Judgment on the Philistine Cities

47:1 The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah1 about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.2

47:2 “Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river.3

They will be like an overflowing stream.

They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood.

They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants.

People will cry out in alarm.

Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.

47:3 Fathers will hear the hoofbeats of the enemies’ horses,

the clatter of their chariots and the rumbling of their wheels.

They will not turn back to save their children

because they will be paralyzed with fear.4

47:4 For the time has come

to destroy all the Philistines.

The time has come to destroy all the help

that remains for Tyre5 and Sidon.6

For I, the Lord, will7 destroy the Philistines,

that remnant that came from the island of Crete.8

47:5 The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning.

The people of Ashkelon will be struck dumb.

How long will you gash yourselves to show your sorrow,9

you who remain of Philistia’s power?10

47:6 How long will you cry out,11 ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,

how long will it be before you stop killing?12

Go back into your sheath!

Stay there and rest!’13

47:7 But how can it rest14

when I, the Lord, have15 given it orders?

I have ordered it to attack

the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast.16