtaroth. Beelzebub, and Derceto were the chief deities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Stark. Gaza nod die philisBibliography. Stark. Gaza nod die philis- lisle (Jena, 1852) ; Schwally, "Die Passe der Philister," in Zcitschrift fur wissen schaftliche Theologic, vol. XXXiV. ( Leipzig, 1891 u ; \V. M. Miller, .lsien um/ Europa (Leipzig, 1S93); id., Dic Phitistcr (Berlin, 1899 ; G. A. Smith. Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London, 1;497 ; AleCurdy, History. Proploey, and flit Jlouunants, yol. i. (New York. 1894).