Gaza in the Bible

(15) Canaan begot Sidon, his first-born, and Heth; (16) and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, (17) the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, (18) the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites spread out. (19) (The [original] Canaanite territory extended from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, and as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.)

(17) ה' spoke to me, saying: (18) You are now passing through the territory of Moab, through Ar. (19) You will then be close to the Ammonites; do not harass them or start a fight with them. For I will not give any part of the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession; I have assigned it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.— (20) It, too, is counted as Rephaim country. It was formerly inhabited by Rephaim, whom the Ammonites call Zamzummim, (21) a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakites. ה' wiped them out, so that [the Ammonites] dispossessed them and settled in their place, (22) as [God] did for the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, by wiping out the Horites before them, so that they dispossessed them and settled in their place, as is still the case. (23) So, too, with the Avvim who dwelt in villages in the vicinity of Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came from Crete, wiped them out and settled in their place.—

(1) והעוים הישבים בחצרים וגו׳ BUT THE AVIM WHO DWELL IN HAZERIM etc. —The Avim are part of the Philistine people, for they are enumerated together with them in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 13:3), as it is said, “The five lords of the Philistines, the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, and the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avim”. But because of the oath which Abraham had sworn to Abimelech, king of the Philistines (Genesis 21:24), Israel would have been unable to take their land out of their possession; but, says God, I brought the Caphtorites against them and they destroyed them and dwelt in their stead, and now you are permitted to take it (that land) from their (the Caphtorites) possession (Chullin 60b).

(38) Joshua and all Israel with him then turned back to Debir and attacked it. (39) He captured it and its king and all its towns. They put them to the sword and proscribed all the people in it. They let none escape; just as they had done to Hebron, and as they had done to Libnah and its king, so they did to Debir and its king. (40) Thus Joshua conquered the whole country the hill country, the Negeb, the Shephelah, and the slopes, with all their kings; he let none escape, but proscribed everything that breathed—as the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, had commanded. (41) Joshua conquered them from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, all the land of Goshen, and up to Gibeon. (42) All those kings and their lands were conquered by Joshua at a single stroke, for the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. (43) Then Joshua, with all Israel, returned to the camp at Gilgal.

(1) From Kadush-barnea to Gaza. This refers to the south side of Eretz Yisroel going from east to west, but he did not conquer the entire boundary, leaving unconquered the area from Gaza to the [Mediterranean] Sea. This is what is stated below, “This is the land that remained [unconquered], the Gazites and the Ashdodites”16Chapter 13:2,3

(21) At that time, Joshua went and wiped out the Anakites from the hill country, from Hebron, Debir, and Anab, from the entire hill country of Judah, and from the entire hill country of Israel; Joshua proscribed them and their towns. (22) No Anakites remained in the land of the Israelites; but some remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. (23) Thus Joshua conquered the whole country, just as GOD had promised Moses; and Joshua assigned it to Israel to share according to their tribal divisions. And the land had rest from war.

(1) Joshua was now old, advanced in years. GOD said to him, “You have grown old, you are advanced in years; and very much of the land still remains to be taken possession of. (2) This is the territory that remains: all the districts of the Philistines and all [those of] the Geshurites, (3) from the Shihor, which is close to Egypt, to the territory of Ekron on the north, are accounted Canaanite, namely, those of the five lords of the Philistines—the Gazites, the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites—and those of the Avvim

(20) This was the portion of the tribe of the Judahites by their clans:

(47) Ashdod, its dependencies and its villages—Gaza, its dependencies and its villages, all the way to the Wadi of Egypt and the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

(1) After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of GOD, “Which of us shall be the first to go up against the Canaanites and attack them?” (2) GOD replied, “Let [the tribe of] Judah go up. I now deliver the land into their hands.”

(18) And Judah captured Gaza and its territory, Ashkelon and its territory, and Ekron and its territory.

(1) Then the Israelites did what was offensive to GOD, and GOD delivered them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years. (2) The hand of the Midianites prevailed over Israel; and because of Midian, the Israelites provided themselves with refuges in the caves and strongholds of the mountains. (3) After the Israelites had done their sowing, Midian, Amalek, and the Kedemites would come up and raid them; (4) they would attack them, destroy the produce of the land all the way to Gaza, and leave no means of sustenance in Israel, not a sheep or an ox or a donkey. (5) For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, swarming as thick as locusts; they and their camels were innumerable. Thus they would invade the land and ravage it. (6) Israel was reduced to utter misery by the Midianites, and the Israelites cried out to GOD.

