5:1 Ebenezer. See 4:1 note.

Ashdod. One of the five main Philistine cities (4:1), Ashdod is about thirty miles south of Ebenezer and three miles inland from the Mediterranean. Philistine occupation of Ashod is attested archaeologically for the twelfth and eleventh centuries b.c. In the New Testament period, the site was called Azotus (Acts 8:40).