ud.**

* Jer. xlvii. 4 calls them "the remnant of the isle of
Caphtor;" Amos (ix. 7) knew that the Lord had brought "the
Philistines from Caphtor;" and in Dent. ii. 23 it is related
how "the Caphtorim which came forth out of Caphtor destroyed
the Avvim, which dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, and dwelt
in their stead." Classical tradition falls in with the sacred
record, and ascribes a Cretan origin to the Philistines; it
is suggested, therefore, that in Gen. x. 14 the names
Casluhim and Caphtorim should be transposed, to bring the
verse into harmony with history and other parts of
Scripture.

** In an episode in the life of David (1 Sam. xxx. 14),
there is mention of the "south of the Cherethites," which
some have made to mean Cretans--that is to say, the region
to the south of the Philistines, alongside the territory of
Judah, and to the "south of Caleb." Ezelc. xx. 16 also
mentions in juxtaposition with the Philistines the
Cherethites, and "the remnant of the sea-coast," as objects
of God's vengeance for the many evils they had inflicted on
Israel. By the Cherethims here, and the Cherethites in Zoph.
ii. 5, the Cretans are by some thought to be meant, which
would account for their association with the Philistines.

Gaza enjoyed among them a kind of hegemony, alike on account of its
strategic position and its favourable situation for commerce, but this
supremacy was of very precarious character, and brought with it no
right whatever to meddle in the internal affairs of other members of the
confederacy. Each of the latter had a chief of its own, a Seren,* and
the office of this chief was hereditary in one case at least--Gath, for
instance, where there existed a larger Canaanite element than elsewhere,
and was there identified with that of "melek,"** or king.

* The _sarne plishtim_ figure in the narrative of the last
Philistine campaign against Saul (1 Sam. xxix. 2-4, 7, 9).
Their number, five, is expressly mentioned in 1 Sam. vi. 4,
16-18, as well as the names of the towns over which they
ruled.

** Achish was King of Gath (1 Sam. xxi. 10, 12, xxvii. 2),
and probably Maoch before him.

The five Sarnim assembled in council to deliberate upon common
interests, and to offer sacrifices in the name of the Pentapolis. These
chiefs were respectively free to make alliances,