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ASHDOD (‘fortress’; Greek Azotus).—A city in the Philistine Pentapolis; not captured by Joshua (Jos_13:3), and a refuge for the unslaughtered Anakim (Jos_11:22); theoretically assigned to the tribe of Judah (Jos_15:47). Hither the Phliistines brought the ark, and sent it thence to Gath, on account of an outbreak probably of bubonic plague (1Sa_5:1-8). Uzziah attacked the city, destroyed its walls, and established settlements near it (2Ch_26:6). The Ashdodites joined with Sanballat in opposing Nehemiah s restoration of Jerusalem (Neh_4:7), yet some of the Jews of the period married wives from Ashdod, and their children spoke in its dialect (Neh_13:23-24). It was captured by Sargon’s commander-in-chief (Isa_20:1). Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah speak denunciations against it. It was again captured by Judas Maccabæus (1Ma_5:68), and again by Jonathan (1Ma_10:84). The solitary reference to it in the NT is the record of Philip’s departure thither after the baptism of the Ethiopian (Act_8:40). It is identified with the modern Esdud, a village about two-thirds of the way from Jaffa to ‘Askalan, and some 3 miles from the sea. It is on the slope of a hill, and at its entrance are the remains of a large mediæval khan. There are fragments of ancient buildings to be found here and there in the modern walls.
R. A. S. Macalister.