Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because they carried away captive the whole community, To deliver them up to Edom;
Its situation, as the first station for land-commerce to and from Egypt, whether toward Tyre and Sidon, or Damascus and the upper Euphrates, or toward Petra, probably aggrandized it early. Even when the tide of commerce has been diverted into other channels, its situation has been a source of great profit. A fertile spot, touching upon a track through a desert, it became a mart for caravans, even those which passed, on the pilgrim-route to Mekka, uniting traffic with their religion. Where the five cities are named together as unconquered, Gaza is mentioned first, then Ashdod Joshua 13:3. Samson, after he had betrayed his strength, was “brought down to Gaza” Judges 16:21, probably as being their strongest fortress, although the furthest from “the valley of Sorek ,” where he was ensnared.