Philistines

(fil'is -tīnz.) (Script.) A celebrated people of antiquity, mentioned in the Bible as being in frequent contest with the Jews, and who lived on the coast of the Mediterranean, to the S.W. of Judæa, from Ekron towards the Egyptian frontier, bordering principally on the tribes ofDan, Simeon, and Judah. Itwas not till the reign of Hezekiah that the P. were entirely subdued (2 Kings xviii. 8). Alexander the Great traversed their country and took Gaza; and Philistia was involved in the fortunes of the Syrian, Egyptian, and Maccabean and subsequent Jewish wars. At last it fell under and was disposed of by the Roman power (1 Macc. iii. 41, x. 69-89, xi. 60-62; Joseph us, Antiq., lib. xiii. 13, 23, lib. xiv. 4, § 4, lib. xv. 7, 23, lib. xvii. 11, 22 4, 5). [s. 704]