Gath

ties 7. 12. 2), but its site has not been certainly identified. Milton’s expre ion “the towers of like that in the verse: streets of Askelon; lest Gath” is a figure for Philistia, “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.” (2 Samuel Milton makes Gath the home of the giant Harapha, whose name is derived from the word translated “giant” in the verse: “These four were born to the giant in Gath.” (2 Samuel The word “pile,” in the statement that the look of 21. 22.) Hat-apha is “haughty as is his pile high-built and proud” {Samson Po ibly 1069), is often taken to refer to the stature of the giant. it means that Milton thought the dwelling of the giant at Gath was in an elevated position. Adrichomius says the city was on a One of (Pp. 14, 22.) hill, and his maps show it in such a place. the places now thought to be the site of Gath, Tell es-Safiyeh in the Valley of Elah, is a cliff about two hundred feet high, on the summit of which are the ruins of a ma ive wall. (Encyclopcsdia 1. 20.) ch124.xhtml b 142