WHO WHERE THE PHILISTINES?

The Philistines were an aggressive, warrior people, and are first recorded in Scripture in the Table of Nations (list of 70 nations descended from Noah). Also the Scripture records that the Philistines had contact with both Abraham and Isaac. At that time the Philistines resided at Gerar in Southern Canaan. They had a king, Abimelech, and an army under the command of a certain Phicol. (Genesis 20; 21; 26)
Because of their maritime history, they are often associated with "Sea Peoples."The term is descriptive for both the Scriptural and extra-biblical documents that place their origin in Crete and the islands  near Greece.
The name "Philistine" comes from the Hebrew word "Philistia," and the Greek rendering of the name "Palais'Tinei," which gave rise to the modern name "Palestine." The ancient Philistines occupied a territory South West of Israel, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
GENESIS 8, 9 and 10 explains how GOD decided to let humankind have the chance to choose between good and evil:  "Noah built an Altar to the LORD, he took one of each kind of "ritually clean animal and bird", and burned them whole as a Sacrifice on the Altar. The odor of the Sacrifice pleased the LORD, and HE said to Himself, "NEVER again will I put the EARTH under a CURSE because of WHAT PEOPLE DO; I know that from the time they are young their THOUGHTS are EVIL. NEVER again will I DESTROY  all living beings, as I have done this time. As long as the WORLD exists, there will be a TIME for PLANTING, and a TIME for HARVEST. There will always be COLD and HEAT, SUMMER and WINTER, DAY and NIGHT."(8: 20-22)
"GOD blessed Noah and his sons and said, "Have many CHILDREN, so that your DESCENDANTS will live all over the EARTH. All the animals (earth), birds (air), and fish (water) will live in FEAR of YOU. They are ALL PLACED UNDER YOUR POWER. Now you can EAT THEM, as well as GREEN PLANTS; I give them all to you for FOOD. The one thing YOU MUST NOT EAT is MEAT WIT BLOOD STILL IN IT; I forbid this because THE LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD. If anyone takes HUMAN LIFE, he will be punished. I WILL PUNISH WITH DEATH any animal that takes a human life. HUMAN beings WERE MADE LIKE GOD, so whoever murders one of them will be killed by someone else. (9: 1-8)"
GOD said to NOAH and his sons, "I am now MAKING a COVENANT with YOU and with your DESCENDANTS, and with ALL LIVING BEINGS -all birds (air) and all animals (earth) -EVERYTHING that came "OUT OF THE BOAT" with you. With these WORDS I make My Covenant with you: I PROMISE that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a Flood; never again will a Flood destroy the earth. As a SIGN of this EVERLASTING COVENANT which I am making with you and with ALL LIVING BEINGS, I Am putting MY BOW in the CLOUDS. It will be the SIGN OF the COVENANT WITH THE WORLD. Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, I will REMEMBER MY PROMISE to YOU and to ALL the ANIMALS that a Flood will never again destroy all living beings." (9: 9-15)
The SONS OF NOAH who went OUT OF the BOAT were Shem, Ham, and Japhet. (HAM was the Father of Canaan). These 3 sons of Noah were the ANCESTORS OF ALL the PEOPLE ON EARTH. (9: 18-19)  These 3 had sons after the Flood. (10:1)
- The SONS of JAPHET : -Gomer, -Magog, -Madai, -Javan, -Tubal, -Meshech, and Tiras. They were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. Gomer's descendants were the people of Ash'Kenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. Javan's descendants were the people of Eli'Shah, Spain, Cyprus, and Rhodes. They were the ancestors of the people who live along the coast and on the islands. These are Japheth's descendants, living in their different Tribes and Countries, each group speaking its own language.
- The SONS of HAM : -Cush, -Egypt (Mizraim), -Libya (Phut), -and Canaan. They were the ancestors of the people who bear their names. Cush's descendants were the people of Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. Raamah's descendants were the people of Sheba and Dedan.
