Parshas Mishpatim 5776

Who Were the Philistines?

The Torah writes (Exodus 23:31):

And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

They are first mentioned as descendents of Ham (Genesis 10:13-14):

And Mizraim begot Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim—whence went forth the Philistines—and Caphtorim.

There are two main types of Philistines mentioned in Tanach:

• The first kind were mentioned during the times of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were in the area called Gerar, ruled by a king (Abimelech), and had an army headed by a general (Phicol) [see Genesis 21:32]
• The second kind starts from the times of Joshua (see Joshua 13:2-3). They lived in five cities of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron, and were ruled by five commissioners or lords. They are found all the way until the times of Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 25:20).

The Ramban explains (Genesis 10:13) that the Caphtorim and Cashluhim conquered the land of the Philistines but it continued to be called that way. That would mean that the Philistines at the times of Joshua and later were Caphtorim as explained in the Torah (Deuteronomy 2:23):

and the Avvim, that dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, that came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead

(Caphtor is an island [see Jeremiah 47:4], and is identified by many as the island of Crete)

(see also the Daat Mikra atlas [p. 72 and p. 184] that explains that there were three kinds of Philistines, with an intermediate type conquering the first kind at the time of Moses, and the ones from Caphtor arriving during the period of Judges)

This would also explain how Abimelech's grandchildren ended up in Jerusalem, as it is written (Joshua 15:63):

And as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwelt with the children of Judah at Jerusalem, unto this day.

Rashi (ibid) explains:

The Sifri writes: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karcha said - they were able to but were not permitted because of the oath that Abraham swored to Abimelech, and the Jeusubites were called that way because of the tower of David which is in Jerusalem and its name is Jesub. For the residents of that district were Philistines and when Judah conquered Jerusalem, they did not conquer that district

(see also Rashi [II Samuel 5:6] where these Philistines were specifically mentioned as being descendents of Abimelech)

[Published at parshapeople.blogspot.com / Comments welcome to parsha-people@publishyoursefer.com]