town or village

Gaza

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Events

1. 312 BCPtolemy and Seleucus defeat Demetrius at Gaza

In ancient writers

• Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 2.26 — Gaza, about twenty stades from the sea, was a large city on a lofty mound ringed by a strong wall, the last town before the desert on the way to Egypt; Alexander's engineers doubted its wall could be taken.
• Strabo, Geography 16.2.30 — After Ascalon comes the harbour of the Gazaeans; the city itself lies seven stades inland, was once famous, but was razed by Alexander and remains uninhabited.

History

Gaza lay on the southern coastal plain, a little inland from the sea, the last town on the road from Egypt before the Sinai desert; its old mound lies under the modern city, and its harbour was later called Maiuma. In the fifteenth century BC Thutmose III halted at Gaza on his march to Megiddo, and under the New Kingdom it was a chief seat of Egyptian rule in Canaan. In the twelfth century BC the Philistines settled here, and Gaza became one of their five cities.

Genesis names Gaza at the edge of the land of Canaan. Samson carried off the doors of its gate; later the Philistines blinded him and set him to grind in the prison house at Gaza, and he pulled down the house where their lords had gathered. Hezekiah struck the Philistines as far as Gaza, and Amos foretold fire on its walls. In 734 BC Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria took the city, and its king Hanunu fled to Egypt; in 720 BC Sargon II defeated Hanunu at Raphia and took him captive.

In 332 BC Alexander the Great took Gaza by storm after a siege of two months; its defenders fell fighting, and the women and children were sold as slaves. About 96 BC the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus took the city after a year's siege and destroyed it. Pompey freed Gaza from Jewish rule in 63 BC, and Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, had it rebuilt about 57 BC. Augustus gave it to Herod, but after Herod's death in 4 BC it was attached to the province of Syria as a Greek city.

In Acts an angel sends Philip to "the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert", where he baptises an Ethiopian eunuch. The monk Hilarion, a founder of monastic life in Palestine, was born in a village south of Gaza. The city long remained pagan, with a great temple of its god Marnas. In 402, by the usual dating, imperial troops sent at the request of Bishop Porphyry destroyed its temples, and a church was built where the Marneion had stood; the story is told in Mark the Deacon's Life of Porphyry, a work whose authenticity is debated. Around 500 Gaza was known for its school of rhetoric.

Scripture: Gen 10:19; Josh 13:3; Judg 16:1–3; Judg 16:21–30; 1 Sam 6:17; 2 Kgs 18:8; Amos 1:6–7; Acts 8:26–39

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (22)

Gen 10:19

And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.

Deut 2:23

And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.)

Josh 10:41

And Joshua smote them from Kadesh-barnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon.

Josh 11:22

There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.

Josh 13:3

From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites:

Josh 15:47

Ashdod with her towns and her villages, Gaza with her towns and her villages, unto the river of Egypt, and the great sea, and the border thereof:

Judg 1:18

Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.

Judg 6:4

And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.

Judg 16:1

Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.

Judg 16:2

And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

Judg 16:21

But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

1 Sam 6:17

And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;

1 Kgs 4:24

For he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river: and he had peace on all sides round about him.

2 Kgs 18:8

He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

Jer 25:20

And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,

Jer 47:1

The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.

Jer 47:5

Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?

Amos 1:6

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom:

Amos 1:7

But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof:

Zeph 2:4

For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.

Zech 9:5

Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

Acts 8:26

And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Deborah, Gideon, Samson →
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