Amos 1:6-8

Gaza

Gaza is first mentioned in Deuteronomy 2:23 “23 And as for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)” The table of nations lists the Caphtorim in Genesis 10:13–14 as children of Egypt. Amos says this Amos 9:7 “Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt, And the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?”

Gaza and the Philistines were the reason the Jews took the long way around the wilderness Exodus 13:17 “17 Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near; for God said, “The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.””

It was promised to the tribe of Judah but they couldn’t displace the Philistines Judges 1:18–19 “18 And Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. 19 Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had iron chariots.”

Became major antagonists of Israel in Judges 13-16 story of Samson. Judges 16:1 “1 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute there, and had relations with her.” Judges 16:30 “30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed outwards powerfully, so that the house fell on the governors and all the people who were in it.

David and the Philistines 1 Samuel 27:1 “1 Then David said to himself, “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to safely escape into the land of the Philistines. Later, Gaza was almost certainly a tributary to Solomon.

The Philistines ruled their territory with a plurality of kingdoms, so the references to the four cities could be taken to be a totality of all the Philistines. Gath was the one not mentioned. Goliath came from Gath, and there was Achish king of Gath where David faked being crazy. David stored the ark in Gath while waiting to learn how to move it 2 Samuel 6:10 “10 And David was unwilling to move the ark of the Lord into the city of David with him; but David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom, the Gittite.” Amos knows Gath belongs to the Philistines Amos 6:2 Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. but Gath disappears from scripture after that. It seems Gath was destroyed before Amos in 2 Kings 12:17 “17 Then Hazael the king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it, and Hazael was intent on going up against Jerusalem.”

Gaza was on an extremely ancient and important land trade route, so selling slaves would make sense for them. The Philistines are set for total destruction

Zephaniah 2:4–7 NASB 2020

4 For Gaza will be abandoned, And Ashkelon will become a desolation; The inhabitants of Ashdod will be driven out at noon, And Ekron will be uprooted. 5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, The nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines; And I will eliminate you So that there will be no inhabitant. 6 So the seacoast will become grazing places, With pastures for shepherds and folds for flocks. 7 And the coast will be For the remnant of the house of Judah, They will drive sheep to pasture on it. In the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down at evening; For the Lord their God will care for them And restore their fortunes.

Ashdod/Ashkelon/Ekron

Ashdod was where the ark of the covenant was stored that caused Dagon to fall apart.

Ashkelon is very rarely mentioned in the Bible. Judges 14:19 “19 Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty men of them and took what they were wearing and gave the outfits of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.”

Ekron is the city of Baalzebub 2 Kings 1:2–3 “2 And Ahaziah fell through the window lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria, and became ill. So he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this sickness.”

Completion of Prophecy?

Assyria partly completes this prophecy. It destroyed Gaza in 734, Ashdod in 711, and Ashkelon and Ekron in 701. Or it could have been Uzziah 2 Chronicles 26:6 “6 Now he went out and fought against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the area of Ashdod and among the Philistines.” or Hezekiah 2 Kings 18:8 “8 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.” After Hezekiah, when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem 6th BCE, he also destroyed the Philistines. By the time of Alexander the Great 4th BCE, Philistia had disappeared. The Philistines are ethnically extinct after the Babylonian conquest.

Slave-trade

It’s possible the Bible references when the Philistines carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom: 2 Chronicles 21:16–17 “16 Then the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who bordered the Ethiopians; 17 and they came against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king’s house together with his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.” Or again in Joel 3:3-8

Joel 3:3–8 NASB 2020

3 “They have also cast lots for My people, Traded a boy for a prostitute, And sold a girl for wine so that they may drink. 4 Moreover, what are you to Me, Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying Me with retribution? But if you are showing Me retribution, swiftly and speedily I will return your retribution on your head! 5 Since you have taken My silver and My gold, brought My precious treasures to your temples, 6 and sold the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their territory, 7 behold, I am going to stir them up from the place where you have sold them, and return your retribution on your head. 8 I will also sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation,” for the Lord has spoken.

“Whole population” means men, women, and children. “Exile” is used as a punishment for sin. Interestingly, Assyria and Babylon can exile Israel and Judah because God ordained it, but the Philistines cannot. Presumably, they sold them as slaves as well.

Deuteronomy 20:10–18 NASB 2020

10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. 11 And if it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and serve you. 12 However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword. 14 However, the women, the children, the animals, and everything that is in the city, all of its spoils, you shall take as plunder for yourself; and you shall use the spoils of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you. 15 This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby. 16 Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive. 17 Instead, you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they will not teach you to do all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, by which you would sin against the Lord your God.

Israel slavery predominantly came from debt, not from war. Hebrew to Hebrew debt slavery was time limited to 7 years with options for redemption.

Purchasing pagan slaves is ok Leviticus 25:44–46 “44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. 45 You may also acquire them from the sons of the foreign residents who reside among you, and from their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession. 46 You may also pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.”

So, it was legally permissible to take war slaves and purchase war slaves, but here we see God upset with it. I think it’s like divorce: legal, but wrong. Regardless, Israel didn’t do it very much. 1 Corinthians 10:23 “23 All things are permitted, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted, but not all things build people up.”

Applications?

Just because something is permissible, doesn’t mean God likes it.

Justice for the weak.

Tension between loving your enemies and celebrating God destroying them.

Trust God’s judgments.