second at 1 Chronicles 8:1. In 1728 B.C.E. he came into Egypt with Jacob’s family. He appears to be called Jediael at 1 Chronicles 7:6, 10. The Ashbelites, his descendants, were registered in the census taken on the desert plains of Moab about 1473 B.C.E.—Num. 26:38.

ASH CONSTELLATION

[Heb., ʽAsh or ʽAʹyish; meaning, perhaps, lion, lioness].

These Hebrew words occur at Job 9:9 and 38:32. The fact that these and other terms are used in association with sun, stars and heaven in both cases indicates that they refer to some celestial constellation. (See Job 9:7, 8; 38:33.) It is impossible at present to specify which constellation they refer to and hence it is safer to transliterate the name (as in our heading) rather than to translate the Hebrew with specific names such as “Arcturus” (Gr., Ar·ktouʹros, literally meaning “guardian of the bear”) (AV), or “Bear” (RS).

The fact that Job 38:32 refers to Ash “alongside its sons” strengthens the basis for believing that a constellation is involved. Ursa Major (the Great Bear) is the constellation most often suggested, having seven main stars in it that could be “its sons.” Koehler and Baumgartner’s Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon (Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, p. 702), however, sees a connection with the constellation Leo (Lion), based on Arabic associations. The important point in the text is not the precise identification of the constellation, but the question there raised: “Can you conduct them?” Jehovah God thus impresses upon Job the wisdom and power of the Creator, inasmuch as it is utterly impossible for man to govern the movements of these immense stellar bodies.

ASHDOD

(Ashʹdod) [fortress, stronghold].

One of the five principal cities of the Philistines under their “axis lords” and evidently the religious center of Philistia with its worship of the false god Dagon. The other cities were Gath, Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron. (Josh. 13:3) Situated about halfway between Gaza and Joppa, or about ten miles (16 kilometers NE of Ashkelon, the ancient site of Ashdod is today represented by a mud village called Esdud, built on the eastern slope of a small knoll, and separated from the Mediterranean shore by about three miles (5 kilometers) of sand dunes.

It is first mentioned at Joshua 11:22 as the residing place, along with Gaza and Gath, of the remnant of the giantlike Anakim. Due to the eminence on which it was built and its position on the military road running along the coast from Egypt through Palestine, Ashdod occupied a strategic location militarily. At the time of the Israelite conquest it was assigned, along with its suburban villages, to Judah (Josh. 15:46, 47); but evidently it is included among the “inhabitants of the low plain” who could not be dispossessed “because they had war chariots with iron scythes.”—Judg. 1:19.

The Philistine cities seem to have been at the peak of their power during the time of King Saul (1117-1077 B.C.E.). Before Saul’s kingship the Philistines inflicted a severe defeat upon the Israelites at Ebenezer and captured the ark of the covenant, which they then transported to Ashdod and placed in the temple of Dagon, alongside the image of their god. After two humiliations miraculously executed on Dagon’s image, the Ashdodites then began to experience a plague of piles of such gravity as to create panic among them. A conference of Philistine axis lords brought a transferal of the Ark to the city of Gath, with a resulting extension of the plague there. Within seven months the Ark was on its way back to Israel, accompanied by an offering in gold.—1 Sam. 5:1–6:18; see PHILISTIA, PHILISTINES.

Although King David administered several defeats to the Philistines, their principal cities evidently remained independent until the time of King Uzziah (829-777 B.C.E.). Uzziah is described as the maker of “engines of war” (2 Chron. 26:15) and 2 Chronicles 26:6 tells us that Uzziah “proceeded to go out and fight against the Philistines and break through the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, after which he built cities in Ashdod territory and among the Philistines.”

Evidently the territory of Ashdod did not remain under Judean control, for in later periods inscriptions show Assyrian King Sargon as deposing the local king Azuri and installing Ahimiti in his place. A revolt caused Sargon to campaign against Philistia, conquering Gath, “Asdudu” (Ashdod) and “Asdudimmu” (Ashdod-by-the-Sea, evidently a separate place located on the seacoast). This may be the campaign referred to at Isaiah 20:1 and a partial fulfillment of the prophecy at Amos 1:8. In the following century Herodotus records that Ashdod was subjected to a siege lasting twenty-nine years laid against the city by Pharaoh Psammetichus during the reign of Ashurbanipal.—Herodotus, Book II, sec. 157.

A stone prism of Sennacherib of Assyria speaks of “Mitinti of Ashdod” as bringing him costly gifts and obeisance, and adds concerning King Hezekiah of Judah (745-716 B.C.E.): “His [Hezekiah’s] cities which I had sacked, I took away from his country and gave them to Mitinti, king of Ashdod.” Ashdod seems to have been in a weakened state by the time of Jeremiah (after 647 B.C.E.) so that he spoke of the “remnant of Ashdod.” (Jer. 25:20) Nebuchadnezzar, whose rule began in 625 B.C.E., makes mention of the king of Ashdod as one of the prisoners at the Babylonian court.—Compare Zephaniah 2:4.

In the postexilic period Ashdod was still a focal point of opposition to the Israelites (Neh. 4:7), and Nehemiah severely reprimanded those Jews who had married Ashdodite wives, resulting in sons who were “speaking Ashdodite, and there were none of them knowing how to speak Jewish.” (Neh. 13:23, 24) During the Maccabean period idolatrous Ashdod (called “Azotus”) came under attack by Judas Maccabaeus about 163 B.C.E., and later by Judas’ brother Jonathan about 148 B.C.E., the temple of Dagon being burned down in this second attack.—1 Maccabees 5:68; 10:84.

The city was rebuilt by the Romans about the year 55 B.C.E. and was generally known by its Greek name Azotus. Philip the evangelist passed through Ashdod in his preaching tour recorded at Acts 8:40.

The once proud city of Ashdod is today evidently buried under coastal sands, its name represented only in the insignificant village of Esdud.—Zech. 9:6.

ASHDODITE

An inhabitant of the Philistine city of Ashdod. (Josh. 13:3) Like the other Philistines, they were descendants of Ham through Mizraim and Casluhim, reaching Canaan apparently from the island of Crete.—Gen. 10:6, 13, 14; Amos 9:7; see ASHDOD; PHILISTIA, PHILISTINES.

At Nehemiah 13:24 the term “Ashdodite” is also applied to their language. Whether they were still speaking the ancient Philistine language or a dialect resulting from centuries of foreign domination cannot be determined, in view of the absence of any record of their speech.

ASHER

(Ashʹer) [happiness].

1. The eighth son of Jacob and second of two sons through Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant. (Gen. 35:26) Thus Asher’s only full brother was Gad. Asher’s four sons and one daughter are listed at 1 Chronicles 7:30, though his wife is not named. He was not prominent among the twelve sons of Jacob. However, in his father’s deathbed prophecy, Asher was promised a life blessed with an abundance of rich foods (Gen. 49:20), and the history of his descendants demonstrates the fulfillment of this prediction.

2. The name applies as well to the tribe descended from Asher. A year after the exodus from Egypt the tribe’s adult male descendants of Asher numbered 41,500 (Num. 1:41) and, about thirty-nine years