- PHILISTIA =Palestine (q.v.), “the land of the Philistines” (Psalm 60:8;
87:4; 108:9). The word is supposed to mean “the land of wanderers” or
“of strangers.” - PHILISTINES (Genesis 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe
allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which
spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the Jordan,
and Crete and other Mediterranean islands. Some suppose them to have
been a branch of the Rephaim (2 Samuel 21:16-22). In the time of Abraham
they inhabited the south-west of Judea, Abimelech of Gerar being their
king (Genesis 21:32, 34; 26:1). They are, however, not noticed among the
Canaanitish tribes mentioned in the Pentateuch. They are spoken of by
Amos (9:7) and Jeremiah (47:4) as from Caphtor, i.e., probably Crete, or,
as some think, the Delta of Egypt. In the whole record from Exodus to
Samuel they are represented as inhabiting the tract of country which lay
between Judea and Egypt (Exodus 13:17; 15:14, 15; Joshua 13:3; 1 Samuel
4).
This powerful tribe made frequent incursions against the Hebrews. There
was almost perpetual war between them. They sometimes held the tribes,
especially the southern tribes, in degrading servitude (Judges 15:11; 1
Samuel 13:19-22); at other times they were defeated with great slaughter (1
Samuel 14:1-47; 17). These hostilities did not cease till the time of
Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:8), when they were entirely subdued. They still,
however, occupied their territory, and always showed their old hatred to
Israel (Ezekiel 25:15-17). They were finally conquered by the Romans.
The Philistines are called Pulsata or Pulista on the Egyptian monuments;
the land of the Philistines (Philistia) being termed Palastu and Pilista in the
Assyrian inscriptions. They occupied the five cities of Gaza, Ashkelon,
Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath, in the south-western corner of Canaan, which
belonged to Egypt up to the closing days of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The
occupation took place during the reign of Rameses III. of the Twentieth
Dynasty. The Philistines had formed part of the great naval confederacy
which attacked Egypt, but were eventually repulsed by that Pharaoh, who,
however, could not dislodge them from their settlements in Palestine. As
they did not enter Palestine till the time of the Exodus, the use of the name
Philistines in Genesis 26:1 must be proleptic. Indeed the country was
properly Gerar, as in ch. 20.