47 The Philistines
This is God’s message to Jeremiah concerning the Philistines of Gaza, before the city was captured[a] by the Egyptian army:
2 The Lord says: A flood is coming from the north to overflow the land of the Philistines; it will destroy their cities and everything in them. Strong men will scream in terror, and all the land will weep. 3 Hear the clattering hoofs and rumbling wheels as the chariots go rushing by; fathers flee without a backward glance at their helpless children, 4 for the time has come when all the Philistines and their allies from Tyre and Sidon will be destroyed. For the Lord is destroying the Philistines, those colonists from Caphtor. 5 The cities of Gaza and Ashkelon will be razed to the ground and lie in ruins. O descendants of the Anakim, how you will lament and mourn!
6 O sword of the Lord, when will you be at rest again? Go back into your scabbard; rest and be still! 7 But how can it be still when the Lord has sent it on an errand? For the city of Ashkelon and those living along the sea must be destroyed.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 47:1 before the city was captured. In 609 b.c., the year King Josiah died.