And I will send a fire on the wall of Gazah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
Amos names Gaza and passes sentence on it: fire on the wall, and its strongholds swallowed up. Why does God pass sentence on a nation outside Israel? And why aim at the wall and the strongholds, the very things that made the city safe?
Gaza and its neighbours sit on ground God had already given away. He is clearing His own land.
These judgments of Jehovah fall on the nations that have settled on the territory promised to Abraham. By this gift of God, that land belongs to the people of Israel. God purges His land of what defiles it... Here we see the folly of the hope Israel's enemies held. They sought Israel's ruin, thinking they would gain by it.
One city stands for the whole nation here. The Philistines were not a distant empire but the neighbour at the fence.
It is the same with Gaza, which in the same way stands for the Philistines. They were Israel's old, unrelenting and active opponents — an enemy on the border, if not inside the land. They had been guilty of transgression upon transgression. So Jehovah would not turn back here either. He would deal with their iniquity at once, not merely carrying them off, but wiping them out as a people.
One instrument keeps reappearing in these announcements. One phrase keeps closing the door on appeal.
In each judgment prediction we find the phrase, "for three transgressions or four... I will not reverse it." The meaning is that the measure is full and nothing can turn the judgment aside. Fire stands out as the way judgment comes. These nations were the enemies of Israel.
The wall was the city's defence. The strongholds — older translations say "palaces" — were its wealth and pride. Fire takes both, and the loss runs past the buildings to the people themselves.
Fire would consume the cities of Philistia — Gaza and its palaces. There would be an end to the Philistines: "the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the LORD."
Their treatment of God's people brought this on them, and the pattern reaches beyond Philistia:
The Philistines lived on a narrow strip along the seashore. They were the long-standing enemies of the people Israel... The vengeance of the Lord fell on the coast of Philistia, and they experienced the fury of the Lord. He dealt with those who had corrupted His people. And so God will deal in due time with all His enemies.
The list does not stop at the border nations. Amos uses the same wording for God's own people, and names the same penalty.
The measure was full for these nations, who had heaped transgressions upon transgressions. Yet Judah and Israel were just as guilty — yes, even more guilty than these nations. Amos uses the same telling phrase, "for three transgressions and four," of both... Fire was to devour the cities and palaces of the nations. Fire was to come upon Judah and the palaces of Jerusalem too.
The city's name carries its own irony, and the lesson outlives Philistia.
Gaza, a city of the Philistines, means "strong." For ceremonial religion seeks the greatest power in the world, and boasts of the strength of its numbers. Such strength means nothing to those who walk by faith. Let us never be intimidated by it. The harlot city Babylon may be so strong that she reigns over the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:18), but "her plagues will come in one day — death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her" (Rev. 18:8).
- Cause. Gaza piled up transgression on transgression, above all in its treatment of God's people. The measure is full, and the sentence stands.
- Court. God judges over land He had promised to Abraham. He is purging His own territory, and those who hoped to profit from Israel's ruin drew His judgment on themselves.
- Fire. Fire is the instrument through this whole section, and it strikes the wall and the strongholds — the city's defence and its wealth.
- Reach. Gaza's fall is not the end of the list. The same phrase and the same fire come to the palaces of Jerusalem. God's own people face the same measure.
- Result. Fire burns the city whose name means "strong." No human strength is worth fearing, "for strong is the Lord God who judges her."
And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Amos names the crimes of Israel's neighbours one by one, and here Philistia's turn comes city by city until nothing of that people is left. Why does a prophet sent to Israel spend so long on foreign nations, and what does it mean that even the remnant perishes?
One writer traces the order of this chapter, and the reason behind it:
At the start Jehovah proclaims His own rights from the place of His own throne. He roars from Zion and speaks out from Jerusalem. We may notice that God announces the judgment of the surrounding nations before He declares the judgment of Israel and Judah. This is because of their hostile and cruel behaviour towards the people of Israel. It is also because of what was cruel in their very nature, and contrary even to ordinary human feeling. God takes notice of all these things.
This verse closes an announcement that opened with a count of wrongs. That count is not vague:
In the first two chapters there are eight short announcements of judgment, introduced by the words "for three transgressions and for four." Three witnesses were enough testimony. Four is the cup running over, and the four quarters of the earth can testify to it.
The phrase can sound mild, as though God were only shifting His attention. It is not. One writer compares the places where this expression appears:
Isaiah 1:25, and Amos 1:8, and Psalm 81:14, show, I think, that "turning the hand upon" is in judgment.
The verse ends with the remnant. One writer weighs how far this sentence goes:
Gaza stands here for the Philistines — Israel's old, tireless, active enemies, a foe on their border if not inside the land. They had been guilty of transgression upon transgression. So Jehovah would not turn back here either. He would deal with their iniquity at once, not merely carrying them off, but destroying them as a people. "The remnant of the Philistines shall perish," says the Lord GOD.
There is a reason God names these particular neighbours. They all sat on ground He had already given away by promise:
Here again we notice what we have seen elsewhere. These judgments of Jehovah fall on the nations settled on the territory promised to Abraham. By this gift of God, that land belongs to the people of Israel. God purges His land of what defiles it, and sadly that means Judah and Israel too. At the same time He asserts and keeps His own rights, and He will exercise them in grace for Israel in the last days.
Commentators differ over how much of this is history and how much is still ahead. One reads the Philistine judgment as long past, but as a sample of something larger:
As we think about these brief judgment messages we must remember one thing. These nations of the past have ceased to exist as nations, and the predicted judgment came long ago. Yet they are a picture of the other nations who also sin against Israel, and whose judgment will come "in that day."
Another writer, weighing a prophecy about these same cities, finds that Philistia's story does not end in complete extinction:
These predictions most likely have a twofold fulfilment. Part has already come true, as far as the temporal judgments on these cities go, for these Philistine cities have certainly been visited. But the careful reader will notice that the whole prophecy has not been fulfilled. It speaks of a spared remnant from the Philistines who will be "for our God." This must be future.
- The cup fills. Three witnesses were enough testimony. "For three transgressions and for four" counts past that — the fourth is the cup running over.
- The hand turns. "Turning the hand upon" a people means judgment, not attention. Isaiah and the Psalms use the phrase the same way.
- The hand reaches everyone. Ashdod loses its people and Ashkelon its ruler. God strips away population and leadership alike.
- The hand finishes. God does not merely carry Philistia off. The remnant perishes, and the nation ends as a nation.
- The hand belongs to the Owner. These nations sat on land promised to Abraham. God is clearing His own ground. He does not spare Judah and Israel either, yet He keeps His rights, so He can act in grace for them later.