Cush had a son named Nimrod, who became the World's first great conqueror. By the Lord's help Nimrod was a great hunter, and that is why people say, "May the Lord make you as great a hunter as Nimrod!" At first Nimrod's kingdom included Babylon, Erech, and Accad, all 3 of them in Babylonia.
From that land Nimrod went to Assh'Ur and built the cities on Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.
Egypt (Mizraim)'s descendants were the people of Lydia (Ludim), Anam (Anamim), Lehab (Lehabim), Naphtuh (Naphtuhim), Path'Rusim, Casluhim, (out of whom came PHILISTINES [Phi'Listim]) and of Crete (Caphtorim).
Canaan's sons : Sidon, the oldest, and Heth. They were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. Canaan was also the ancestor of the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. The different Tribes spread out, until the Canaanite borders reached from SIDON Southward to GERAR near Gaza, and Eastward to SODOM, GOMORRAH, ADMAH, and ZEBOIIM near Lasha. These are Ham's descendants, living in their different Tribes and Countries, each group speaking its own language.
- SHEM, the older brother of Japhet, was the ancestor of all HEBREWS. Shem's sons : -Elam, -Ass'Hur, -Ar'Pachshad, -Lud, and Aram. They were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names.
Aram's descendants were the people of Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshek. Ar'Pachshad was the father of Shelah, who was the father of Eber.   Eber had 2 sons: one was named Peleg, because during his time the People of the World were divided; and the other was named Joktan. Joktan's descendants were the people of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Hobab. The Land in which they lived extended from MESHA to SEPHAR in the Eastern Hill Country. These are Shem's descendants, living in their different Tribes and Countries, each group speaking its own language.
HAM, one of the 3 sons of Noah, father 4 sons that were born after the Flood: Ethiopians, Egyptians, some Arabian and African Tribes, and the Canaanites descended from these 4 sons. Ham became involved in an incident that brought a "curse" on his seed, his son Canaan. Noah, who was a farmer, was the first man to "plant" a "vineyard,"in the New World. After he drank some of the wine produced in the earth, Noah became intoxicated, took off his clothes, and lay naked in his Tent. Ham saw his father's nakedness, and instead of showing the proper respect, by walking backwards with a mantle to cover him so that he would not bring punishment on himself by looking on it, he told his 2 brothers of his discovery. Shem and Japhet exhibited the proper respect for Noah, as the family head and the Servant and Prophet whom GOD had made an instrument in the preservation of the human race.  Noah, on awakening, uttered a curse, not on Ham, but on Ham's son Canaan. In the accompanying blessing of Shem, which included a blessing for Japhet, Ham was passed over and ignored; only Canaan was mentioned and cursed and was prophetically foretold to become a slave to Shem and Japhet.
The PHILISTINES were descendants of Mizraim, one of the 4 sons of Ham. They are mentioned prominently in New Kingdom Egyptian documents (1200-1100BC)  as an element of the nefarious "Sea Peoples" who tried unsuccessfully to invade Egypt from the Mediterranean and Libya during the reigns of Rameses III and his immediate successors. This texts call the Philistines "Pele'Set."
The curse over Ham's son Canaan was partly fulfilled when the Semitic Israelites subjugated the Canaanites. Those who were not destroyed (for example , the Gibeonites, Joshua 9, were made slaves to Israel. Centuries later, the curse was further fulfilled when descendants of Ham's son Canaan came under the domination of the Japhetic world powers of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
In the Psalms, Ham is associated with Egypt, it being called "the land of Ham," Psalm 78: 51; 105:23, 27; 106: 21, 22.
Amos (Hebrew name that means "Burden bearer") is the first prophet in the Scripture whose message (speeches, sayings and vision reports) was recorded at length. The approaching GOD's judgment  is outlined in his Book towards Syria, Philistia, and Tyre for cruel treatment to Israel; Edom (related through Esau), Ammon (related through Lot), for hatred and mistreatment of their brother Israelites; and Moab for burning the bones of the king of Edom for lime. Then Judah and Israel for revolts and gross violations of GOD's Law. GOD reveals its judgment and warns through Amos as a horn blown and a lion's roar. The judgment is sure to come with great calamity. Visions and prophecies show Israel's end and Amos does not intercede. The Priest of Bethel commands Amos to stop prophesying but he continue announcing the destruction of sinful Israel and reconstruction of the royal house of David.
