The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament; - The Search For ...

86 THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS AND THE 0. T.
however, need not be Semitic. The Assyrians may have
already found it attached to a spot that had existed from
earliest antiquity. We can therefore hardly get beyond
the realm of conjecture.*
14. D^piJ^'^B Philistines. The land Palastav, also
Pilista (II Rawl. 52, 40b**) i.e. Philistia, is often men-
tioned in the inscriptions. The most instructive passage is
that already cited on page 73 from the inscription of Ram-
mannirar, communicated in the note on 2 Kings XIII, 24.
103 There, in an enumeration of tributary nations of Western
Asia, proceeding from the West (Phoenicia) to the East
(Northern Israel), then to the South (Edom) and lastly to
the West again, the list passes at once over from Edom to
Pa-la-as-tav i. e. Philistia. That this district was
intended by the term is beyond doubt ; only it is remarkable
that while Northern Israel ("Land Omri") is mentioned,
Juda, which is completely hemmed in by the races enumer-
ated, is passed over in silence. It is scarcely to be supposed
that this is purposely done, because it alone was not tributary.
Accordingly it would appear as though the Assyrian king
included Juda also under the term "Palastav" or Philistia,
which was , so to speak , already a collective name for a
variety of small states and kingdoms. In other words the
Assyrian, as he advanced along the coast from the North
and invaded Juda from the side of Philistia, designated
* A conjecture has recently been propounded by Delitzsch, Paradies
p. 206, who derives the name from the Akkadian. He is certainly
right in his explanation of the ideogram for the name of the city , as
meaning, according to the elements of its sign, 'house-fish' or 'fish-
house'.
** For the latter form see further proofs in Delitzsch, Paradies
p. 288.