Gath (city) in the context of "Pentapolis"

Ekron (Philistine: 𐤏𐤒𐤓𐤍 *ʿAqārān, Hebrew: עֶקְרוֹן, romanized: ʿEqrōn, Arabic: عقرون), in the Hellenistic period known as Accaron (Ancient Greek: Ακκαρων, romanized: Akkarōn) was at first a Canaanite, and later more famously a Philistine city, one of the five cities of the Philistine Pentapolis, located in present-day Israel.

In 1957, Ekron was first identified with the mound of Khirbet el-Muqanna (Arabic) or Tel Miqne (Hebrew), near the depopulated Palestinian village of 'Aqir, on the basis of the large size of the Iron Age archaeological remains; the judgement was strengthened by the discovery in 1996 of the Ekron inscription. The tell lies 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of Jerusalem, and 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of Tel es-Safi, the almost certain site of the Philistine city of Gath, on the grounds of Kibbutz Revadim on the eastern edge of the Israeli coastal plain. The other main cities of the Philistine Pentapolis beyond Ekron and Gath were Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod.

Philistia was a confederation of five main cities or pentapolis in the Southwest Levant, made up of principally Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and for a time, Jaffa (part of present-day Tel Aviv-Yafo).

Scholars believe the Philistines were made up of people of an Aegean background that from roughly 1200 BC onwards settled in the area and mixed with the local Canaanite population, and came to be known as Peleset, or Philistines. At its maximum territorial expansion, its territory may have stretched along the Canaanite coast from Arish in the Sinai (today's Egypt) to the Yarkon River (today's Tel Aviv), and as far inland as Ekron and Gath. Nebuchadnezzar II invaded Philistia in 604 BC, burned Ashkelon, and incorporated the territory into the Neo-Babylonian Empire; Philistia and its native population – the Philistines – disappear from the historic record after that year, until the second century BC, when both Philistea and its cities (Joppa, Jamina, and Azotus) reappear in biblical and Greek texts, in the context of the Maccabean Revolt and the Hellenistic period.

The Tribe of Dan (Hebrew: דָּן, "Judge") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe initially settled in the hill lands bordering Ephraim and Benjamin on the east and Judah and the Philistines on the south but migrated north due to pressure of their enemies, settling at Laish (later known as Dan), near Mount Hermon.

Biblical judge Samson was a hero of the Dan tribe.

Tell es-Safi (Arabic: تل الصافي, romanized: Tall aṣ-Ṣāfī, "White hill"; Hebrew: תל צפית, Tel Tzafit) was an Arab Palestinian village, located in the Shephelah region on the southern banks of Wadi 'Ajjur, 35 kilometers (22 mi) northwest of Hebron, which had its Arab population expelled during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. Archaeological excavations show that the site (a tell or archaeological mound) was continuously inhabited since the 5th millennium BCE, and it is widely identified with the Philistine city of Gath.

The site appears on the 6th-century Madaba Map as Saphitha, while the Crusaders called it Blanche Garde. It is mentioned by Arab geographers in the 13th and 16th centuries. Under the Ottoman Empire, it was part of the district of Gaza. In modern times, the houses were built of sun-dried brick. The villagers were Muslim and cultivated cereals and orchards.

Kiryat Gat (Hebrew: קריית גת, lit. 'City of Gat') also spelled Qiryat Gat, is a city in the Southern District of Israel. It lies 56 km (35 miles) south of Tel Aviv, 43 km (27 mi) north of Beersheba, and 68 km (42 mi) west southwest of Jerusalem. In 2023 it had a population of 69,762. The city hosts one of the most advanced semiconductor fabrication plants in the world, Intel's Fab 28 plant producing 7 nm process chips.

Maacah (or Maakah; Hebrew: מַעֲכָה‎ Maʿăḵā, "crushed"; Maacha in the Codex Alexandrinus, Maachah in the KJV) is a non-gender-specific personal name used in the Bible to refer to a number of people.

• A child of Abraham's brother Nahor, son of Terah by his concubine Reumah. (Genesis 22:23,24)
• The wife of Machir, Manasseh's son. (1 Chronicles 7:15-16)
• One of the wives of Hezron's son Caleb. (1 Chronicles 2:48)
• A wife of David, and daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur (1 Chronicles 3:2), a near neighbor of the Maachathites. David fathered Absalom and Tamar by her.
• A King of Gath, to whose son, Achish, Shimei's servants fled early in Solomon's reign (1 Kings 2:39). About a half-century earlier than this event, David had fled to Achish, son of Maoch, King of Gath, with 600 men (1 Samuel 27:2). Still, the identification of Maacah is doubtful, though kinship is exceedingly probable.
• Granddaughter of Absalom, favorite wife of Rehoboam, mother of Abijah of Judah, and grandmother of Asa of Judah. She served as Gebirah for Asa until he deposed her for idolatry. (1 Kings 15:1-14, 2 Chronicles 11:20-22, 2 Chronicles 15:16)
• The wife of Yechiel. (1 Chronicles 8:29)
• The father of Hanan, who was a man in David's army. (1 Chronicles 11:43)
• The father of Shephatiah, an office man in David's time. (1 Chronicles 27:16)