Gath
The Philistine city that the Bible makes the home of Goliath and other giants, survivors of the Anakim.
- Type
- One of the five Philistine royal cities
- Usual identification
- Tell es-Safi (Tel Zafit), central Israel
- Excavations
- Bar-Ilan University, led by Aren Maeir, from 1996
- Biblical figure
- Goliath and the six-fingered giant (2 Samuel 21)
- Destruction
- Destroyed in the 9th century BCE, probably by Hazael of Aram
What is Gath known for?
Gath was one of the five royal cities of the Philistines on the coastal plain of the southern Levant. Older reference works call its location uncertain; today most archaeologists identify it with Tell es-Safi, excavated since 1996 by a Bar-Ilan University team under Aren Maeir. The finds show a large city in the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, destroyed in a siege that is usually linked to Hazael of Aram (2 Kings 12:17). Sargon II of Assyria claimed to capture Gath around 712 BCE.
In the Bible, Joshua 11 says the Anakim survived only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. Gath is then the home of Goliath and of a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot (2 Samuel 21). Read together, these passages make the Philistine giants a surviving branch of the earlier giant peoples.
Excavators even found a 10th–9th century BCE potsherd with two names similar to 'Goliath', which shows such names were in use there, though not that the giant existed.
The Bible links Gath's giants, including Goliath, to the surviving Anakim.
Mentioned on these pages
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Gath'Reference
- 2 Samuel 21 (KJV), Bible GatewayPrimary text
- Wikipedia, 'Gath (city)'Reference
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