Edom must have needed a lot of free labor (Amos 1:6-10). Thanks to Gaza and Tyre, whole neighborhoods ended up working there involuntarily to ensure Edom’s economic vitality.
Reading the Scripture today, I thought of how important cheap (or free) labor is to keeping our own economic engines running smoothly. We demand low prices for goods which requires cost cutting all along the production chain. My beloved low prices have come at a terrible human cost. We often think that slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The reality is that enslavement continues in the sweat shops of Asia and Central America and the rights of American workers are being slowed chipped away as companies threaten to move jobs to those cheap labor pools. The slave market is still open for business. Whole communities are captured (this time by the promise of jobs) and sold down the river for my benefit. The violence of slavery is not only perpetrated by those who chain workers to sewing machines, but also by those who economically benefit from their bondage. No wonder God, the God of justice, is peeved. The treaties of brotherhood have been been set aside for something much more insidious–an alliance with Almighty Dollar.
Tongue on Fire 