Prophecy against the Philistines

¹Yahweh gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.[#47:1 Other prophecies concerning Philistia can be found in Isa. 14:28–32; Ezek. 25:15–17; Amos 1:6–8; Zeph. 2:4–7; Zech. 9:1–7.]

²“Look, enemies are gathering in the north,

like a river rising.

They are like a terrible flood that will cover

the land of the Philistines and everything in it,

the towns and everyone living in them.

People will cry for help,

and all the people of your land will cry and scream

³when they hear the hoofbeats of the horses

and the clatter of the war chariots,

the rumbling of the wheels.

In their panic , parents will forget to turn back for their children;

their hands will fall limp at their sides .

⁴For the day has come

for all the Philistines to be destroyed,

for Tyre and Sidon to be stripped

of every ally they have left.

Yes, Yahweh is destroying the Philistines,

the survivors from the Isle of Crete.

⁵The people of Gaza will mourn with great sorrow,[#47:5 Or “Baldness [shaving the head as a sign of sorrow] has come to Gaza.”]

for Ashkelon has been destroyed.

You descendants of the giants,

how long will you slash yourselves?

⁶“Oh, sword in the hand of Yahweh ,

how long until you rest?

Go back into your sheath,

rest and be still!

⁷Yet how can you rest

when Yahweh has given you an assignment?

I have ordered it to attack

the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast.”