ASHKELON

ASHKELON sits on the “middle-of-the-earth” or Mediterranean Sea, a major port/trading center between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Ashkelon is one of the five Philistine pentapolis or city-states (Ashdod; Ekron; Gath; Gaza) found in Joshua (13:3; 1 Samuel 6:4,17). Judah captured this city after Joshua’s death (Judges 1:18). Samson killed 30 men here to pay the wedding guests who had found out his riddle (Judges 14:19). Ashkelon is mentioned in David’s eulogy for Saul and Jonathan (2Samuel 1:20), and is a city of impending doom to be judged by God and to be conquered by the Jews according to the prophets (Jeremiah 25:20; Zephaniah 2:4-7; Zechariah 9:5). Ashkelon holds the distinction of being the city from which the Herod family came, the birthplace of Herod the Great. The relics and vestiges are Roman and Crusader; according to Josephus some 2500 Jews were slaughtered here during the Roman-Jewish war (War 2.477).