Bar-Ilan University in Israel has published its Summer evacuation findings on the Philistine city of Gath; this season they finally found the city's gate.
Gath was one of the largest cities in the region and one of the major five
Philistine cities along with Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gaza (from which the
Gaza strip gets its name.)
The city is located a few
miles west of the valley of Elah--where the famous fight between David and
Goliath took place.
The Bible mentions Gath in
detail two times, once is in 1 Samuel 5 where the Ark of the Covenant has been
stolen by the Philistines. They decide to take it to Ashdod but after a number
of people broke out with tumors it is carried eastward to Gath. After
the Ark arrives in Gath tumors break out there as well and the Philistines once
again take it to another city. The whole account can be read in detail starting here.
The other major mention
of the city comes sixty years later in the narrative when David is fleeing King Saul who has
become jealous and murderous. David comes to Gath for shelter.
But the citizens of Gath recognized David as a top warrior
of the Israelite army, so he acts like a madman "making marks on the doors
of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard." On seeing this the King
of the city says "Look at the man! He is
insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to
carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?” This part
of David's story can be read in detail here.
The Bible also mentions
Gath elsewhere in less detail:
It's first mentioned in
Joshua 11 as one of the places where a race called the "Anakim"
remained.
And David mentions it in a
lament after his King and best friend Jonathan die (2 Samuel
1:17-27)
The last mention of the
city in the Bible is in Micah: "Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all. In Beth
Ophrah roll in the dust." (Micah 1:10) At this point the city's been lying
in ruin for more than a century.
The city is believed
to have been destroyed by King Hazael of Syria who reigned in Damascus (which even at the time was an
ancient city.) King Hazael defeated both the northern Kingdom of Israel and the
southern Kingdom of Judah in battle and captured the Philistine's Gath in about 850 BC.
He turned his forces to Jerusalem but
King Joash gave him a large tribute that satisfied the warring
King.
For updates on the cities' evacuation
from those working on the sight, click here.
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