The land of the people of Canaan was from Sidon in the north to Gerar in the south, from Gaza in the west to Sodom and Gomorrah in the east, from Admah and Zeboiim to Lasha.
“The people in Ashkelon will see those things and they will be afraid. The people of Gaza will shake with fear. And the people of Ekron will lose all hope when they see those things happen. There will be no king left in Gaza. No person will live in Ashkelon any more.
The people of Israel were camped near Kadesh, in the desert of Paran. The men went to Moses and Aaron and all the Israelite people. The men told Moses, Aaron, and all the people about the things they saw. And they showed them the fruit from the land.
An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. {\cf2\super [172]} The angel said, “Get ready and go south. Go to the road that leads down to Gaza from Jerusalem—the road that goes through the desert.”
“Then we obeyed the Lord our God. We left Mount Horeb (Sinai) and traveled toward the hill country of the Amorite people. We went through that big and terrible desert that you saw. We came to Kadesh Barnea.
God did the same thing for some people from Crete. The Avvite people lived in the towns around Gaza. But some people came from Crete and destroyed the Avvites. Those people from Crete took that land and live there now.)
And you did not obey when the Lord told you to leave Kadesh Barnea. He said, ‘Go up and take the land I am giving you.’ But you refused to obey the Lord your God. You did not trust him. You did not listen to his command.
So Adoni Zedek and his people were very scared. Gibeon was not a little town like Ai. Gibeon was a very big city—it was as big as any royal city. [47] And all the men in that city were good fighters. So the king was afraid.
So Joshua defeated all the people in that whole country. He had control over the hill country, the Negev, all the area of Goshen, the area of the western foothills, Jordan Valley, and the mountains of Israel and all the hills near them.
The Philistine men captured Samson. They tore out his eyes, and took him down to the city of Gaza. Then they put chains on him to keep him from running away. They put Samson in prison and made him work grinding grain.
In this way, the Philistines sent golden models of tumors as gifts for their sins to the Lord. They sent one golden model of a tumor for each Philistine town. These Philistine towns were Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.