Canaanite and Philistine city in ancient Palestine.
It was one of the five cities of the Philistine Pentapolis and was located in what is now central Israel. Though allocated to Judah after the Israelite conquest, it was a Philistine stronghold in the time of King David ; it was later associated with the worship of the deity Baalzebub. Taken by Egypt (с 918 BC), it paid tribute to Assyria in the 7th century BC. The city was known as Akkaron from Hellenistic times.