Jeremiah 47

1 Yahweh gave to the prophet Jeremiah a message about the people of Philistia. [The message was given to me] before Gaza [city in Philistia] was captured by [the army of] Egypt.

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah, the prophet, against the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza.

2 This is what Yahweh said: “[An army] [MET] will be coming from the northeast that will cover the land like a flood. They will destroy the land and everything in it; [they will destroy] people and cities. People will scream; everyone in the land will wail.

Thus says the Lord: “Behold, waters will rise up from the north, and they will be like an inundating torrent, and they will cover the land and its plenitude, the city and its inhabitants. The men will cry out, and all the inhabitants of the land will wail,

3 [They will hear] the sound of the hooves of the [enemy] horses, and [they will hear] the rumble/noise of the wheels [of their enemies’] chariots. Men [will run away; ] they will not stop to help their children; they will be completely weak and helpless [MTY].

before the uproar of a procession of weapons and of his soldiers, before the commotion of his four-horse chariots and the multitude of his wheels. The fathers have not looked back for the sons, because of feebleness of hands,

4 It will be the time for all the people of Philistia to be destroyed, and the time to prevent the remaining soldiers from helping [the people of] Tyre and Sidon [cities]. [I, ] Yahweh, will get rid of the people of Philistia, those whose ancestors [long ago] came from Crete [island].

because of the arrival of the day on which all the Philistines will be devastated, and Tyre and Sidon will be destroyed, with all the rest of their helpers. For the Lord has depopulated the Philistines, the remnant of the island of Cappadocia.

5 [The people of] Gaza will be humiliated; they will shave off all the hair on their heads [to indicate that they are ashamed]. The [people of] [city] will all be silent [because they will be mourning]. [All you people who live] along the coast [of the Mediterranean Sea] who are still alive, how long [RHQ] will you gash yourselves [because you are mourning]?”

Baldness has arrived over Gaza. Ashkelon has been silenced, along with the remnant of their valley. And how long will you continue to be cut down?

6 [The people of Philistia say, ] “Yahweh, when [RHQ] will you [tell our enemies to stop killing us with] [PRS] their swords? Tell them to [PRS] put them back into their sheaths and keep them there!”

O sharp sword of the Lord, how long will you be without rest? Enter your sheath; be refreshed and silenced.

7 But it would not be right [RHQ] for their swords to stay there, because Yahweh has commanded their enemies [to do something more]; Yahweh intends to tell them to attack [all the people living in] Ashkelon and [in other cities] along the coast.

But how can it find rest, when the Lord has ordered it against Ashkelon and against its maritime regions, and when a task has been appointed to it there?”