(1) Once Samson went to Gaza; there he met a prostitute and slept with her. (2) The Gazites [learned] that Samson had come there, so they gathered and lay in ambush for him in the town gate the whole night; and all night long they kept whispering to each other, “When daylight comes, we’ll kill him.” (3) But Samson lay in bed only till midnight. At midnight he got up, grasped the doors of the town gate together with the two gateposts, and pulled them out along with the bar. He placed them on his shoulders and carried them off to the top of the hill that is near Hebron. (4) After that, he fell in love with a woman in the Wadi Sorek, named Delilah. (5) The lords of the Philistines went up to her and said, “Coax him and find out what makes him so strong, and how we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless; and we’ll each give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” (6) So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me, what makes you so strong? And how could you be tied up and made helpless?” (7) Samson replied, “If I were to be tied with seven fresh tendons that had not been dried, I should become as weak as an ordinary man.” (8) So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh tendons that had not been dried. She bound him with them, (9) while an ambush was waiting in her room. Then she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” Whereupon he pulled the tendons apart, as a strand of tow comes apart at the touch of fire. So the secret of his strength remained unknown. (10) Then Delilah said to Samson, “Oh, you deceived me; you lied to me! Do tell me now how you could be tied up.” (11) He said, “If I were to be bound with new ropes that had never been used, I would become as weak as an ordinary man.” (12) So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, while an ambush was waiting in a room. And she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he tore them off his arms like a thread. (13) Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have been deceiving me all along; you have been lying to me! Tell me, how could you be tied up?” He answered her, “If you weave seven locks of my head into the web.” (14) And she pinned it with a peg and cried to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” Awaking from his sleep, he pulled out the peg, the loom, and the web. (15) Then she said to him, “How can you say you love me, when you don’t confide in me? This makes three times that you’ve deceived me and haven’t told me what makes you so strong.” (16) Finally, after she had nagged him and pressed him constantly, he was wearied to death (17) and he confided everything to her. He said to her, “No razor has ever touched my head, for I have been a nazirite to God since I was in my mother’s womb. If my hair were cut, my strength would leave me and I should become as weak as an ordinary man.” (18) Sensing that he had confided everything to her, Delilah sent for the lords of the Philistines, with this message: “Come up once more, for he has confided everything to me.” And the lords of the Philistines came up and brought the money with them. (19) She lulled him to sleep on her lap. Then she called in someone else, and she had him cut off the seven locks of his head; thus she weakened him and made him helpless: his strength slipped away from him. (20) She cried, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” And he awoke from his sleep, thinking he would break loose and shake himself free as he had the other times. For he did not know that GOD had departed from him. (21) The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and shackled him in bronze fetters, and he became a mill slave in the prison. (22) After his hair was cut off, it began to grow back. (23) Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to make merry. They chanted, “Our god has delivered our enemy Samson into our hands.” (24) When the people saw him, they sang praises to their god, chanting, “Our god has delivered into our hands, the enemy who devastated our land, and who slew so many of us.” (25) As their spirits rose, they said, “Call Samson here and let him dance for us.” Samson was fetched from the prison, and he danced for them. Then they put him between the pillars. (26) And Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, “Let go of me and let me feel the pillars that the temple rests upon, that I may lean on them.” (27) Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and there were some three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson dance. (28) Then Samson called to GOD, “O Sovereign GOD ! Please remember me, and give me strength just this once, O God, to take revenge of the Philistines, if only for one of my two eyes.” (29) He embraced the two middle pillars that the temple rested upon, one with his right arm and one with his left, and leaned against them; (30) Samson cried, “Let me die with the Philistines!” and he pulled with all his might. The temple came crashing down on the lords and on all the people in it. Those who were slain by him as he died outnumbered those who had been slain by him when he lived. (31) His brothers and all his father’s household came down and carried him up and buried him in the tomb of his father Manoah, between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had led Israel for twenty years.

(17) The following were the golden hemorrhoids that the Philistines paid as an indemnity to the LORD: For Ashdod, one; for Gaza, one; for Ashkelon, one; for Gath, one; for Ekron, one.

(2) Solomon’s daily provisions consisted of 30 kors of semolina, and 60 kors of [ordinary] flour, (3) 10 fattened oxen, 20 pasture-fed oxen, and 100 sheep and goats, besides deer and gazelles, roebucks and fatted geese. (4) For he controlled the whole region west of the Euphrates—all the kings west of the Euphrates, from Tiphsah to Gaza—and he had peace on all his borders round about. (5) All the days of Solomon, Judah and Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba dwelt in safety, every family under its own vine and fig tree.

