Zephaniah 2:4

In the words “Gaza (Azzâh) shall be forsaken (âzab)” and “Ekron shall be rooted up (âkar)” there is a paronomasia, or play on the words, similar to that in Micah 1:10, et seq.

At the noon day. — i.e., this city shall be so weak and defenceless that there will be no need to surprise it at night: it shall be “spoiled at noon day” (Jeremiah 15:8).

It is noticeable that it is these four of the five Philistine cities which are denounced by Amos (Amos 1:6) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:20). See also Zechariah 9:5. Gaza was captured by Alexander the Great in B.C. 332, after a two months’ siege, and re-peopled. It was destroyed by Antiochus in B.C. 198, for its fidelity to the cause of Ptolemy. It was razed to the ground by Alexander Jannæus, but was rebuilt, and appears to have been a place of importance in the time of Antipater. It was assigned by the Romans to the kingdom of Herod, and after his death to the province of Syria. The modern Gaza is described as “a place of very considerable size, larger than Jerusalem.” Of the ancient Ashkelon little is known, but the town in later times rose to a position of considerable importance. Antipater is said to have conciliated both “the Gazites and Ascalonites by many and large presents” (Jos., Ant. xiv. 1 § 3. Its inhabitants joined with those of Gaza in the perpetration of some horrible atrocities in A.D. 361. The Ascalonites are described as the “hostes immanissimi” of the Crusaders. Ashdod, the Greek Azotus, was destroyed by the Maccabees, and not restored till the Roman conquest, when Gabinius rebuilt it, B.C. 55. It was allotted to Salome after Herod’s death. Ekron is scarcely mentioned in post-Biblical history. The prophecy appears only to indicate broadly that the Philistines as a nation should be obliterated, and the remnant of Judah be exalted. This effacement of the Philistine race had probably occurred before the Christian era. The last mention of the Philistines as a nation is in 1MMalachi 3:5.