Amos 1:6

For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four&c. The form of expression as in Amos 1:3, where see note. Gaza was the southernmost city of the Philistines: it lay on and about a hill, rising 100 feet out of the plain, at three miles distance from the sea, and some 50 miles S.W. of Jerusalem. "Fifteen wells of fresh water burst from the sandy soil, and render possible the broad gardens, and large population," which is said to number now about 18,000 souls. Gaza owed its importance to its position. It was a fertile spot on the edge of a great desert; and it commanded the route between Egypt and Syria. It became in consequence not only important strategically: it was also "an emporium of trade on the border of the desert, with roads and regular caravans," on the one hand, to Jerusalem, Damascus, Tyre, &c., on the other hand, to "Petra and Elath on the gulf of Akabah, both of them places in Edom, and depots for the traffic with Arabia" (comp. G. A. Smith, Geogr., p. 184; The Twelve Prophets, p. 126). This explains why Gaza is specially selected for blame: she was pre-eminently the centre of the slave-traffic.

because they carried into exile entire populations] i.e. the entire population of the places attacked by them: as Ewald paraphrases, whole villages(R.V. the whole people). Lit. an entire exile(exiled company:see in the Heb. Jeremiah 24:5; Jeremiah 28:4; Obadiah 1:20). The reference appears to be not to warlike incursions (such as we read of in the times of Saul and David), but to raids made upon the villages of Judah without the excuse of war, for the purely commercial purpose of procuring slaves for the trade with Edom.

to deliverthem up to Edom viz. as slaves, whether for service among the Edomites themselves, or, more probably, to be re-sold by them for instance, amongst the tribes inhabiting the Arabian peninsula. The same charge of selling their captives to the Edomites is brought against the Tyrians in Amos 1:9. For Edom as a trading nation, see Ezekiel 27:16 (reading with mss. Aq. Pesh., and many moderns, Edom[אדם] for Syria[ארם]). In Joel 3:4-6, also, the Philistines (and Phoenicians) are reproached with selling Judahites into slavery.