GAZA gā’ zə, the more usual Eng. pronunciation of the past; gä’ ze, the pronunciation more currently in use because of the prominence of this area, populated basically by Arabs, in the modern Middle East situation (עַזָּה, H6445, strong; עָזַז, H6451, be strong, עַזָּתִי, H6484, Akkad. Hazzatu, Hazzati, Azzat; Egypt. Gadātu, Gedjet; LXX and NT Γάζα, Mod. Arab. Ghazzeh). KJV AZZAH, ā’ ze, in Deuteronomy 2:23; 1 Kings 4:24; Jeremiah 25:20; GAZITES gā’ zīts, GAZATHITES gā’ zə thīts. The southernmost of the five chief Philistine cities in SW Pal., located a short distance inland from the Mediterranean Sea, on a route to Egypt.

1. Location. Ancient OT Gaza was located about fifty m. SW of Jerusalem and about three m. inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The town was about twelve m. S of Ashkelon, another important Philistine city, and on the important caravan and military route that extended to the SW and then W through the sands close to the Mediterranean Sea to Pelusium and the Egyp. Delta. Through Gaza, miliitary expeditions were made from Egypt to Palestine, Syria, and the countries of Mesopotamia. It was vital, in any military campaign, for opposing enemies to hold this city as a rest area to or from the desert.

2. Geographical characteristics. The OT Gaza lay on and about a hill c. 100 ft. above a fertile plain. It was a natural location for a city because of fifteen fresh water wells that provided for adequate agricultural produce and the physical needs of a large population. It was inevitable that this town should develop as a trade center for caravans and a place where armies could restock their water supplies.

3. The earliest history of Gaza. The earliest OT reference (Gen 10:19) goes back to the pre-Abrahamic period in which the territory of the Canaanites is described as extending from Sidon in the N to Gerar and Gaza in SW Pal. Other early inhabitants of Gaza and the southern end of Pal., evidently prior to the time of Moses, were called Avvim (Deut 2:23; cf. vv. 19-23). Later, in Joshua’s day, the Avvim together with the Canaanites were still associated with S Pal., but the Philistines were then in control of Gaza and the surrounding area (Josh 13:3, 4).

4. Early extra-Biblical references to Gaza. The Annals of Thutmose III present Gaza as an important town, which Thutmose and his Egyp. army seized and at which he stayed on his first campaign into Pal. involving the battle of Megiddo (1468 b.c. ANET, 235). Compare also the Taanach Letter No. 6, which among others was written to a prince Rewašša by an Egyp. official, Amenophis, who mentions his being in the town of Gaza, Hazati, (W. F. Albright, “A Prince of Taanach in the Fifteenth Century b.c.,” BASOR 94 [1944], 24-27; Albright conjectures that this Egyp. governor, Amenophis, who resided at Gaza may have been the later Egyp. Pharaoh, Amenophis II). A little later in the 15th-14th cent. b.c., during this period of Egyp. domination of Pal. including the Gaza-Ashkelon area, the Tell el-Amarna No. 320, although not mentioning Gaza, refers to nearby Ashkelon in such terms as to reflect on the greater importance of the nearby official Egyp. residence at Gaza (ANET, 490). Another Amarna letter, No. 289, mentions Gaza as well as the whole land as loyal to Egypt, although there was trouble from the advancing ’Apiru (ANET, 489). Very possibly, the word ’Apiru could mean the Hebrews. After the conquest of Pal. under Joshua, Judges 2:20-3:1 indicates there was much land to be subdued. The Egyptians c. 1200 b.c. could speak of still having influence over Gaza and other places S of Canaan (Papyrus Anasti I, of the late Nineteenth Egyp. Dynasty, ANET, 478).

