Ashdod

Ashdod, the New Testament AZOTUS (now Esdud), a village on the Mediterranean, 21 miles S. of Jaffa. It was formerly one of the chief cities of the Philistines, strongly fortified, and the scene of numerous contests between that race and the Jews. Into this city the ark of the covenant was brought by the Philistines, and placed in the temple of their god Dagon. About 715 B.C. the town was taken by Tartan, general of the Assyrians; and in the following century it was captured by the Egyptians, under Psammetichus, after a twenty-nine years' blockade and siege. It was destroyed by the Maccabees, and though afterwards rebuilt by the Romans, never regained its early importance. Esdud is now a miserable village with a population of about 300.