Zephaniah 2:4

For Gaza shall be forsaken The connecting word forappears to refer to the exhortation in Zephaniah 2:3: seek the Lord, it may be ye shall be hid, for many shall be overwhelmed. There is an assonance in the words "Gaza shall be forsaken" (-azza -azûba) which cannot be reproduced. "Forsaken" is used probably as in Isaiah 6:12; Isaiah 7:16, in the sense of depopulated. There is a similar paronomasia in "Ekron shall be rooted up" (-eḳron te-âḳçr), which the Greek is able partially to imitate, Ἀ κκαρ ὼ ν ἐ κριζωθήσεται.

drive out Ashdod at the noon day The expression at noon dayoccurs again Jeremiah 15:8 (Jeremiah 6:4 is different) and stands in parallelism with suddenlyin the next clause. It is also curious that in Jeremiah 15:8, "a spoiler at noon day," the term spoiler(shoded) would form an assonance with Ashdod. The idea meant to be suggested by the phrase "at noon day" is not clear. The usual explanation, to the effect that, as the hot noon was the time when men rested in the East, an attack at such an hour would be unexpected, is rather puerile (1 Kings 20:16). The idea might rather be that Ashdod shall be stormed by sheer and open force. See Appendix.

The Philistine towns are enumerated in their order from south to north. The first three lay near the coast, while Ekron was somewhat further inland.