פְּלִשְׁתִּי

pelishti · Philistines

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H6430 · appears 288 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?

Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

pelishti (פְּלִשְׁתִּי) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “Philistines”.

A people that settled on the south-west coast of Canaan and was Israel's enemy in the days of the judges and of David.

How to say it

pe·lish·ti

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

Someone from the Philistines, Israel's enemy.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Philistine: an inhabitant of Pelesheth, Philistia (BDB), the strip of coast south-west of Canaan. It is the name of a people.

The Philistines in the time of Abraham and Isaac Genesis 26:1
Enemies of Israel in the time of the judges Judges 13:1
The wars of Samuel, Saul and David 1 Samuel 4:1 1 Samuel 17:4
Their origin, according to the prophets Amos 9:7 Jeremiah 47:4

Historical and cultural background

Amos 9:7 and Jeremiah 47:4 say that the Philistines came from Caphtor.

How we translate it

“Philistines” 255 times, “Philistine” 33. As the name of a people it is written in the usual English form. Their rulers, סַרְנֵי פְלִשְׁתִּים, are called “the lords of the Philistines”, because it is a word of their own.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

Philistines ×255
Philistine ×33

Related words

Comes from

פְּלֶשֶׁת peleshet · Philistia

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

Genesis 10:14
the Pathrusim, the Casluhim (from where the Philistines came out), and the Caphtorim.
Genesis 21:32
So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines.
Genesis 21:34
Abraham resided as an alien in the land of the Philistines many days.
Genesis 26:1
There was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that there was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
Genesis 26:8
When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through the window and saw, and look, Isaac was caressing Rebekah his wife.
Genesis 26:14
He had flocks and herds and many servants, and the Philistines envied him.
Genesis 26:15
All the wells that the servants of his father had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped up and filled with dust.
Genesis 26:18
Isaac again dug the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham; and he called them by names like the names by which his father had called them.
Exodus 13:17
When Pharaoh let the people go, Elohim did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although it was near; for Elohim said, “Lest the people relent when they see war and return to Egypt.”
Exodus 23:31
I will set your border from the Sea of Reeds to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River, for I will give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out from before you.
Joshua 13:2
This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites
Joshua 13:3
(from the Shihor, which is east of Egypt, and as far as the border of Ekron to the north, it is counted as Canaanite); the five rulers of the Philistines: the Gazite, the Ashdodite, the Ashkelonite, the Gittite, and the Ekronite; and the Avvites
Judges 3:3
the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanite, the Sidonian, and the Hivite who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as the entrance of Hamath.
Judges 3:31
After him there was Shamgar son of Anath; he struck six hundred men of the Philistines with a goad for oxen, and he too saved Israel.
Judges 10:6
The sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, and served the Baals and the Astartes, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; they abandoned YHWH and did not serve him.
Judges 10:7
The anger of YHWH burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the sons of Ammon.
Judges 10:11
YHWH said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from Egypt, from the Amorite, from the sons of Ammon, and from the Philistines?
Judges 13:1
And the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, and YHWH gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
Judges 13:5
For look, you will be pregnant and bear a son. And no razor shall come up on his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite of Elohim from the womb, and he will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
Judges 14:1
Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines.
Judges 14:2
He came up and told his father and his mother, and said, “A woman I have seen in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines; now take her for me as a wife.”
Judges 14:3
But his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife from the Philistines, the uncircumcised?” And Samson said to his father, “Take her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
Judges 14:4
His father and his mother did not know that it was from YHWH, for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
Judges 15:3
And Samson said to them, “This time I am innocent toward the Philistines, when I do them harm.”
Judges 15:5
He set fire to the torches and let them loose into the standing grain of the Philistines, and he burned up from the stacked grain to the standing grain and to the olive groves.
Judges 15:6
And the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
Judges 15:9
Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and spread out in Lehi.
Judges 15:11
Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft of the crag of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”
Judges 15:12
And they said to him, “To bind you we have come down, to give you into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me.”
Judges 15:14
He came as far as Lehi, and the Philistines shouted in triumph to meet him. And the spirit of YHWH came powerfully upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has burned in fire, and his bonds melted from off his hands.
Judges 15:20
And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Judges 16:5
And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see in what his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, so that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will give you, each one, eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
Judges 16:8
And the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
Judges 16:9
Now the ambush was waiting for her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of tow snaps when it smells fire. So his strength was not known.
Judges 16:12
So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the ambush was waiting in the room. But he snapped them from off his arms like a thread.
Judges 16:14
And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the warp.
Judges 16:18
When Delilah saw that he had opened to her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, “Come up this time, for he has opened to me all his heart.” And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought up the silver in their hand.
Judges 16:20
And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that YHWH had left him.
Judges 16:21
And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters; and he was grinding in the house of the prisoners.
Judges 16:23
Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given into our hand Samson our enemy.”

And 248 more times.