Ashdod

Ashdod (meaning stronghold or effusion) was one of the five major cities of the Philistine pentapolis, located about midway between Gaza and Joppa, three miles from the Mediterranean coast. It was a principal center of the worship of Dagon, whose temple there was disrupted when the ark of the covenant was placed before the idol and the statue fell and broke (1 Samuel 5:1–7). Though assigned to Judah, Ashdod was never incorporated into Israelite territory. King Uzziah breached its walls (2 Chronicles 26:6), and it appears in prophetic judgment oracles. In the New Testament, Philip the evangelist passed through Ashdod (called Azotus) after his encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:40).