THE PRINCE OF PEACE 295
Though no special mention is made of Ashkelon, Ekron, or Ashdod in the histories of Alexander s march, they were no doubt occupied by the Macedonian troops. The fate of Gaza, however, at that time is fully recorded. " Strongly fortified, and occupying an important position, its very name, the strong, testified to its natural strength. Despite, therefore, of the terror caused by the overthrow of Tyre, Gaza ventured to resist Alexander, and was not reduced to submission for five months. Its king perished, and the city lost the semi-independence which it seems to have had under the Persian Empire. For the Persians, like their predecessors, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, were wont to permit many of the cities and districts which formed a portion of their empire to retain a state of semi-independence. Hence frequent mention is made of kings subject to the Persian King of kings. "
The one who actually bore the name of King of Gaza at the time of the siege of the city by Alexander was Betis, or Batis, who, though a Persian satrap and commander of the city, had assumed a relatively independent position. His end was tragic. After the fall of Gaza, when ten thousand of the inhabitants were slain and the rest sold into slavery, Batis was bound to a chariot with thongs thrust through the soles of his feet, and dragged through the city.
We cannot with certainty define what is meant by " a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod." The word " too, mamzer, is only found in one other place in the Hebrew Scriptures (Deut. xxiii. 3), and its etymology is somewhat obscure. Among the Jews the term is used of one born out of lawful wedlock, but some think that it properly describes only one who is mixed, or of ignoble birth, and not necessarily one illegitimately born. The ancient versions (the LXX, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate) render the word in our passage by " a foreigner." In any case, as Keil observes, it describes one whose birth has some blemish connected with it, so that he is " not an equal by birth with the citizens of a city or the inhabitants of a land." Hengstenberg has rendered it freely by " Gesindel " (a rabble).
