ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an groups and is intended as an encouragement to study them and their histories in conjunction with that of Israel and Judah as well as to study them in their own right. Biblical texts will be referenced but the main interest of this chapter lies not in what the biblical texts can tell us about these people and kingdoms, but about what we can say from the archaeological and textual evidence produced by the people in question. Initially it looks as if the Philistines had the upper hand in the conflict. Like the Phoenicians, there was no overall king in control over the Philistines. Like the Phoenicians, the Philistines welcomed greater independence when the Assyrian Empire started to weaken during the latter part of the reign of Ashurbanipal. Once this coalition had disintegrated, Ammonites and Moabites appear to have attacked Judah unsuccessfully.
