Gaza
A place in the Bible
A city of the Philistines, on the seacoast, south of the Holy Land.
What happened here
- The city gates: one night, Samson tore out the gates of Gaza with their posts and bars and carried them away on his shoulders.
- Samson in prison: the Philistines caught him, gouged out his eyes, and took him to Gaza, to prison, to grind grain.
- His death: the leaders of the Philistines were holding a feast for their god Dagon. Samson pushed the columns, and the building fell on them and on him.
- Philip: centuries later, an angel sent Philip to the road that went down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
Today
Today there is still a city of Gaza in the same area, by the sea.
Where it appears in the Bible
Judges 16:21; Judges 16:3; Judges 16:23; Judges 16:30; Acts 8:26
What the Bible says
Judges 16:21
Then the Philistines seized upon him, and forthwith pulled out his eyes, and led him bound in chains to Gaza, and shutting him up in prison made him grind.
Judges 16:3
But Samson slept till midnight, and then rising he took both the doors of the gate, with the posts thereof, and the bolt, and laying them on his shoulders, carried them up to the top of the hill, which looketh towards Hebron.
Judges 16:23
And the princes of the Philistines assembled together, to offer great sacrifices to Dagon their god, and to make merry, saying: Our god hath delivered our enemy Samson into our hands.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Gaza”