Joshua 13:3

From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites:

Ekron, [Septuagint, Akkaroon] - now Akir (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 3:, 22-25), the northernmost of the five townships of the Philistines (see the note at Joshua 15:11; Joshua 15:45, and at Joshua 19:43).

Which is counted to the Cannanite. The land occupied by these was promised to the Israelites, because, previously to the Philistine invasion, it had belonged to the doomed Canaanites.

Five lords of the Philistines, х carneey (H5633), princes] - the special designation of the five Philistine rulers; metaphorically for axles, or hinges - i:e., of a people.

The Gazathites - or Gazites, the inhabitants of Gaza, which stood on the southern border of Canaan.

The Ashdothites - of Ashdod [Septuagint, Azootos (G108)], now Esdud, 18 geographical miles northeast of Gaza.

The Eshkalonites - of Ashkelon, Askelon [Septuagint, Askaloon], the only maritime town of the Philistines.

The Gittites - of Gath. The site of this ancient city has been identified by Porter with 'a conspicuous hill called Tell-es-Safieh, about 200 feet high, with steep sides. It is about 7 miles from Beth-shemesh, 8 miles from Shochoh toward Ekron, and 6 miles north of Eleutheropolis.' All these names are in the Hebrew singular: the Gazathite, etc.

Also the Avites - or Avim (dwellers in ruins). A nomadic tribe, who may have pushed their way, as Stanley says ('Sinai and Palestine,' app., sec. 85), from the desert, and established their circuit of pastoral encampments on the fertile district as far as Gaza, until they were dispossessed by the invading Philistines (Deuteronomy 2:23; also Genesis 10:17). Mr. Grove thinks, from the enumeration of places in the context being from south to north, it must be inferred that the Avites had effected a settlement northward of the Philistine Pentapolis. But there is no foundation for that suggestion, nor for Stanley's conjecture that they were nomads from the desert. They must have been of the same race as the Canaanites; and, in fact, the two clauses, "also the Avites (Joshua 11:4) from the south," which in our translation appear separate and distinct, are in the Septuagint and other versions closely connected [ek Thaiman], the word "south" being taken as the proper name of a territory south of that of the Philistines. The sum, then, of what is said here and elsewhere concerning the Avites is, that their northern boundary was Gaza, while their southern one was Teman, and that their territory was included in the enumeration of the districts in Palestine 'that yet remained to be possessed.' [From the Septuagint calling them hoi Euaioi, the name which that version always applies to the Hivites, it has been concluded by some that the Avites and Hivites were synonymous appellations of the same people. There is a radical distinction between the two Hebrew words `Awiym (H5757) and Hiwiy, and yet it is very singular that both the Septuagint and Jerome should translate both by the same word.]