What is…
Ekron

also known as: Akron, Akkaron, Accaron and Tel Mikne, Tel Miqne, Khirbet el‐Mekenna', Khirbat al-Muqanna', Khirbet el‐Muqanna'

Hebrew: עֶקְרוֹן —meaning: firm-rooted

This was the most northerly of the 5 chief city-states (a pentapolis) belonging to the kings of the Philistines, about 11 miles north of Gath.

It was assigned to the descendants of Judah (Joshua 13:3; 15:11, 45), and afterwards to Dan (19:43), but came again into the full possession of the Philistines (1 Samuel 5:10).

Ekron had satellite towns and villages (Joshua 15:45) and a major olive oil industry dating to at least the 7th century BC. More than 100 large ancient olive presses can still be seen in Ekron today—“the most complete olive oil production center from ancient times to be discovered.”

Ekron was the last place to which the Philistines carried the captured ark before they sent it back to Israel (1 Samuel 5:10; 6:1-8).

Ekron was noted for its heathen temple sanctuary to Baal-zebub (Baalzebub), also called Beelzebub (2 Kings 1:2-3, 6, 16).

The ruins of the palace of Khorsabad contain King Sargon II wall reliefs depicting his siege of Ekron in 712 BC and mentioning the city’s name. Ekron is also mentioned on monuments in 702 BC, when Sennacherib set free its king, imprisoned by Hezekiah in Jerusalem, according to the Assyrian record. Under Assyria’s dominion, Ekron again became a powerful city-state. Later in 604 BC, King Nebuchadnezzer II destroyed Ekron. Its destruction was prophecied in Zephaniah 2:4.

“…Ekron will be uprooted” —Zephaniah 2:4 NASB, LSB excerpt

Related cities include Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Gaza.

Archaeology

The Philistine city of Ekron is specifically named in the ancient Sennacherib Annals stele prism now housed at The Oriental Institute Museum (University of Chicago). It describes Sennacherib’s conquests in the land.

Due to the 1996 discovery of a stone tablet called the Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription, found in temple ruins, the site of ancient Ekron was positively identified at Tell Mikne (aka Tell Miqne), near the modern city of Kiryat Ekron, Israel (founded in 1948 as Kfar Ekron) that is located on the site of an Arab village called Aqir (Akir).

Associates for Biblical Research’s Dr. Gary Byers (PhD) served on the excavation staff at Tel Miqne/Ekron in 1984, and ABR’s Dr. Anna De Vincenz (PhD) was involved in the Miqne-Ekron publication project. Excavations were also conducted for 14 seasons between 1981 and 1996 by the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The tell mound is about 11 miles (18 kilometers) “north of Tell es-Safi, the almost certain site of the Philistine city of Gath.”

Some 115 olive oil mills have been found in the city, which produced perhaps 500 tons of oil a year.

Ekron was reclaimed for the descendants of Judah (the Jews) by the modern State of Israel in 1948.

Ekron: City of the Philistines

A brief overview of the geography, history, archaeology and other notable features of the biblical Old Testament city of Ekron (Tel Miqne) and how it is connected with the Bible.

Video by Gospel and Spade

Length: 5 minutes