CERETEI (Heb. Kērēthī). — Mercenary troops, often listed in the Bible together with the Peretei. Since the Philistines (v.), their relatives, was Caphtor, Crete (v.), the C. appear to have been the “Cretans,” as the Septuagint understood them when translating C. in the prophetic books (Ez. 25:16; Soph. 2:5)
with Κρήτες. The name Pēlēthī (Peretei), rather than being a transformation of the Pēlēthī (Philistines), seems to have been the title of a particular family group from Crete. Settling in the midst of Palestine, in the area called precisely in I Sam. 30:14 the “neghebh of the C.,” they devoted themselves to military service, in the pay of King David, because of the territory’s low fertility and their warlike disposition. Faithful to him even during the gravest political crises, they also formed the personal guard of his successors.