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.
Special mention is made by Hegasias (a contemporary of Alexander) of the "King" of Gaza being brought alive to Alexander after the captivity of the city. The name of the governor of the garrison at Gaza was Babemeses.
In Pusey's Commentary on the Minor Prophets—Amos i. 6, 7; Zephaniah ii. 4; Zechariah ix. 5, there is much additional information concerning the prophecies against Gaza.
Gaza is there described as first Canaanite; then Philistine; then, at least after Alexander, Edomite; after Alexander Jannæus, Greek; conquered by Abu-Bekr the first Khalif, it became Mohammedan; it was desolated in their civil wars until the crusaders rebuilt its fort; then again Mohammedan.
1. 1 Maccabees xi. 61, 62.—From whence he [Jonathan] went to Gaza, but they of Gaza shut him out; wherefore he laid siege unto it, and burned the suburbs thereof with fire, and spoiled them. Afterward, when they of Gaza made supplication unto Jonathan, he made peace with them, and took the sons of their chief men for hostages.
After the death of Alexander, the territory of Gaza became for two centuries the battlefield between the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jewish armies. Twice (315 and 306 b.c.) Antigonus took the city from Ptolemy I. The latter re-took it twice at the point of the sword, and for a century it remained under the power of Egypt.
The Syrians again devastated it in 198 B.C.
Jonathan Maccabeus (the wary), the Jewish leader and high priest (161-143 b.c.) laid siege to its suburbs, and forced the inhabitants to sue for terms (1 Macc. xi. 61, 62).
2. 1 Maccabees xiii. 43-8.—In those days Simon camped against Gaza,[8] and besieged it round about; he made also an engine of war, and set it by the city,[9] and battered a certain tower, and took it.