Jeremiah 47
47
It’s Doomsday for Philistines
1-5 God’s Message to the prophet Jeremiah regarding the Philistines just before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. This is what God says:
“Look out! Water will rise in the north country,
swelling like a river in flood.
The torrent will flood the land,
washing away city and citizen.
Men and women will scream in terror,
wails from every door and window,
As the thunder from the hooves of the horses will be heard,
the clatter of chariots, the banging of wheels.
Fathers, paralyzed by fear,
won’t even grab up their babies
Because it will be doomsday for Philistines, one and all,
no hope of help for Tyre and Sidon.
God will finish off the Philistines,
what’s left of those from the island of Crete.
Gaza will be shaved bald as an egg,
Ashkelon struck dumb as a post.
You’re on your last legs.
How long will you keep flailing?
6“Oh, Sword of God,
how long will you keep this up?
Return to your scabbard.
Haven’t you had enough? Can’t you call it quits?
7“But how can it quit
when I, God, command the action?
I’ve ordered it to cut down
Ashkelon and the seacoast.”
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Jeremiah 47: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Jeremiah 47
47
Against the Philistines. 1The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:#Ez 25:15–16; Zep 2:4.
2Thus says the Lord:
#Nebuchadnezzar’s military campaign against Ashkelon in 604 B.C. may provide some historical background for this poem. See: waters are rising from the north,
to become a torrent in flood;
They shall flood the land and all it contains,
the cities and their inhabitants.
People will howl and wail,
every inhabitant of the land.
3At the noise of the pounding hooves of his steeds,
the clanking chariots, the rumbling wheels,
Parents do not turn back for their children;
their hands hang helpless,
4Because of the day that is coming
to destroy all the Philistines
And cut off from Tyre and Sidon#Tyre and Sidon: Phoenician seaports allied commercially with the Philistines and often rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar; cf. 27:1–4. After the capture of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar carried out a partially successful thirteen-year siege of Tyre. Caphtor: Crete and other Aegean islands, points of origin for the Philistines and other sea peoples; cf. Am 9:7.
the last of their allies.
Yes, the Lord is destroying the Philistines,
the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.#Jer 25:22; Ez 25:16–17; Am 1:8; 9:7.
5Baldness is visited upon Gaza,#Am 1:7.
Ashkelon is reduced to silence;
Ashdod, remnant of their strength,
how long will you gash yourself?#Baldness…gash yourself: close-cropped hair, silence, and ritual slashing of the body express mourning and grief and here represent the mourner’s awareness that chaos has overcome order (cf. 41:5).
6Ah! Sword of the Lord!
When will you find rest?
Return to your scabbard;
stop, be still!
7How can it find rest
when the Lord has commanded it?
Against Ashkelon and the seacoast,
there he has appointed it.#Zep 2:5–6.
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