COMO DAVI VENCEU GOLIAS? Quem eram os filisteus?

Shalom and welcome back to Israel with Aline! Today we are in Tel Azeka. The history of Israel is marked by many wars and many battles, but there is one that changed the history of Israel which is the battle of David and Goliath, and it happens very close to here. So today we are going to know the location of this battle, understand how it happened, and also know who are the Philistines, who were these people that were the great enemy of Israel? Where they came from, if they exist to this day, and much more! So if you are ready, let’s get started! Let’s start with David and his family. David was the youngest son of Jesse, one of eight brothers, and at the time he was living there were many wars and battles against the Philistines, and so King Saul summons the men of Israel into the army. And David’s three older brothers are called to war, and after a short time, Jesse calls David and hands him grain and loaves of bread, and tells him to take it as food for his brothers who were in the camps. And so David arrives with the grain and the loaves here in the Valley of the Oak, where the camp of the people of Israel was. And he asks them what is going on: have we already won the war, what is happening right now in the battle with the Philistines? And then they tell about the challenge that the Philistines made: on the Philistine side, there was Goliath; a huge man with a great military training. And he challenges anyone of the people of Israel, and whoever wins this battle, the people would have to be servants to the other people. That is, if the people of Israel won, the Philistines would be subordinate to the people of Israel, but also the opposite could happen. And remember that the chance of winning over Goliath is very small. He was prepared in war, and he had very good military training, and so no one from the people of Israel volunteered to fight. And then David, this very young boy who was not even part of the army of Israel, volunteers to fight, and David comes in front of the king of Israel, King Saul, to convince him, that he can be the representative who will fight for Israel and he tells how he defended his father Jesse’s sheep: from lions, from bears, and he defended it with his own hands. And King Saul hearing this will say, “Okay, you will now be able to fight Goliath for all the people of Israel.” Remember that it was very risky. The chance of winning is very small, and that means that the chance of dying in battle is a very dangerous thing indeed, and this battle is going to happen right here, so let’s get to know more! The Philistine camps started here at Tel Azekah, and they went all the way through this area to the next hill which is called Tel Socoh, so between Azekah and Socoh were the Philistine camps, and the camps of the people of Israel were down there in the valley of Elah, Emek Ha’ Ela in Hebrew or in Portuguese in the Vale do Carvalho. And preparations begin for David to fight Goliath, and Saul will give him armor, swords, everything he needs to fight, and David will look and say I don’t need all this. I’m not used to using all this equipment, he will give up his protection, his armor, everything, and what he will want are some stones from a brook. This creek exists to this day, and it runs down there. So, now we are going to go down the Azeka Mountain and get some stones from the creek. We go down now into the valley of Elah and right here on our side is the creek, but there is no water here Aline, how are you talking about a creek? This river like many of Israel, it’s dry during the summer, we’re in midsummer, it’s over 104 °F now here, so in summer it is dry, and in winter, which is the rainy season, it fills with water. And now that we are in summer, it hasn’t rained here for months, the river dries up and all this vegetation grows. But the stones are still there. So now we are going down together, come on! Well, at this time of the year, with all the vegetation, it is a little challenging, but we are now inside this creek, again we see that it is dry, but we can look at the ground: See it is covered with stones, where David is going to come, gather five of these stones, to put in the sling to face Goliath, walking here, I want you to look down with me and see the pebbles, see these stones. The stones, they are rounded because of the river. The water that goes by rolls them, and they get a round shape, there are from very small stones to very big stones, but the round shape is ideal to use for a sling, folks, don’t be fooled sometimes by the images that represent David with a slingshot, what he used was a sling. That is why he chooses just this kind of stone here. And now little David comes in front of Goliath, and Goliath looks at that little boy, and it is written in the Bible that Goliath despises David, because he was young, red-headed and also gentle-looking. He figures, “out of all the people of Israel the best person you guys got is this boy?” And David’s response is fantastic as it is written in first Samuel seventeen, forty-five: “David said to the Philistine: you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” And David, with his five stones taken from this river and his sling, goes to fight against Goliath and as we know in the biblical narrative, he will put stones in the sling, shoot at Goliath, hit him straight on, who will fall on his face. And David then takes Goliath’s head as a trophy, despite all of Goliath’s preparation, David had God on his side, as he very well knew. So let’s now go a little higher, and get to know a little more about the Valley of Elah and the history of who these Philistines are, come on! The history of the Philistines in the land of Israel begins three thousand two hundred years ago, when these people started to invade the Land, coming from where? From Caftor, we know this because of the Book of Amos, where is Caftor? According to research, it is believed that today it is Crete, which is part of Greece. So these people coming from southern Europe, come and begin to settle on the coast of Israel, and in the same years, the people of Israel are returning to their land, returning from where? Returning from Egypt After four hundred years of slavery and another forty years in the desert, the people finally arrive. Then the two peoples enter at the same time, and so the battles begin. Each wants to own this land, and the Philistines begin to conquer a very important region, the region that goes from the southern coast; today it is the Gaza area, to the Tel Aviv area. This region, to whom had it been promised? To the Tribe of Dan, in the division of lands, as you can see on the map, this area was supposed to belong to the Tribe of Dan, but they don’t manage to conquer it. So the tribe of Dan goes to get another piece of land, which will be in the far north of Israel, where the city of Tel-Dan is today. And before long, the Philistines have become Israel’s greatest enemy, and they will compete for centuries for control of this land. The great battles of the Philistines against the people of Israel are described in the Bible. One example is Samson and Delilah. Another example, as we are talking about, is David and Goliath, but there are many other passages and through these passages, we get to know a little bit about the life and the daily life of the Philistines, for example, about their gods. They worshipped gods from the region. For example, the god Baal and also the god Dagon, Dag is the word for fish. By the way, it’s the word that is used in Hebrew to this day is also Dag, and Dagon this fish-god he was super important to the Philistines, and it makes sense they were a people of the sea: navigators, imagine, they came three thousand two hundred years ago, from Greece, Cyprus, maybe Turkey, sailing all the way here and so Dagon, their fish-god. He appears in another passage that we have already commented on here on the channel; when they steal the Ark of the Covenant and take it to Ashdod. And there, they keep the Ark of the Covenant next to a statue of Dagon, and the next day, when they arrive, among other things, Dagon was fallen. The statue had been toppled and one thus also understands that they had Dagon worship among them, they lived in five main cities: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gaza, Ekron and Gath. And Gath was the city of origin of Goliath. In Ashkelon archaeological excavations were done in two thousand and sixteen, where a Philistine cemetery with more than one hundred and fifty bones was discovered. And of course, genetic tests were done, and it was discovered that the DNA was originally from southern Europe, but that also over time they intermarried and mixed with some local populations. And this confirms that the origin of the Philistines is from Europe and probably from Caftor. But there are still many mysteries concerning the Philistines, for example their language. We don’t know what language they spoke. We only know that it was a non-Semitic language, but the biggest question is what happened to them, where are they today? In 735 BC the Assyrians begin to invade the area of the Philistines. And they exile and kill a good part of the population, but the “last straw” will be with the invasion of the Babylonians. And in 600 B.C., the Philistines will disappear from the stage of history. They will live here in this region for six hundred years but disappear. And today what we have are simply archeological remains. And the Philistine people no longer exist. And here in the Valley of Elah, the stage of one of the greatest battles in the history of Israel and a battle that changed the history of the entire region, from here, I want to say goodbye to you and remind you to subscribe to the channel, to leave that like, to comment on what other biblical places do you want to know here? A big kiss and see you next time!