Gaza

Gaza (meaning: strong; a goat) was the southernmost of the five principal Philistine city-states, situated near the Mediterranean coast at the southwestern edge of Canaan. It stood at the junction of the ancient coastal road from Egypt (the Way of the Sea) and the inland routes to Arabia, making it one of the most strategically important cities in the ancient Near East. Gaza controlled access to Canaan from Egypt and served as the terminal point of major caravan routes. Its territory originally reached to the Avvites who dwelt there (Deuteronomy 2:23).

Gaza is the setting for the climactic episodes in Samson's story: he carried off its gate at midnight, and later was imprisoned, blinded, and put to labor there until his final act of destruction brought down the Philistine temple on its assembled worshippers (Judges 16). Solomon's empire extended to Gaza (1 Kings 4:24), and the city received mention in the oracles of Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah as a target of divine judgment. In the New Testament, Philip the evangelist is directed by an angel to the road going down from Jerusalem to Gaza, where he encounters and baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26).