Some professing to be modern day prophets are telling us that “Hamas” is in the Bible. However, they are conflating the Hebrew word “hamas” with the current Arabic name “Hamas” – two completely different words having very different meanings. But, in fact the truth is that “Gaza” is found in scripture, and is referring to the same location geographically as the Gaza in the news today. It was the Canaanite city where Samson was captured and killed by the Philistines, and is the subject of several prophecies, such as the following:

“³Seek the Lord,

            All you humble of the earth

            Who have carried out His ordinances;

            Seek righteousness, seek humility.

            Perhaps you will be hidden

            In the day of the Lord’s anger.

     ⁴For Gaza will be abandoned,

            And Ashkelon a desolation;

            Ashdod will be driven out at noon,

            And Ekron will be uprooted.

     ⁵Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,

            The nation of the Cherethites!

            The word of the Lord is against you,

            O Canaan, land of the Philistines;

            And I will destroy you,

            So that there will be no inhabitant.”

(Zephaniah 2:3-7)

            Whether or not this prophecy has already been fulfilled, as in the numerous conquests historically, is a very relevant question. According to the Pulpit commentary, 

“Gaza… after being depopulated and again re-peopled by Alexander the Great, fell into the hands of Ptolemy, and was destroyed by Antiochus, B.C. 198 (Polybius, ‘Reliq.,’ 16:40; Pusey, p. 457). Often rebuilt, it was as often razed to the ground; and the present representative of the ancient town, Ghuzzeh, stands upon a hill composed of the accumulated ruins of successive cities.”

            However, we do see that there are often prophecies which have both a near term partial and a long-term complete fulfillment. Furthermore, keeping these verses in the second chapter of Zephaniah in the context of the preceding chapter, we see that he is prophesying there about the “day of the Lord” (1:14), which it goes on to refer to as “the day of the Lord’s wrath” (1:18), which he describes as follows:

“¹⁴ Near is the great day of the Lord,
Near and coming very quickly;
Listen, the day of the Lord!
In it the warrior cries out bitterly.
¹⁵ A day of wrath is that day,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of destruction and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
¹⁶ A day of trumpet and battle cry
Against the fortified cities
And the high corner towers.
¹⁷ I will bring distress on men
So that they will walk like the blind,
Because they have sinned against the Lord;
And their blood will be poured out like dust
And their flesh like dung.
¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold
Will be able to deliver them
On the day of the Lord’s wrath;
And all the earth will be devoured
In the fire of His jealousy,
For He will make a complete end,
Indeed a terrifying one,
Of all the inhabitants of the earth.”

(Zephaniah1:10-18)

            Unless one would contend that the whole earth and all of its inhabitants have been destroyed and eliminated some time in history, we would have to take this as referring to a time still future. It corresponds to other end times prophecies, including that of 2 Peter 3:10, and several passages in Revelation about that day of the Lord return of Christ in judgment on the earth.

            However, Zephaniah’s prophecy about Gaza is probably not about what is happening now, or going to happen now, unless we think that the second coming of Christ is about to happen now. That expectation would not be in agreement with the rest of prophecy on the subject, as most all the other prophecies about that day of the Lord event, such as the whole Tribulation Period and the appearance of the Antichrist, or the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls, or the Battle of Armageddon, have not yet been fulfilled.