Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver [them] up to Edom:
Ver. 6. For three transgressions] See Trapp on " Amo 1:3 "
Of Gaza] One of the five chief cities or satrapies of the Philistines; an ancient name, Gen 10:19 Deuteronomy 2:23 1 Samuel 6:17, and not so first called by Cambyses, making it his magazine when he marched against Egypt, as Mela would persuade us.
I will not turn away] Or I will not convert them, as some render it, so Amos 1:2 ; Amos 1:1 ; Amos 1:4 ; Amo 1:6 i.e. non reducam ad misericordiam suam, I will show them no mercy; but they shall have "an evil, an only evil," Ezekiel 7:5, without mixture of mercy. This is punishment enough.
Because they carried away captive the whole captivity] This cruelty God singleth out (as before) as a singular sin that shall be surely punished. Now that is called a whole or perfect deportation, when none escapeth; but all of all sorts, sexes, and sizes, are carried away, as by a sweeping rain, or universal deluge: Jeremiah 13:19, "Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive." Whether this were Judah or Israel that was so inhumanly dealt with by the Philistines we find not. Something like it we read, 2Ch 21:16-17 Joel 3:6. See Trapp on " Joe 3:6 "
To deliver them up to Edom] Or to shut them up in Edom, their most inveterate deadly enemy; to whom the Philistines delivered or sold them on this condition or bargain, that they should hold them there in perpetual and irrevocable slavery.