This passage probably refers to Pharaoh Necho II's (610-594 B.C.) first advance to Carchemish in 609 B.C. Having defeated and killed Josiah, King of Judah, at Megiddo, he advanced to the Euphrates, and on his return smote the city of Kadytis which is probably Gaza.
14. Jeremiah xlvii. 5.--_Baldness is come upon Gaza._
The reference is to the destruction which Nebuchadrezzar inflicted upon the whole Syrian seaboard from Sidon to Gaza after Pharaoh Necho's defeat at Carchemish in 604 B.C. (Jeremiah xlvi. 2).
Gaza had to recognise the supremacy of Babylon. "Baldness" is the sign of mourning (Micah i. 16).
Destroyed again and again, its situation has always secured its being rebuilt.
15. Amos i. 6, 7.--_Thus saith the LORD; for three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom: but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof._
The proceedings of Philistia against Judah are here represented by Gaza as the principal city. See 2 Chron. xxi. 16-17, which implies a veritable sack of Jerusalem. The extreme barbarity of which Judah complained was that her children were delivered up to her old implacable enemy, Edom.
16. Zephaniah ii. 4.--_Gaza shall be forsaken ... and Ekron shall be rooted up._
There is a play on the meaning of these words, "Gaza (Azzah = strong) shall be forsaken (âzab)" and "Ekron (deep-rooting) shall be rooted up (âkar)," similar to that in Micah i. 10, _et seq._
The chastisement of Philistia is prophesied in verses 4-7. "The fulfilment of the prophecy is not tied down to time" (Pusey, _Minor Prophets_).
17. Zechariah ix. 5.--_Gaza shall see it, and be very sorrowful.... The king shall perish from Gaza._
Well might Gaza fear and tremble on hearing of the destruction of Tyre.
Gaza was taken by Alexander the Great after a siege of two months.[7] When he subdued it, he ordered all the men to be slaughtered without quarter, and carried away all the women and children into bondage, 332 B.C. New colonists settled within the city, which now ceased to be a Philistine centre, only to become a Greek one.
Gaza must have been at this time a city of great strength, for Alexander's Greek engineers acknowledged their inability to invent engines of sufficient power to batter its massive walls. Alexander himself was severely wounded in the shoulder during a sortie of this garrison.