shrine in this city it was that the captured ark was de- posited and triumphed over the idol (1 Sam. v, 1-9). Ashdod was assigned to Judah (Josh, xv, 47); but many centuries passed before it and the other Philis- tine towns were subdued (1 Kings iv, 2-1) [see Philis- tines] ; and it appears never to have been permanent- ly in possession of the Judahites, although it was dis- mantled by Uzziah, who built towns in the territory of Ashdod (2 Chron. xxvi, G). It is mentioned 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 (Neh. xiii, 23, 24). It was a place of great strength ; and being on the usual military route be- tween 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 under Tartan (B.C. 715) before inva- ding Egypt (Isa. xx, 1 sq.) ; and about B.C. 630 it was taken by Psammetichus, after a siege of twenty-nine years, the longest on record (Herodot. ii, 157). That it recovered from this blow appears from its being mentioned as an independent power in alliance, after the exile, with the Arabians and others against Jeru- salem (Neh. iv, 7). The destruction of Ashdod was foretold by the prophets (Jer. xxv, 20; Amos i, 8; iii, 9 ; Zeph. ii, 4 ; Zach. ix, 6), and was accomplished by the Maccabees (1 Mace, v, 68 ; x, 77-84 ; xi, 4). It is enumerated among the towns which Pompey joined to the province of Syria (Joseph. Ant. xiv, 4, 4; War, i, 7, 7), and among the cities ruined in the wars, which Gabinius ordered to be rebuilt (Ant. xiv, 5, 3). It was included in Herod's dominion, and was one of the three towns bequeathed by him to his sister Salome {War, xvii, 8, 1; xi, 5). The evangelist Philip was found at Ashdod after he had baptized the Ethiopian eunuch .(Acts viii, 40). Azotus early became the seat of a bishopric ; and we find a bishop of this city pres- ent at the councils of Nice, Chalcedon, A.D. 359, Se- leucia, and Jerusalem, A.D. 536 (Poland, Palastina, p. 609). Ashdod subsisted as a small unwalled town in the time of Jerome. It was in ruins when Benja- min of Tudela visited Palestine. (/tin. ed. Asher, i, 79) ; but we learn from William of Tyre and Vitriacus that the bishopric was revived by the Latin Christians, at least titularly, and made suffragan of Treves. San- dys (Travailes, p. 151) describes it "as a place of no reckoning;" and Zuallart {Voyage, iv, 132) speaks of it as an Arab village (comp. Van Troilo, 1666, p. 349). Irby and Mangles (p. 180) describe it as an inhabited site marked by ancient ruins, such as broken arches and partly-buried fragments of marble columns ; there is also what appeared to these travellers to be a very ancient khan, the principal chamber of which had ob- viously, at some former period, been used as a Chris- tian chapel. The place is still called Esdud (Volney, Trav. ii, 251 ; Schwarz, Palest, p. 120). The name oc- curs in the cuneiform inscriptions (q. v.). The ancient remains are few and indistinct (Haekett, Jllustra. of Script, p. 135). The ruined khan to the west of the village marks the Acropolis of the ancient town, and the grove near it alone protects the site from the shift- ing sand of the adjoining plain, which threatens, at no distant day, entirely to overwhelm the spot (Thomson, Land and Boh/l, ii, 319). — Kitto, s. v.
The inhabitants are styled Askdodiieg^^^, Neh. iv, 7; " Ashdotkites,,, Josh, xiii, 3; the dialect is the fem. rpnilCN, Ashdodith', Sept. 'A^.j-otW, Vulg. Azotice, A. V. "in the speech of Ashdod," Neh. xiii, 24).
Ash'dcdite (Heb. in the plur. with the art. ha- Ashdodim', CTiT^Xln; Sept. omits, but some copies have oi'AZtoTioi, Vulg. Azotii, A.V. " the Ashdodites"), the inhabitants (Neh. iv. 7 [Heb. 1]) of Ashdod (q. v.).
Ash'dothite (Heb. with the art. ha-Ashdodi',
"tiTdxn ; Sept. 6 'Mwnor, Vulg. Azotii, A. V. " the Ashdothite"), a less correct mode (Josh, xiii, 3) of An- glicizing the name Ashdodite (Neh. iv, 7), or inhabi- tant of Ashdod (q. v.).
Ash'doth-Pis'gah (Heb. Askdoth' haji-Pisgah' ', njpEn m'TOX, ravines of Pisgah ; Sept. 'AarjCiiS [r/)i'] <t>acrya, and 'Ac. t))v Xa^ivrijv), apparently the water-courses running from the base of Mount Pisgah, which formed the southern boundary of the territory of Sihon, king of the Amorites (" Springs of Pisgah," Deut. iv. 49); transferred as a proper name in Josh. xii, 3; xiii, 20; Deut. iii, 17). See Pisgah. This curious and (since it occurs in none of the later books) probably very ancient term in the two passages from Deut. forms part of a formula by which, apparently, the mountains that enclose the Dead Sea on the east side are defined. Thus in iii, 17, we read, "the ' Ara- bah' also (i. e. the Jordan valley) and the 'border,' from Cinnereth (Sea of Galilee) unto the sea of the 'Arabah,' the Salt Sea, under Ashdoth hap-Pisgah eastward;" and so also in iv, 49, though here our translators have chosen to vary the formula for Eng- lish readers. The same intention is evident in the passages cited from Joshua ; and in x, 40, and xii, 8, of the same book, Ashdoth is used alone — " the springs," to denote one of the main natural divisions of the country. The only other instance of the use of the word is in the highly poetical passage, Num. xxi, 15, "the ^ pouring fortK of the 'torrents,' which ex- tendeth to Shcbeth-Ar." This undoubtedly refers also to the east of the Dead Sea. Doubtless, like the other topographical words of the Bible, it has a precise meaning; but whether it be the streams poured forth at the foot of the mountains of Moab, or the roots or spurs of those mountains, or the mountains themselves, it is impossible, in our present ignorance of the coun- try east of the Dead Sea, to determine with certainty.