Amos is the only available historical source of information of the World's reality that existed in his time. Amos was a businessman-farmer, resident of  Tekoa, a village 10km/6mi South of Jerusalem, on the boundary of the Judean Wilderness, who was called as a laymen to deliver a message of condemnation and judgment to the Israelites.
Amos tells nothing of his family or lineage but does provide more than usual amount of information about Time and his own geographical, chronological, and cultural setting in particular. Amos, besides of describing himself as "shepherd, and "herdssman" he also describes himself as "a dresser of sycamore-fig trees," to refer to the nipping or slitting of fruit in order to make it edible. He was an expert in fig cultivation as well as a successful dealer in sheep. With this information  Amos was either  a seasonal worker of varied skills or possibly a person of some means who owned sheep, cattle, fodder, sufficient to raise sycamore figs as cattle fodder.  He engaged self-consciously in the activity of prophesying, but he explicitly denied the vocation of a professional prophet supported by a cultic or royal shrine. He was at effort  to show that he prophesied only by "divine compulsion under extraordinary circumstances."(3:8; 7:15)
The fact that Amos' message portrays contemporary religious institutions as corrupt explains why a nonspecialist such as him was compelled to perform the prophetic role as a religious intermediary.
The angry roar of an enraged GOD  from HIS UNIVERSAL THRONE in Heavenly Jerusalem signals  DISTRESS and DESTRUCTION encompassing  the ENTIRE CREATED  ORDER, and demonstrates the COSMIC DIMENSION of Israel's MORAL and SOCIAL OFFENSES.
Like the shepherd David, who was called to public service by GOD, so also Amos was called by GOD and made him a prophet. From the solitude in the Wilderness of the South, he was sent to the idolatrous 10 -Tribes of the North Kingdom with its capital Samaria. Amos began his prophetical career 2 years before the Earthquake that occurred during the Time in which the reigns of Uzziah (Judah) and Jeroboam II (10-Tribes-Kingdom) overlapped. The Earthquake was of such magnitude that nearly 300 years later Zechariah (14: 5) made a particular mention of it. The prophecy was first delivered to the 2 kingdoms orally. When Amos returned to his homeland he published it. All the nations condemned by Amos were in due time devoured by the Fire of destruction. GOD's spirit moved Amos to employ simple, direct and picturesque language in a dignified manner befitting a prophet of GOD, in describing the ostentatious luxury language of the rich, which Amos referred to their thrones and stools, as "their houses of ivory" and "couches of ivory"(3:15; 6:4) Simple Words, powerful Words, Words full of meaning, were chosen so both the "high and the low"(descendants of Shem , Japhet and Ham) could understand and get sense of what Amos said. Amos used a variety of illustrations, some with rural flavor, in order to give vitality and force to God's message. (2:13; 4:2; 9:9) Historical events concerning the descendants of the 3 sons of Noah are accurately recalled (1:9,11, 13; 4:11) Allusion are made to familiar cultic practices and customs of the people. (2:8; 6:4-6) The whole GOD's Message is a well-ordered composition with definite form and purpose.
Amos magnified the WORD and NAME, the RIGHTEOUSNESS and SOVEREIGNTY of GOD. He describes how "the SOVEREIGN LORD, GOD OF the ARMIES" is infinitely great, that nothing is beyond His Reach or Power. (9: 2-5) The SUN, MOON, CONSTELLATIONS, and ELEMENTS (air, fire, water, earth) are subject to GOD's COMMANDS. (5:8; 8:9) It is therefore, a small matter for GOD to demonstrate His Supremacy over the power of the nations. (1:3-5; 2:1-3; 9:7)
GOD's purpose for Amos was to bore a weighty Message laden with Woe and denunciation against the power of evil, and on the other hand carrying a comforting Message of Restoration in which those with sincere heart and faithful to GOD could put their hope.