5. Gaza and Israel. Joshua 10:41 is the first Biblical reference which mentions Israel’s contact with this Philistine town, describing the fact that Joshua in his conquest defeated all of S Pal. including the area from Kadeshbarnea to Gaza. Joshua 11:22 adds that the ancient Anakim people in Israel were destroyed except in certain Philistine cities including Gaza, which cities were really in the control of the Philistines (Josh 13:3). This town was allotted to Judah (Josh 15:47), who then had the responsibility of trying to conquer it (Judg 1:18, 19). Judah did not succeed, at least for long, because the Midianites, Amalekites, and others made attacks at will on Israel as far as Gaza (Judg 6:4), and in the time of Samson, the Philistines were well in control of this town (Judg 16). Samson had made inroads on Philistine power (Judg 14; 15), including his eluding and humiliating his Gazite enemies by ripping off the doors of the gate of their city and carrying them off to Hebron (16:1-3), but evidence of complete Philistine control of Gaza was their humiliation of Samson in the prison at this city (16:21).

Later mastery of the city and area by the Philistines is evident when the king of Gath and the other Philistine rulers sent the captured ark back to Israel with a trespass offering of gold (1 Sam 6:17).

In the time of the united monarchy, Solomon most likely had the mastery over even a border area such as Gaza—in the light of 1 Kings 4:24, which states that this king “had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates, from Tipsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates.”

Amos (mid-8th cent. b.c.) pronounced the Lord’s condemnation on Gaza because they had conquered a people and delivered them as slaves to Edom (Amos 1:6, 7).

In the time of Assyrian ascendancy, Tiglath-pilezer III (744-727 b.c.), in connection with his campaigns against Syria and Pal. (733-732), told how he received tribute of gold, silver, antimony, linen garments, etc., from a number of cities, including Gaza and its king Hanno (ANET, 282). Hanno eventually fled to Egypt and returned with the Egyptians to fight against Sargon II (721-705 b.c.) in a battle S of Gaza (c. 721-720). Following defeat he was deported to the city of Ashur (ANET, 283-285). Gaza became Assyrian, but the Philistines were still in the region, for a little later Hezekiah, king of Judah, in rebellion against Assyria, “smote the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory” (2 Kings 18:8). A few years later another Assyrian king, Sennacherib (704-681) made a campaign against the cities of Judah and conquered them (701 b.c., 2 Kings 18:13), and when he threatened Hezekiah and Jerusalem, the Lord overthrew his army (2 Kings 18:17-19:35). In arrogant boasting in his annals, Sennacherib told of shutting up Hezekiah in Jerusalem “like a bird in a cage,” and how he took away sections of Judah and gave them to Sillibel, king of Gaza, and to other Philistine rulers (ANET, 288). Sil-Bel, king of Gaza (possibly the same ruler or a successor) with other rulers from the seacoast were forced to furnish building materials for the palace of Esar-haddon (680-669) at Nineveh (ANET, 291), and to Ashurbanipal (668-633); the same king is said to have brought heavy tribute and in submission kissed the Assyrian king’s feet (ANET, 294). With this background in mind, Zephaniah (638-608) prophesied the overthrow of Gaza and the area (Zeph 2:4-7), which came about in stages in the succeeding centuries, as under Alexander Jannaeus (96 b.c.).

Jeremiah (47:1) speaks of Pharaoh conquering Gaza as does also Herodotus (2, 159) as he mentions Pharaoh’s conquest of “the great Syrian city of κάδυτις” (i.e., Gaza); which occurred in connection with Pharaoh Neco’s military expedition in 609 b.c. across Syria to fight the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, conqueror of Assyria (Jer 46:2; cf. 2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chron 35:20; Jos Antiq. X. v. 1). Jeremiah also prophesied (Jer 25:20) that Nebuchadnezzar would conquer Gaza and all the land of the Philistines, which was fulfilled as witnessed to in the Inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 b.c.); the king of Gaza and others were ordered to carry on official duties in the Babylonian court (ANET, 307, 308).

