9:6 pride of the Philistines. Even though subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar, the Philistines remained a proud nation during the Chaldean and Persian periods, though paying tribute to these kings as a semi-independent group of city-states. However, as Alexander swept down the coast after defeating the Persians, then the Syrians, then the Phoenicians (all this in about 335 B.C., some 150 years after Zechariah’s prophecy), he next routed the Philistines. The chief city, Gaza, was completely destroyed when its king defied Alexander. The other cities evidently surrendered with little resistance. Ashdod and presumably the others were taken over by foreigners, so that they soon were occupied by a mixed, or bastard, population. Eventually these were all incorporated into the dominant Jewish population of the region, as the Jebusites had been long before (Zechariah 9:7). See also Jeremiah 47.