Gaza: A City of Many Battles 3

Gaza: A City of Many Battles 3

"Samson hath quit himself

Like Samson, and heroically has finished

A life heroic."--_Milton._

 

The famous Dagon, or the "Fish-god," who had a temple at Gaza (Judges

xvi. 21-5), was a national, and not merely a local god among the

Philistines. During the Maccabean wars Jonathan destroyed the temple

of Dagon at Azotus (1 Macc. x. 84). He was eminently the god of

agriculture.

 

9. 1 Samuel vi. 17.--_The golden emerods which the Philistines returned

for a trespass offering unto the LORD ... for Gaza one._

 

During the "seven months" the sacred chest was, no doubt, located in

each of the five Philistine cities, in the Dagon temple, which each of

the cities possessed.

 

The god Dagon was worshipped at Gaza and Ashdod, and the goddess

Derketo at Askelon. It has been assumed that the two divinities were

akin. According to Lucian, Derketo was worshipped under the form of a

woman with the body and tail of a fish, fish being sacred to her, and

was probably identical with Atargatis, in 2 Macc. xii. 26. Hence Dagon

was supposed to have been the male counterpart of Derketo. This view,

however, Prof. Sayce now repudiates, preferring to regard Dagon as a

purely agricultural deity.

 

10. 2 Kings xviii. 8.--_Hezekiah smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza,

and the borders thereof._

 

The entire land of Philistia was ravaged by the Judæan forces.

 

After continual wars under the Judges, with Saul (1 Sam. xiv. 52, xxxi.

1), and David (2 Sam. v. 17-25), the Philistines appear to have been

subdued by the latter, and Gaza became the border of Solomon's kingdom

"on this side of the river" (1 Kings iv. 21, 24). In verse 24 Azzah,

or rather ‘Azza, is the more correct spelling of Gaza. There is a

reference to Gaza under the name of Azzah in Deut. ii. 23, and 1 Chron.

vii. 28 (R.V.). With this exception the R.V. adopts the reading Gaza.

 

In Joshua xv. 47 "the river of Egypt" (A.V.) refers to the desert

stream, one mile wide, which still occasionally flows in the valley

called El Arîsh, twelve hours' ride south of Gaza. Palm trees are

abundant in the bed of this torrent. See Gen. xv. 18; Joshua xv. 4; 1

Kings viii. 65; Is. xxvii. 12.

 

11. 1 Chronicles vii. 28.--_And their possessions were ... unto Gaza

and the towns thereof._

 

The passage refers to Ephraim's habitations, but this is a doubtful

reading. The Revised Version of the Old Testament reads _Azza_, in the

margin _Ayyah_.

 

12. Jeremiah xxv. 17-20.--_Then took I the cup at the LORD'S hand, and

made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me: to wit

... all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and

Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod._

 

The words describe the act of the prophet as in the ecstasy of vision.

One by one the nations are made to drink of the cup of the wrath

of Jehovah. Among them are four of the cities of the Philistines,

including Gaza.

 

13. Jeremiah xlvii. 1.--_The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the

prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza._

 

This passage probably refers to Pharaoh Necho II's (610-594 B.C.) first

advance to Carchemish in 609 B.C. Having defeated and killed Josiah,

King of Judah, at Megiddo, he advanced to the Euphrates, and on his

return smote the city of Kadytis which is probably Gaza.

 

14. Jeremiah xlvii. 5.--_Baldness is come upon Gaza._

 

The reference is to the destruction which Nebuchadrezzar inflicted upon

the whole Syrian seaboard from Sidon to Gaza after Pharaoh Necho's

defeat at Carchemish in 604 B.C. (Jeremiah xlvi. 2).

 

Gaza had to recognise the supremacy of Babylon. "Baldness" is the sign

of mourning (Micah i. 16).

 

Destroyed again and again, its situation has always secured its being

rebuilt.

 

15. Amos i. 6, 7.--_Thus saith the LORD; for three transgressions

of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;

because they carried away the whole captivity, to deliver them up to

Edom: but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour

the palaces thereof._

 

The proceedings of Philistia against Judah are here represented by

Gaza as the principal city. See 2 Chron. xxi. 16-17, which implies

a veritable sack of Jerusalem. The extreme barbarity of which Judah

complained was that her children were delivered up to her old

implacable enemy, Edom.