6. Gaza in postexilic and intertestamental times. Despite the conquests already mentioned, Gaza and the Philistines maintained some power and influence, as is indicated by Zechariah’s prophecy against them (9:5, 6). In the time of the Pers. invasion, Polybius (Hist 16, 22a) tells how brave the people of Gaza were. Later, under the Persians, the city with the help of Arab-hired soldiers (Arrian, Anab. 2, 26, 27), resisted a two-months’ siege by Alexander the Great (332 b.c.) before finally falling to him (Diodorus 17, 48; Jos. Ant. XI. viii. 3; Polyb. 16, 22a), after which it became more and more a Gr. city (Josephus calls it πόλις ̔Ελληνίς, Antiq. XVII. xi. 4.; War II. vi. 3). In subsequent years Gaza became the possession at times of Syria and then of Egypt. A few years prior to the Maccabean revolt, Gaza came more permanently under the control of Syria, following the victory of Antiochus the Great, at Panias (198 b.c.; cf. Polyb. Hist. 16, 22a).

In Maccabean times Gaza surendered to Jonathan Maccabeus (1 Macc 11:61, 62). Later after the city had requested help from Ptolemy of Egypt against Alexander Jannaeus and that help failed, Alexander made a one-year seige against Gaza, conquered it, and slaughtered its people (96 b.c.; Jos. Antiq. XIII. 1. 3). In a real sense Alexander made Gaza ἔρημος, G2245, or deserted, a fact so indicated by ancient writers as Jos. Antiq. XIV. v. 3; Strabo 16, 2, 30.

Under Pompey, who conquered Syria c. 63 b.c., Gaza, such as it was, received its freedom (Jos. Antiq. XIV. iv. 4) and a little later, about 57 b.c., was rebuilt under the order of the Rom. general, Gabinius (Jos. Antiq. XIV. v. 3). In 30 b.c. Gaza came under the control of Herod the Great (Jos Antiq. XV. vii. 3; War I. XX. 3), but after his death it reverted to the province of Syria (Jos. Antiq. XVII. xi. 4; War II. vi. 3) as the imperial coins of Gaza, which begin to show up after Herod’s death, demonstrate.

7. Gaza in NT times and later. The only NT mention of this city is Acts 8:26 in reference to “‘the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is a desert road.” A problem arises as to how the word ἔρημος, G2245, “desert,” is to be handled: whether to refer it to the feminine word “road,” as the RSV, “This is a desert road,” or, as the TEV, Am. Bible Society, “This road is no longer used”; or to refer to the feminine noun Gaza with the meaning, “deserted” (i.e., “old”) Gaza, as some have done. Strabo (16. 2, 30) had an understanding that Gaza had remained deserted (ἔρημος, G2245) after its destruction by Alexander the Great whom he seems to have confused with Alexander Jannaeus.

Diodorus (19, 80) spoke of an old Gaza. Some think there was a new Gaza built a bit S of the old city as maintained by some ancient geographers (see Schürer, II, 1, 71), and that Josephus’ reference to Gaza as among coast towns (Antiq. XIV. iv. 4) also refers to this new city. The old Gaza no doubt became inhabited again after Alexander Jannaeus’ destruction since it lay on the main caravan road (cf. also Diodor. 19, 80 Loeb. ed., and Arrian, Arab 2, 26, 27), and it and the new Gaza may well have continued together even into the NT period. However, that the old Gaza would then be called ἔρημος, G2245, “desert” in Acts 8:26, in reflection on its condition over a hundred years before does not sound likely. Rather, since the “road” is emphasized in Acts 8:26, it seems better to refer the concept “desert” to it, pointing out that it is the road that leads over to the desert way to Egypt.

In a.d. 66, Gaza was attacked and destroyed by the rebellious Jews (Jos War II. xviii. 1), but evidently only partially, for Gaza coins show up from the years a.d. 68-74 (Schürer, 2, 1, 72). In the 2nd and 3rd centuries a.d., the city prospered as a center of Gr. culture, and the Church only after hard struggles firmly established itself there at about a.d. 400. From a.d. 635 on, except for a brief time during the Crusades, Gaza was in Arab hands, until the late 1960s.

The modern city of Gaza rests on the old site, thus no significant archeological work has been possible. See Philistines.

Bibliography E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People, sec. div., vol 1 (1891), 68-72; G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1896), 181-189; J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (1955), 529; E. G. Kraeling, Rand-McNally Bible Atlas (1956), 417, 418.