inconsistencies, there are two points which appear i i militate against the theory of the second immigration in the time of the Judges : ill thai the national title of
the nation always remained Philistine, whereas, accord- ing to these theories, it was the Cretan or Cherelhile
element which hd to the great development of power in tic tune ..I the Judges; and (2) that it remains to he shown why a seafaring race like the Cretans, coming direct from Caphtor in their ships (as Knobel, p. 224, un- derstands ••Caphtorim from Caphtor" to implj I, would
seek to occupy the quarters of a nad race living in
encampments, in the wilderness region of the south. We he-it ate. therefore, to endorse any of the proffered ex- planations, and. while we allow that the Biblical state- ments are remarkable for their fragmentary and paren- thetical nature, we are not prepared to fill up the gaps. If those statements cannot he received as they stand, it is questionable whether any amount of criticism will supply the connecting links. < me poinl can. we think, he Satisfactorily shown. \ i/. that the hypothesis of a second immigration is not needed in order to account for the growth of the Philistine power. Then geo- graphical position and their relations to neighboring nations will account for it. Between the times of Ahra- ham and Joshua the Philistines had changed their quar- ters, and had advanced northwards into the Shephelah or plain of Philistia. This plain has been in all ages remarkable for the extreme richness of it- -oil : it- fields of standing com. its vineyards and olive-yards, are in- cidentally mentioned in Scripture (Judg.xv,5); and in time of famine the land of the Philistines was the hope of Palestine (2 Kings viii. 2 1. We should, however, fail to form a just, idea of its capacities from the scanty no- tices in the Bible. The emps which it yielded were alone sufficient to insure national wealth. It was .also adapted to the growth of military power: for while the plain itself permitted the use of war - chariots, which were the chief arm of offence, the occasional elevations which rise out of it offered secure sites for towns .and strongholds. It was, moreover, a commercial country; from its position it must have been at all times the meat thoroughfare between Phoenicia and Syria in the north, and Egypt .and Arabia in the south. Ashdod and Gaza were the keys of Egypt, and commanded the transit trade; and the stores of frankincense and myrrh which Alexander captured in the latter place prove it to have been a depot of Arabian produce I Plutarch, Alex. cap. 25). We have evidence in the Bible that the Philis- tines traded in slaves with Edom and Southern Arabia (Amosi, 6; Joel iii, 3, 5),and their commercial character is indicated by the application of the name Canaan to their land (/.ph. ii. .">). They probably possessed a
navy: for they had ports attached to Gaza .and Ashke- lon ; the Sept. speak- of i heir -hips in its verei I Na.
xi. 1 Land they are represented as attacking the Egyp- tians out of ships. The Philistines had at an early period .attained proficiency in the art- of peace: they were skilful as smiihs (1 Sam. xiii. 20), as armorers (xvii, 5, 6), and as builders, if we may judge from the prolonged sieges which several of their tow os sustained. Their images and i he golden mice and emerods i \ i. 1 1 t imply an acquaintance with the founder's and gold- smith's arts. Their wealth was abundant (Judg. x\i.
.">. LSt. and they appear in all respects to have been a
prosperous people.
I. Subsequent Extension. Possessed of such elements of power, the Philistines had attained in the time of the Judges an importanl position anion-- Eastern nations.
I'heir history is, indeed, .almost a blank; \et the few particulars preserved to us are suggestive. About B.C. 1209 we find them engaged in successful war with the si.iuiiiaiis. the effect of which was so serious to the lat- ter power thai it involved the transference of the capital of Phoenicia to a more secure position on the island of
PHILISTINE
105
PHILISTINE
Tyre (Justin, xviii, 3). About the same period, or a little after, they were engaged in a naval war with Ba- rneses III of Egypt, ill conjunction with other Mediter- ranean nations; in these wars they were unsuccessful (Brugsch, Hist. dPEgypie, p. 185, 187), but the notice of them proves their importance, and we cannot therefore be surprised that they were able to extend their author- ity over the Israelites, devoid as these were of internal union, and harassed by external foes. With regard to their tactics and the objects that they had in view in their attacks on the Israelites, we may form a fair idea from the scattered notices in the books of Judges and Samuel. The warfare was of a guerilla character, and consisted of a series of raids into the enemy's country. Sometimes these extended only just over the border, with the view of plundering the threshing-floors of the agricultural produce (1 Sam. xxiii, 1) ; but more gen- erally they penetrated into the heart of the country and seized a commanding position on the edge of the Jordan valley, whence they could secure themselves against a combination of the trans- and cis-Jordanic divisions of the Israelites, or prevent a return of the fugitives who had hurried across the river on the alarm of their approach. Tims at one time we find them crossing the central district of Benjamin and posting themselves on Michmash (xiii, 1G), at another time following the coast - road to the plain of Esdraelon and reaching the edge of the Jordan valley by Jezreel (xxix, 11). From such posts as their headquarters they sent out detached bands to plunder the sur- rounding country (xiii, 17), and, having obtained all they could, they established some military mark (-",^3, A. V. " garrison," but perhaps meaning only a column, as in Gen. xix, 26) as a token of their supremacy (1 Sam. x, 5; xiii, 3), and retreated to their own country. This system of incursions kept the Israelites in a state of perpetual disquietude: all commerce was suspended, from the insecurity of the roads (Judg. v. 6) ; and at the approach of the foe the people either betook themselves to the natural hiding-places of the country, or fled across the Jordan (1 Sam. xiii, 6, 7). By degrees the ascendency became complete, and a virtual disar- mament of the population was effected by the sup- pression of the smiths (xiii, 19). The profits of the Phi- listines were not confined to the goods and chattels they carried off with them. They seized the persons of the Israelites and sold them for slaves; the earliest notice of this occurs in 1 Sam. xiv, 21, where, according to the probably correct reading (C"1"Q?'.> and not D"1"^") fol- lowed by the Sept., we find that there were numerous slaves in the camp at Michmash : at a later period the prophets inveigh against them for their traffic in human flesh (Joel iii, 6 ; Amos i, 6) : at a still later period we hear that "the merchants of the country" followed the army of Gorgias into Judaea for the purpose of buying the children of Israel for slaves (1 Mace, iii, 41), and that these merchants were Philistines is a fair inference from the subsequent notice that Nicanor sold the cap- tive Jews to the "cities upon the sea-coast" (2 Mace, viii, 11). There can be little doubt, too, that tribute was exacted from the Israelites, but the notices of it are confined to passages of questionable authority, such as the rendering of 1 Sam. xiii, 21 in the Sept., which