 

16. Zephaniah ii. 4.--_Gaza shall be forsaken ... and Ekron shall be

rooted up._

 

There is a play on the meaning of these words, "Gaza (Azzah = strong)

shall be forsaken (âzab)" and "Ekron (deep-rooting) shall be rooted up

(âkar)," similar to that in Micah i. 10, _et seq._

 

The chastisement of Philistia is prophesied in verses 4-7. "The

fulfilment of the prophecy is not tied down to time" (Pusey, _Minor

Prophets_).

 

17. Zechariah ix. 5.--_Gaza shall see it, and be very sorrowful.... The

king shall perish from Gaza._

 

Well might Gaza fear and tremble on hearing of the destruction of Tyre.

 

Gaza was taken by Alexander the Great after a siege of two months.[7]

When he subdued it, he ordered all the men to be slaughtered without

quarter, and carried away all the women and children into bondage, 332

B.C. New colonists

settled within the city, which now ceased to be a

Philistine centre, only to become a Greek one.

 

Gaza must have been at this time a city of great strength, for

Alexander's Greek engineers acknowledged their inability to invent

engines of sufficient power to batter its massive walls. Alexander

himself was severely wounded in the shoulder during a sortie of this

garrison.

 

Special mention is made by Hegasias (a contemporary of Alexander) of

the "King" of Gaza being brought alive to Alexander after the captivity

of the city. The name of the governor of the garrison at Gaza was

Babemeses.

 

In Pusey's _Commentary on the Minor Prophets_--Amos i. 6, 7; Zephaniah

ii. 4; Zechariah ix. 5, there is much additional information concerning

the prophecies against Gaza.

 

Gaza is there described as first Canaanite; then Philistine; then,

at least after Alexander, Edomite; after Alexander Jannæus, Greek;

conquered by Abu-Bekr the first Khalif, it became Mohammedan; it was

desolated in their civil wars until the crusaders rebuilt its fort;

then again Mohammedan.

 

1. 1 Maccabees xi. 61, 62.--_From whence he_ [Jonathan] _went to Gaza,

but they of Gaza shut him out; wherefore he laid siege unto it, and

burned the suburbs thereof with fire, and spoiled them. Afterward, when

they of Gaza made supplication unto Jonathan, he made peace with them,

and took the sons of their chief men for hostages._

 

After the death of Alexander, the territory of Gaza became for two

centuries the battlefield between the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jewish

armies. Twice (315 and 306 B.C.) Antigonus took the city from Ptolemy

I. The latter re-took it twice at the point of the sword, and for a

century it remained under the power of Egypt.

 

The Syrians again devastated it in 198 B.C.

 

Jonathan Maccabeus (the wary), the Jewish leader and high priest

(161-143 B.C.) laid siege to its suburbs, and forced the inhabitants to

sue for terms (1 Macc. xi. 61, 62).

 

2. 1 Maccabees xiii. 43-8.--_In those days Simon camped against

Gaza,_[8] _and besieged it round about; he made also an engine of war,

and set it by the city,_[9] _and battered a certain tower, and took it._

 

Simon the Maccabee, Ethnarch, and High Priest, 142-135 B.C., laid

siege to the fortress of Gaza, and expelled the heathen inhabitants.

Shortly afterwards he appointed his third son, John Hyrcanus I, as

commander-in-chief of all his forces.

 

1. Acts viii. 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._

 

There is only one New Testament reference to Gaza, and it has given

rise to much controversy.

 

The pronoun αὕτη may either relate to ὁδὸν (way) or

to Gaza. If the former, then it is the _way_ which is desert; if the

latter, it is the _city_. If we apply it to the city it is difficult

to reconcile the statement with the facts of history; unless we regard

the phrase "which is desert" as a parenthetic explanation of St. Luke's

written soon after the destruction of Gaza by the Jews in A.D. 66.

 

Some refer ἔρημος to the _ancient city_ destroyed by

Alexander, and affirm that the new city occupied a different site.

 

The words αὕτη ἐστὶν ἔρημος, however, were probably intended

to describe the Roman highway on which St. Philip the Evangelist should

find the Eunuch. There were then, as now, several roads leading from

Jerusalem to Gaza. Two traversed the rich plain of Philistia; but one

ran to Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrîn), and thence direct through an

uninhabited waste to Gaza.