Reference: Ashdod
Hastings
A city in the Philistine Pentapolis; not captured by Joshua (Jos 13:3), and a refuge for the unslaughtered Anakim (Jos 11:22); theoretically assigned to the tribe of Judah (Jos 15:47). Hither the Phliistines brought the ark, and sent it thence to Gath, on account of an outbreak probably of bubonic plague (1Sa 5:1-8). Uzziah attacked the city, destroyed its walls, and established settlements near it (2Ch 26:6). The Ashdodites joined with Sanballat in opposing Nehemiah s restoration of Jerusalem (Ne 4:7), yet some of the Jews of the period married wives from Ashdod, and their children spoke in its dialect (Ne 13:23-24). It was captured by Sargon's commander-in-chief (Isa 20:1). Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah speak denunciations against it. It was again captured by Judas Maccab
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Not one of the Anakim was to be seen in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, some were still living.
From the Shihor, which is before Egypt, to the edge of Ekron to the north, which is taken to be Canaanite property: the five chiefs of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites, as well as the Avvim;
Ashdod, with her daughter-towns and her unwalled places; Gaza, with her daughter-towns and her unwalled places, to the stream of Egypt, with the Great Sea as a limit.
Now the Philistines, having taken the ark of God, took it with them from Eben-ezer to Ashdod. They took the ark of God into the house of Dagon and put it by the side of Dagon. read more. And when the people of Ashdod got up early on the morning after, they saw that Dagon had come down to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon up and put him in his place again. And when they got up early on the morning after, Dagon had come down to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord; and his head and his hands were broken off on the doorstep; only the base was in its place. So to this day no priest of Dagon, or any who come into Dagon's house, will put his foot on the doorstep of the house of Dagon in Ashdod. But the hand of the Lord was hard on the people of Ashdod and he sent disease on them through all the country of Ashdod. And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, Let not the ark of the God of Israel be with us, for his hand is hard on us and on Dagon our god. So they sent for all the lords of the Philistines to come together there, and said, What are we to do with the ark of the God of Israel? And their answer was, Let the ark of the God of Israel be taken away to Gath. So they took the ark of the God of Israel away.
He went out and made war against the Philistines, pulling down the walls of Gath and Jabneh and Ashdod, and building towns in the country round Ashdod and among the Philistines.
But when it came to the ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, that the building of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the broken places were being made good, they were full of wrath;
And in those days I saw the Jews who were married to women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab: And their children were talking half in the language of Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews' language, but made use of the language of the two peoples.
In the year when the Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon, king of Assyria, and made war against it and took it;
But Philip came to Azotus, and went through all the towns, preaching the good news, till he came to Caesarea.