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Was Goliath nine feet tall? We can’t
really know, but both Joshua (11:22) and
Second Samuel (21:20) state that Gath was
home base for the Giants. One warrior
from Gath even taunted Israel with 12
fingers and 12 toes. With David at
bat, however, the Giants struck out. |
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With a sling and a stone, David triumphed
over the Philistine, and using Goliath’s own
sword, slashed off the giant’s head.
When the Philistines saw that their champion
was dead, they fled with the Israelites in
hot pursuit, all the way to Gath, about
eight miles west of the battlefield. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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View of Tel es-Safi,
biblical Gath |
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Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, European explorers pursued the
challenge of locating Gath. When I studied
to be a guide in the late 1970s, we were
taught that archeologists Bliss and
Macalister had excavated Tel es-Safi in
1899, believing it to be Gath, but they were
wrong. In my early days as a guide, we
pointed out Gath near a modern Israeli town
called Kiryat (“town of”) Gath. In a
turnabout, a majority of twenty-first
century scholars now identify Tel es-Safi
with biblical Gath. |
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Copyright
2014 by Gila Yudkin |
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Valley of Elah runs
between Azekah and Adullam |
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If you have time, stamina and good balance,
a hike to the summit of Tel es-Safi is a
fantastic way to study the geography of the
holy land. After an hour and a quarter
drive from Jerusalem, it’s a relatively
easy, although steep and sometimes slippery,
30-minute climb to the top of the tel.
(Tel in Biblical Hebrew means “mound of
ruins.”) The reward is a 360 degree
view of biblical terrain ranging from the
Judean and Hebron hills to the lowlands
(called in the Hebrew Bible the shephelah),
all the way to the Mediterranean coastal
plain. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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Beduin encampment below
Gath with the Shephelah in the distance |
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Beyond the extended Beduin family encampment
right below us, we locate Maresha, probable
birthplace of Herod the Great, Timna where
Samson married the Philistine woman (Judges
14), and Ashdod where the Philistines were
plagued with hemorrhoids when they displayed
their trophy, the Ark of the Covenant, in
their pagan temple. (1 Samuel 5) |
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As a matter of fact, at the summit of Tel es
Safi, one can trace the progress of the Ark
of the Covenant as it toured the Philistine
cities for seven months. When it
reached Gath, the residents were
panic-stricken. Eventually the Ark of
the Covenant was returned to the Israelites
who were reaping their wheat harvest at Beth
Shemesh to our east. See First Samuel
chapters 4, 5, and 6 for the whole amazing
story. |
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Still controlled by the Philistines, the
city of Gath played a major role in David’s
rise to power when he fled from the wrath of
King Saul. On the principle, “the
enemy of my enemy is my friend,” David
decided to seek refuge with Achish, king of
Gath. After burying Goliath’s sword
(on our hike – we will imagine where…),
David pretended to be a madman, drooling and
drumming on Gath’s city gates. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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Goats grazing at Biblical
Gath |
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In all, David served up to two years with
Achish, king of Gath. The king trusted
him to the extent of appointing David to be
his personal body guard. David might have
even been present at Saul’s final battle on
Mount Gilboa, had the other Philistine
chieftains not vigorously protested David’s
participation in the fateful battle. |
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Philistine suspicions were in fact
justified, for during the two-year stint
with the king of Gath, David’s loyalties
remained with Israel. He apparently
learned the Philistine secret of
manufacturing iron along with the techniques
of fighting with horses and chariots.
It was David’s son Solomon who inaugurated
what archeologists call the Iron Age --
before that all Israelite weapons were made
of bronze. |
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Perhaps Solomon (Shlomo in Hebrew, from
shalom, which means peace) knew peace during
his entire reign because he had at his
fingertips fourteen hundred chariots and
twelve thousand horses. (First Kings 10:26)
An interesting thought we can discuss at
Gath. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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En route to the summit of
Gath, Goliath's hometown |
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It’s a colorful hike -- we may wander among
a herd of sheep and goats tended by a
shepherd named David, or pass a group of
sight-seers on horseback. In April the
scenery is spectacular with orange speckled
butterflies perched on budding purple
thistles silhouetted against the grassy
green mound of ancient Gath. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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Gath at springtime:
a butterfly perched on a thorny thistle |
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If you crave adventure, maintain good
balance on a slippery slope and love the
saga of the triumph of the Israelites over
the Philistines, don’t miss paying a visit
to Tel es Safi next spring (or fall or
winter…). |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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Philistine Gath is today
being excavated by Bar Ilan University |
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Afterwards we’ll collect stones in the
riverbed of the Valley of Elah (the
battlefield where David fought the giant) to
use with our
traditional slingshot that
killed Goliath. It's a cool
tool to slay the giants in your life! |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Bernini's David in
Galleria Borghese in Rome with David about
to kill Goliath |
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