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Gath (city)
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Gath (city)
Gath or Gat (Hebrew: גַּת, romanized: Gaṯ, lit. 'wine press'; Latin: Geth, Philistine: 𐤂𐤕 *Gīt) was one of the five cities of the Philistine pentapolis during the Iron Age. It was located in northeastern Philistia, close to the border with Judah. Gath is often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and its existence is confirmed by Egyptian inscriptions. Already of significance during the Bronze Age, the city is believed to be mentioned in the El-Amarna letters as Gimti/Gintu, ruled by the two Shuwardata and 'Abdi-Ashtarti. Another Gath, known as Ginti-kirmil (Gath of Carmel) also appears in the Amarna letters.
The site most favored as the location of Gath is the archaeological mound or tell known as Tell es-Safi in Arabic and Tel Zafit in Hebrew (sometimes written Tel Tzafit), located inside Tel Zafit National Park, but a stone inscription disclosing the name of the city has yet to be discovered. A Gittite is a person from Gath.
Gath is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the five main Philistine cities. It was one of the last refuges of the Anakim in front of the conquering Israelites under Joshua. Gath was either subdued during the days of prophet Samuel, or by King David, although the first book of Kings states that in the time of King Solomon it was still ruled by a Philistine king named Achish. King Achish is mentioned as the ruler of Gath for the times of Saul, David, and Solomon, making it uncertain whether this refers to two or more kings of the same name.
Gath was also the home city of the Philistine giant Goliath and his brothers, as well as of Itai HaGiti, one of King David's generals, and his 600 soldiers who aided the king in his exile from his son Absalom. David, while running from Saul, escaped to Gath, and served under its king Achish. During Solomon's reign, Shemei went to Gath to recover his escaped slave. The city of Gath is also mentioned as being captured by Hazael of Aram Damascus.
The narrative in the first book of Chronicles relates that Ezer and Elead, sons of Ephraim, were killed by men who were natives of Gath, because "they came down to take their livestock".
Gath is named as one of 15 cities fortified by king Rehoboam, son of King Solomon, which were captured by Shishak, king of Egypt.
A tradition reported by Ishtori Haparchi (1280–1355) and other early Jewish writers is that Ramla was the biblical Gath of the Philistines. Initial archaeological claims seemed to indicate that Ramla was not built on the site of an ancient city, although in recent years the ruins of an old city site were uncovered on the southern outskirts of Ramla. Earlier, Benjamin Mazar had proposed that ancient Gath lay at a site called Ras Abu Hamid east of Ramla. Avi-Yonah, however, considered that to be a different Gath, usually now called Gath-Gittaim. This view is also supported by other scholars, those holding that there was, both, a Gath (today's Tell es-Safi) and Gath-Rimmon (in or near Ramla). Israeli archaeologist, Y. Aharoni, relying upon Eusebius' Onomasticon where he fixes the ancient site of Gath near the Roman road 5 miles (8 km) from Eleutheropolis (Bayt Jibrin) on the way to Diospolis (Lod), suggested to identify the biblical Gath with either Tell ej-Judeideh, or Tel Safi, and that Gath and Moresheth-Gath were the same place.
The 19th-century scholar Edward Robinson proposed that Gath be identified with Tell es-Safi, and this identification was generally accepted until the early 20th century, when it began to be questioned. In the 1920s, famed archaeologist W. F. Albright disputed this identification, writing that "The archaeological exploration of Tell el-Safi did not yield a shred of evidence for the identification with Gath." Albright suggested another site, Tell 'Areini (now close to the city of Kiryat Gat) which, despite some opposition, was accepted to the point that the Israel Government Names Committee renamed it as Tel Gat in 1953. However, excavations at Tell 'Areini starting in 1959 found no Middle Bronze Age traces and the excavators proposed instead that Gath be identified with a third site, Tell en-Nejileh (Tel Nagila), a proposal abandoned after excavations in the 1980s. Attention then returned again to Tell es-Safi, which is thought to be the location of Gath.
