Gaza
City · Gaza → Gaza
A chief city of the Philistines. Samson was bound here, and here he pulled down their temple.
People
- Joshua
- Samson
- Philip
- the Ethiopian eunuch
At a glance
- Realm
- Philistia
- Role
- Chief Philistine city, gateway toward Egypt
- Peoples
- Philistines (earlier Anakim)
- First mention
- Genesis 10 (border of Canaan)
The story
Gaza stood where the land of Canaan met the desert road down to Egypt, the southernmost of the five great cities of the Philistines and one of the oldest. Even after Joshua’s wars the tall Anakim lingered in its streets.
Bound and blinded, Samson was set to grind at the Gaza mill, and at the feast of Dagon he felt for the pillars and pulled the temple down upon himself and the lords of the Philistines. On the desert road that goes down toward Gaza, long after, Philip met the Ethiopian eunuch and baptized him.