(1) In the third year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah became king. (2) He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years; his mother’s name was Abi daughter of Zechariah. (3) He did what was pleasing to GOD, just as his forefather David had done. (4) He abolished the shrines and smashed the pillars and cut down the sacred post. He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan. (5) He trusted only in the ETERNAL the God of Israel; there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those before him. (6) He clung to GOD; he did not hesitate to be directed, but kept the commandments that GOD had given to Moses. (7) And GOD was always with him; he was successful wherever he turned. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. (8) He overran Philistia as far as Gaza and its border areas, from watchtower to fortified town.

(6) Thus said GOD: For three transgressions of Gaza, for four, I will not revoke the decree: Because they exiled an entire population, which they delivered to Edom. (7) I will send down fire upon the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour its fortresses; (8) And I will wipe out the inhabitants of Ashdod and the sceptered ruler of Ashkelon; and I will turn My hand against Ekron, and the Philistines shall perish with no remnant—said the Sovereign GOD.

(1) Gather together, gather, O nation without shame, (2) before the day the decree is born—the day flies by like chaff before the fierce anger of the LORD overtakes you, before the day of anger of the LORD overtakes you. (3) Seek GOD, all you humble of the land who have fulfilled God’s law; seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will find shelter on the day of GOD’s anger. (4) Indeed, Gaza shall be deserted and Ashkelon desolate; Ashdod’s people shall be expelled in broad daylight, and Ekron shall be uprooted.

(15) For thus said the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, to me: “Take from My hand this cup of wine—of wrath—and make all the nations to whom I send you drink of it. (16) Let them drink and retch and act crazy, because of the sword that I am sending among them.” (17) So I took the cup from GOD’s hand and gave drink to all the nations to whom GOD had sent me: (18) Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and its kings and officials, to make them a desolate ruin, an object of hissing and a curse—as is now the case; (19) Pharaoh king of Egypt, his courtiers, his officials, and all his people; (20) all the mixed peoples; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines—Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what is left of Ashdod;

(27) Say to them: “Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Drink and get drunk and vomit; fall and never rise again, because of the sword that I send among you.” (28) And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, say to them, “Thus said GOD of Hosts: You must drink! (29) If I am bringing the punishment first on the city that bears My name, do you expect to go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am summoning the sword against all the inhabitants of the earth—declares GOD of Hosts.” (30) You are to prophesy all those things to them, and then say to them: GOD roars from on high, and bellows from the holy dwelling—roaring aloud over the [earthly] abode and uttering shouts like the grape-treaders—against all the dwellers on earth. (31) Tumult has reached the ends of the earth, for GOD has a case against the nations, and contends with all flesh—delivering the wicked to the sword—declares GOD.

(1) The word of GOD that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh conquered Gaza. (2) Thus said GOD: See, waters are rising from the north, they shall become a raging torrent, they shall flood the land and its creatures, the towns and their inhabitants. People shall cry out, all the inhabitants of the land shall howl, (3) At the clatter of the stamping hoofs of Pharaoh’s stallions, at the noise of his chariots, the rumbling of their wheels, parents shall not look to their children out of sheer helplessness (4) Because of the day that is coming for ravaging all the Philistines, for cutting off every last ally of Tyre and Sidon. For GOD will ravage the Philistines, the remnant from the island of Caphtor. (5) Baldnessc has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is destroyed. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself? (6) “O sword of GOD, when will you be quiet at last? Withdraw into your sheath, rest and be still!” (7) How can it be quiet when GOD has given it orders against Ashkelon and the seacoast, given it assignment there?

(1) A pronouncement: The word of GOD. [God] will reside in the land of Hadrach and Damascus; for mortals will turn their eyes to GOD—like all the tribes of Israel—(2) Including Hamath, which borders on that land, and Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise. (3) Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has amassed silver like dust, and gold like the mud in the streets. (4) But my Sovereign will impoverish her; her forces shall be defeated at sea, and she herself shall be consumed by fire. (5) Ashkelon shall see it and be frightened, Gaza shall tremble violently, and Ekron, at the collapse of her hopes. Kingship shall vanish from Gaza, Ashkelon shall be without inhabitants, (6) And a mongrel people shall settle in Ashdod. I will uproot the grandeur of Philistia. (7) But I will clean out the blood from its mouth, and the detestable things from between its teeth. Its survivors, too, shall belong to our God: They shall become like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites. (8) And I will encamp in My House against armies, against any that come and go, and no oppressor shall ever overrun them again; for I have now taken note with My own eyes.