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Gath (city)
Gath or Gat (Hebrew: גַּת, romanized: Gaṯ, lit. 'wine press'; Latin: Geth, Philistine: 𐤂𐤕 *Gīt) was one of the five cities of the Philistine pentapolis during the Iron Age. It was located in northeastern Philistia, close to the border with Judah. Gath is often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and its existence is confirmed by Egyptian inscriptions. Already of significance during the Bronze Age, the city is believed to be mentioned in the El-Amarna letters as Gimti/Gintu, ruled by the two Shuwardata and 'Abdi-Ashtarti. Another Gath, known as Ginti-kirmil (Gath of Carmel) also appears in the Amarna letters.
The site most favored as the location of Gath is the archaeological mound or tell known as Tell es-Safi in Arabic and Tel Zafit in Hebrew (sometimes written Tel Tzafit), located inside Tel Zafit National Park, but a stone inscription disclosing the name of the city has yet to be discovered. A Gittite is a person from Gath.
Gath is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the five main Philistine cities. It was one of the last refuges of the Anakim in front of the conquering Israelites under Joshua. Gath was either subdued during the days of prophet Samuel, or by King David, although the first book of Kings states that in the time of King Solomon it was still ruled by a Philistine king named Achish. King Achish is mentioned as the ruler of Gath for the times of Saul, David, and Solomon, making it uncertain whether this refers to two or more kings of the same name.
Gath was also the home city of the Philistine giant Goliath and his brothers, as well as of Itai HaGiti, one of King David's generals, and his 600 soldiers who aided the king in his exile from his son Absalom. David, while running from Saul, escaped to Gath, and served under its king Achish. During Solomon's reign, Shemei went to Gath to recover his escaped slave. The city of Gath is also mentioned as being captured by Hazael of Aram Damascus.
The narrative in the first book of Chronicles relates that Ezer and Elead, sons of Ephraim, were killed by men who were natives of Gath, because "they came down to take their livestock".
Gath is named as one of 15 cities fortified by king Rehoboam, son of King Solomon, which were captured by Shishak, king of Egypt.
A tradition reported by Ishtori Haparchi (1280–1355) and other early Jewish writers is that Ramla was the biblical Gath of the Philistines. Initial archaeological claims seemed to indicate that Ramla was not built on the site of an ancient city, although in recent years the ruins of an old city site were uncovered on the southern outskirts of Ramla. Earlier, Benjamin Mazar had proposed that ancient Gath lay at a site called Ras Abu Hamid east of Ramla. Avi-Yonah, however, considered that to be a different Gath, usually now called Gath-Gittaim. This view is also supported by other scholars, those holding that there was, both, a Gath (today's Tell es-Safi) and Gath-Rimmon (in or near Ramla). Israeli archaeologist, Y. Aharoni, relying upon Eusebius' Onomasticon where he fixes the ancient site of Gath near the Roman road 5 miles (8 km) from Eleutheropolis (Bayt Jibrin) on the way to Diospolis (Lod), suggested to identify the biblical Gath with either Tell ej-Judeideh, or Tel Safi, and that Gath and Moresheth-Gath were the same place.
The 19th-century scholar Edward Robinson proposed that Gath be identified with Tell es-Safi, and this identification was generally accepted until the early 20th century, when it began to be questioned. In the 1920s, famed archaeologist W. F. Albright disputed this identification, writing that "The archaeological exploration of Tell el-Safi did not yield a shred of evidence for the identification with Gath." Albright suggested another site, Tell 'Areini (now close to the city of Kiryat Gat) which, despite some opposition, was accepted to the point that the Israel Government Names Committee renamed it as Tel Gat in 1953. However, excavations at Tell 'Areini starting in 1959 found no Middle Bronze Age traces and the excavators proposed instead that Gath be identified with a third site, Tell en-Nejileh (Tel Nagila), a proposal abandoned after excavations in the 1980s. Attention then returned again to Tell es-Safi, which is thought to be the location of Gath.
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