ASHDOD or AZOTUS. ("fortress".) Now Esdud. On a commanding height. One of the five confederate Philistine cities, 30 miles from the S. of Israel, three from the Mediterranean, midway between Gaza and Joppa. A seat of the worship of (See DAGON; there the idol fell before God's captive ark, the head and palms cut off, and only the fishy stump (margin) left (1 Samuel 5:3-8). Ashdod had been originally assigned to Judah (Joshua 15:47), but never occupied by the Jews, nay, made a point of attack on them: not until King Uzziah was its "wall broken down and cities built about it," i.e. forts on the surrounding hills (2 Chronicles 26:6).
        In Nehemiah's time Ashdod still retained its distinctive language and race, and ensnared by marriages the Jews returned from Babylon, after vainly striving to prevent the walls of Jerusalem being built (Nehemiah 4:7-8; Nehemiah 13:23-24). It was the key of entrance between Israel and Egypt. As such, it was besieged by the Assyrian general Tartan under Sargon (716 B.C.), to counteract Hezekiah's league with Egypt (Isaiah 20:1). So strongly did the Assyrians fortify it that it stood a 29 years' siege (the longest on record) under the Egyptian Psammeticus, who took it 630 B.C.
        These calamities were foretold Jeremiah 25:20; Amos 1:8; Zephaniah 2:4; Zechariah 9:5-6, "a bastard shall dwell in Asdod," i.e. an alien; perhaps referring to an Arabian occupation of it during the Babylonian exile. Compare Nehemiah 4:7; Nehemiah 13:24. Destroyed by the Maccabees. Restored by the Roman Gabinius 55 B.C. Assigned to Salome by Augustus. Visited by Philip the evangelist, who preached there on his way from Gaza to Caesarea (Acts 8:40). A bishop from it was present at the councils of Nice and Chalcedon.