Every casual bible reader knows that for generations, the Philistines were the archetypal enemies of Israel, but what eventually happened to them?

First off, the Philistines were descendents of a wave of invaders known only as the sea peoples. Historians debate endlessly about their original homeland, but if you think of the sea peoples as Bronze Age Vikings then you won’t be far off. These sea peoples conquered much of the known world at that time, and one particular horde of them conquered all the remaining Canaanite outposts, completing the task that God had given to Israel hundreds of years earlier. But as these sea peoples intermarried with the Canaanites, their cultures began to merge and erstwhile barbarian hordes with no goals save glory, fame and pillaging slowly picked up the ancient Canaanite mantle and restarted the grudge wars against God’s people. They routinely invaded into Israel and were routinely pushed back like a slow tide that ebbed in and out generation after generation.

The biblical record dedicates dozens of chapters to the details of the wars of the Philistines against Samson, Samuel, Saul, David and all his descendents, however the ultimate end of the Philistines is mentioned only once in a few passing verses in one of the more obscure prophecies of Zechariah.

Zechariah correctly predicted that a coming conqueror would obliterate the bulk of the Philistine armies who resisted his reign (history would know that king as Alexander the Great), but the Zechariah went on to predict that the surviving Philistine remnant, (wenisar – Zech. 9:7) would be willingly absorbed into Israel! 

After generations of bitter enmity and war, Philistia did eventually cease to exist, but it was Alexander who did the killing and it was God who did the saving.

Despite a lineage that boasted Goliath, and multiple armies that had invaded and ravaged Israel for centuries, the remnant of those same Philistines would be blessed with a shocking inheritance. The God they had opposed at every turn was eager to bless them with the greatest gift He could bestow. He grafted them into His chosen vine!

The God of Israel who the Philistines had defied and despised for hundreds of years, graciously decreed that His people would eventually absorb the remnant of their past enemies just as the ancient Jebusites of old had eagerly joined Israel and willingly become part of their great story. So next time you read about the wars of the Philistines, tuck in the back of your mind that a remnant of their descendants would one day become eager members of the precise people that their ancestors had tried to eradicate.