The Coastal Strip
The Coastal Strip
The coastal strip varies in breadth from a few hundred yards where Mount Carmel juts out into the sea (and the modern port of Haifa is situated) to some thirty miles at the southern end. This southern part was the ancient land of the Philistines. It is here that the five main Philistine cities were located—Gaza, the most southerly, on the great coastal road which runs up from Egypt about three miles inland, Ashkelon twelve miles north and on the sea, Ashdod eight miles farther north and on the road again, with Ekron farther north and more inland, and Gath in the middle of the plain.
The Shephelah, or foothills, lies immediately east of the Plain of Philistia. It is not surprising to read, therefore, that “the Philistines had raided towns in the foothills” (2 Chron. 28:18). Its sycamore trees were proverbial; so it could be said that Solomon made “cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills” (1 Kings 10:27).
Its slopes are, in fact, the foothills of the central plateau. They rise steadily from about 500 feet at Gath to 1,300 feet ten miles to the east. Then the mountains proper begin, and a further ten miles east lies Hebron, at 3,300 feet the highest city in Palestine.
Going back to the coast, immediately north of the plain of Philistia is the plain of Sharon, whose main town and port is Joppa. In our day it is rich in citrus orchards. Precisely what it was like in biblical times is not certain, but it certainly supported flocks of sheep, since we read once or twice of “the pasturelands of Sharon” (1 Chron. 5:16; cf. 27:29). On the other hand, before modern drainage it must have been very marshy, so that “the splendor of … Sharon” (Isa. 35:2) probably refers to its luxuriant vegetation, and the “rose of Sharon” (to whom the bride likens herself in the Song of Solomon) may have been an emblem of exceptional beauty because it blossomed in such unpromising surroundings, like “a lily among thorns” (Song of Songs 2:1–2).