Ashdod in Fausset's Bible Dictionary
ASHDOD or AZOTUS. ("fortress".) Now Esdud. On a commanding
height. One of the five confederate Philistine cities, 30
miles from the S. of Israel, three from the
Mediterranean, midway between Gaza and Joppa. A seat of the
worship of (See DAGON; there the idol fell before God's
captive ark, the head and palms cut off, and only the fishy
stump (margin) left (1 Samuel 5:3-8). Ashdod had been
originally assigned to Judah (Joshua 15:47), but never
occupied by the Jews, nay, made a point of attack on them:
not until King Uzziah was its "wall broken down and cities
built about it," i.e. forts on the surrounding hills (2
Chronicles 26:6).
In Nehemiah's time Ashdod still retained its
distinctive language and race, and ensnared by marriages the
Jews returned from Babylon, after vainly striving to prevent
the walls of Jerusalem being built (Nehemiah 4:7-8; Nehemiah
13:23-24). It was the key of entrance between Israel and
Egypt. As such, it was besieged by the Assyrian general
Tartan under Sargon (716 B.C.), to counteract Hezekiah's
league with Egypt (Isaiah 20:1). So strongly did the
Assyrians fortify it that it stood a 29 years' siege (the
longest on record) under the Egyptian Psammeticus, who took
it 630 B.C.
These calamities were foretold Jeremiah 25:20; Amos
1:8; Zephaniah 2:4; Zechariah 9:5-6, "a bastard shall dwell
in Asdod," i.e. an alien; perhaps referring to an Arabian
occupation of it during the Babylonian exile. Compare
Nehemiah 4:7; Nehemiah 13:24. Destroyed by the Maccabees.
Restored by the Roman Gabinius 55 B.C. Assigned to Salome by
Augustus. Visited by Philip the evangelist, who preached
there on his way from Gaza to Caesarea (Acts 8:40). A bishop
from it was present at the councils of Nice and Chalcedon.
Read More about Ashdod in Fausset's Bible Dictionary