Yahweh’s word that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza.
Yahweh says: “Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, and will overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein. The men will cry, and all the inhabitants of the land will wail.
At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don’t look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains; for Yahweh will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor.
Baldness has come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?
“ ‘You sword of Yahweh, how long will it be before you are quiet? Put yourself back into your scabbard; rest, and be still.’
“How can you be quiet, since Yahweh has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there has he appointed it.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Jeremiah prophesies here against the Philistines, who were enemies…
Jeremiah prophesies here against the Philistines, who were enemies to the Israelites, and had contrived against them many cruel and unjust things. There is then no doubt, but that God intended to testify, by this prophecy, his love towards the Israelites, for he undertook their cause, and avenged the wrongs done to them. We hence perceive why God had predicted the ruin of the Philistines, even that the Israelites might know his paternal love towards them, as he set himself against their enemies; and thus he gave them a reason for patience, because it behooved them to wait until God fulfilled this prophecy.
And he points out the time, Before Pharaoh smote Aza, or Gaza. The ancient Gaza, as far as we can find out, was near the sea; but after it was destroyed, another was built, which is mentioned by Luke, (Acts 8:26;) it appears from heathen writers that it was a celebrated city and opulent. But they are mistaken who think that its name is derived from the Persic word “Gaza,” which means treasures; for they say, that when Cambyses led an army against Egypt, he left there his riches. But the word עזה, Oze, is a very ancient Hebrew word; and it is well known that the ע, oin, has been pronounced like our g; and this is the case as to other words, as for instance, Gomorrah, עמרה, the ע, oin, has the sound of ג, gimel; so also צער, Tsor, the Greek and Latin interpreters have rendered it, Segor. Then Gaza has not derived its name from treasures, but it is a Hebrew word, signifying fortitude or strength.
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Now Jeremiah says, that he prophesied against the Philistines before Pharaoh smote that city, but he did not demolish it. But we see that the Prophet threatens nothing to it from the Egyptians, but rather from the Chaldeans. Why then does he speak here of Pharaoh?
We must refer to history, and then we shall see what the design of the Holy Spirit was. When Pharaoh came to bring assistance to the Jews under Zedekiah, as we have already seen, he was soon compelled to return to Egypt, for the Chaldeans, having raised the siege, went against the Egyptians; for if they routed them, they knew that they could soon possess themselves of the whole of Judea. Haying then left the Jews for a time, they went against the Egyptians. Pharaoh, possessing no confidence in himself, as I have said, retreated; but he plundered Gaza in his way, because it was very hostile to the Jews; and he wished to shew that he did not come altogether in vain, though this afforded no relief to the Jews. But thus in things of nought earthly kings shew off themselves. Pharaoh then at that time plundered Gaza, but he did not retain it. At this time Jeremiah predicted greater calamities. And this ought to be carefully noticed, for there would be no reason why the Prophet spake of the Philistines, except, he had respect to something farther. Let us now then come to the second verse:
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 Which was also called Gaza, a city of the…
Which was also called Gaza, a city of the Philistines.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Jer 47:1 The word of the LORD that came…
Jer 47:1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
Ver. 1. Before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.] Called also Gazer and Gazera, having its name not from the Persian Gaza, signifying wealth or treasure, but from a Hebrew word signifying strength. It was first smitten by Pharaoh at his return from Carchemish likely, after he had slain Josiah, and afterwards worsted the Babylonian at Euphrates. Next by Nebuchadnezzar; this and the four other satrapies of the Philistines were overrun then when he came against Egypt. After that it was besieged and taken by Alexander the Great, who laid it waste. Yet was it built again and called Constantia, after the name of Constantine the Great’s sister, being one of the chief cities in Syria, and having received the faith. {a}
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{a} Euseb., De Vit. Constant., lib. iv.
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Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 In the former chapter the prophet foretold the judgments…
In the former chapter the prophet foretold the judgments of God upon the Egyptians, who were the Jews’ seeming friends, but their real enemies, as they were occasions to them of idolatry, and of a sinful confidence in them. He comes in this chapter to foretell the judgments of God upon the Philistines, who were inveterate enemies to the Jews, against whom also Isaiah, Isa 14:29 of his prophecy, and Ezekiel, and Amos prophesied, Eze 25:15; Amo 1:6; and also Zephaniah, in Zep 2:4,5 of his prophecy. When the king of Egypt took Gaza, one of the five cities of the Philistines, the Scripture doth not tell us. Some think it was either in his way to Carchemish, or as he came back a conqueror from the battle at Megiddo, where Josiah was slain. The time when Jeremiah had this revelation is set down to let us know that it was in the time of the Philistines’ prosperity, when the prophet could see no such effect existent, or probable in its causes.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 As the Egyptians had often proved false friends, so…
As the Egyptians had often proved false friends, so the Philistines had always been sworn enemies, to the Israel of God, and the more dangerous and vexatious for their being such near neighbours to them. They were considerably humbled in David's time, but, it seems they had got head again and were a considerable people till Nebuchadnezzar cut them off with their neighbours, which is the event here foretold. The date of this prophecy is observable; it was before Pharaoh smote Gaza. When this blow was given to Gaza by the king of Egypt is not certain, whether in his expedition against Carchemish or in his return thence, after he had slain Josiah, or when he afterwards came with design to relieve Jerusalem; but this is mentioned here to show that this word of the Lord came to Jeremiah against the Philistines when they were in their full strength and lustre, themselves and their cities in good condition, in no peril from any adversary or evil occurrent. When no disturbance of their repose was foreseen by any human probabilities, yet then Jeremiah foretold their ruin, which Pharaoh's smiting Gaza soon after would be but an earnest of, and, as it were, the beginning of sorrows to that country. It is here foretold, 1. That a foreign enemy and a very formidable one shall be brought upon them: Waters rise up out of the north, Jer 47:2. Waters sometimes signify multitudes of people and nations (Rev 17:15), sometimes great and threatening calamities (Psa 69:1); here they signify both. They rise out of the north, whence fair weather and the wind that drives away rain are said to come; but now a terrible storm comes out of that cold climate. The Chaldean army shall overflow the land like a deluge. Probably this happened before the destruction of Jerusalem, for it should seem that in Gedaliah's time, which was just after, the army of the Chaldeans was quite withdrawn out of those parts. The country of the Philistines was but of small extent, so that it would soon be overwhelmed by so vast an army. 2. That they shall all be in a consternation upon it. The men shall have no heart to fight, but shall sit down and cry like children: All the inhabitants of the land shall howl, so that nothing but lamentation shall be heard in all places. The occasion of the fright is elegantly described, Jer 47:3. Before it comes to killing and slaying, the very stamping of the horses and rattling of the chariots, when the enemy makes his approach, shall strike a terror upon the people, to such a degree that parents in their fright shall seem void of natural affection, for they shall not look back to their children, to provide for their safety, or so much as to see what becomes of them. Their hands shall be so feeble that they shall despair of carrying them off with them, and therefore they shall not care for seeing them, but leave them to take their lot; or they shall be in such a consternation that they shall quite forget even those pieces of themselves. Let none be over-fond of their children, nor dote upon them, since such distress may come that they may either wish they had none or forget that they have, and have no heart to look upon them. 3. That the country of the Philistines shall be spoiled and laid waste, and the other countries adjoining to them and in alliance with them. It is a day to spoil the Philistines, for the Lord will spoil them, Jer 47:4. Note, Those whom God will spoil must needs be spoiled; for, if God be against them, who can be for them? Tyre and Zidon were strong and wealthy cities, and they used to help the Philistines in a strait, but now they shall themselves be involved in the common ruin, and God will cut off from them every helper that remains. Note, Those that trust to help from creatures will find it cut off when they most need it and will thereby be put into the utmost confusion. Who the remnant of the country of Caphtor were is uncertain, but we find that the Caphtorim were near akin to the Philistines (Gen 10:14), and probably when their own country was destroyed such as remained came and settled with their kinsmen the Philistines, and were now spoiled with them. Some particular places are here named, Gaza, and Ashkelon, Jer 47:5. Baldness has come upon them; the invaders have stripped them of all their ornaments, or they have made themselves bald in token of extreme grief, and they are cut off, with the other cities that were in the plain or valley about them. The products of their fruitful valley shall be spoiled, and made a prey of, by the conquerors. 4. That these calamities should continue long. The prophet, in the foresight of this, with his usual tenderness, asks them first (Jer 47:5), How long will you cut yourselves, as men in extreme sorrow and anguish do? O how tedious will the calamity be! not only cutting, but long cutting. But he turns from the effect to the cause: They cut themselves, for the sword of the Lord cuts them. And therefore, (1.) He bespeaks that to be still (Jer 47:6): O thou sword of the Lord! how long will it be ere thou be quiet? He begs it would put up itself into the scabbard, would devour no more flesh, drink no more blood. This expresses the prophet's earnest desire to see an end of the war, looking with compassion, as became a man, even upon the Philistines themselves, when their country was made desolate by the sword. Note, War is the sword of the Lord; with it he punishes the crimes of his enemies and pleads the cause of his own people. When war is once begun it often lasts long; the sword, once drawn, does not quickly find the way into the scabbard again; nay, some when they draw the sword throw away the scabbard, for they delight in war. So deplorable are the desolations of war that the blessings of peace cannot but be very desirable. O that swords might be beaten into ploughshares! (2.) Yet he gives a satisfactory account of the continuance of the war and stops the mouth of his own complaint (Jer 47:7): How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against such and such places, particularly specified in its commission? There hath he appointed it. Note, [1.] The sword of war hath its charge from the Lord of hosts. Every bullet has its charge; you call them blind bullets, but they are directed by an all-seeing God. The war itself has its charge; he saith to it, Go, and it goes - Come, and it comes - Do this, and it does it; for he is commander-in-chief. [2.] When the sword is drawn we cannot expect it should be sheathed till it has fulfilled its charge. As the word of God, so his rod and his sword, shall accomplish that for which he sends them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–7 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah…
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines,.... As the former prophecies were against the Egyptians, the friends and allies of the Jews, in whom they trusted; this is against the Philistines, the near neighbours of the Jews, and their implacable enemies: the time of this prophecy was,
before Pharaoh smote Gaza; one of the five cities of the Philistines, a very strong and fortified place, as its name signifies; See Gill on Act 8:26. The Jews, in their chronicle, say (t) this was fulfilled in the eighth year of Zedekiah, when Pharaoh came out of Egypt, while the Chaldeans were besieging Jerusalem; which they hearing of, broke up the siege, and went forth to meet him; upon which he went to Gaza, and destroyed that, and returned to Egypt again. Both Jarchi and Kimchi make mention of this, but say it was in the tenth year of Zedekiah; and which, no doubt, is the truest reading, since the Chaldean army did not come up against Jerusalem until the ninth year of his reign. But it is more likely that this Pharaoh was Pharaohnecho, and that he fell upon Gaza, and smote it, either when he came to Carchemish, or when he returned from thence, after he had slain Josiah. Now this prophecy was delivered out before anything of this kind happened, and when the Philistines were in the utmost peace, and in no fear or expectation of destruction; and the smiting of this single city by the king of Egypt is foretold, as the forerunner and pledge of a greater destruction of the land by the king of Babylon, next mentioned.
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(t) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. p. 75.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7 The destruction of the Philistines, Tyrians, Zidonians, and others…
The destruction of the Philistines, Tyrians, Zidonians, and others by the seaside, ver. 1-7.
Before - In the time of the Philistines prosperity.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Among the nations doomed to suffer from the hostilities…
CHAPTER XLVII
Among the nations doomed to suffer from the hostilities of
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Nebuchadnezzar are the Philistines, (see Jer 25:20.)
And the calamities predicted in this chapter befell them
probably during the long siege of Tyre, when their country was
desolated to prevent their giving Tyre or Sidon any assistance,
1-5.
The whole of this chapter is remarkably elegant. The address to
the sword of Jehovah, at the close of it, is particularly a
very beautiful and bold personification, 6, 7.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLVII
Verse 1. The word of the Lord - against the Philistines] The date of this prophecy cannot be easily ascertained. Dr. Blayney thinks it was delivered about the fourth year of Zedekiah, while Dahler assigns it some time in the reign of Josiah.
Before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.] We have no historical relation of any Egyptian king smiting Gaza. It was no doubt smitten by some of them; but when, and by whom, does not appear either from sacred or profane history.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6 Jer 47:1. The word of the Lord — against…
Jer 47:1. The word of the Lord — against the Philistines — “Among the other nations, who were doomed to suffer by the hostilities of Nebuchadnezzar, the Philistines are enumerated, Jer 25:20; and the calamities foretold in this present chapter most probably befell them during the long siege of Tyre, when that prince ravaged their country, in order, as it is said, Jer 47:4, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon all chance of assistance from that quarter. But as no history, sacred or profane, has mentioned the taking of Gaza by the king of Egypt, there is no means of ascertaining the precise date of the delivery of this prophecy.” Before that Pharaoh smote Gaza — “Some have supposed the Pharaoh here spoken of to be Pharaoh-necho, and that he subdued Gaza after the battle of Megiddo, (2Ki 23:29,) when the whole country round submitted to his victorious arms. Others have thought that it was Pharaoh-hophra, who, having marched out of Egypt to the relief of Jerusalem, when besieged by the Chaldeans, in the ninth or tenth year of Zedekiah, thought proper to retire again on the approach of the enemy toward him, (Jer 37:5; Jer 37:7,) but, on his return, fell upon Gaza, and pillaged it. All this, however, is no better than mere conjecture.” — Blaney.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–5 that Pharaoh - Pharaoh-Necho though defeated at Carchemish, was…
that Pharaoh - Pharaoh-Necho though defeated at Carchemish, was probably able to seize Gaza upon his retreat, when obviously the possession of so strong a fortress would be most useful to him to prevent the entrance of the victorious Chaldaeans into Egypt.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6 Gaza, going or returning from Charcamis. Apries also attacked…
Gaza, going or returning from Charcamis. Apries also attacked Tyre, and would of course invade the Philistines. They had assisted the Tyrians against Nabuchodonosor, who therefore made incursions into their territory, and into that of Ammon, &c., while the main part of his army besieged Tyre for thirteen years. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 4. Prophecy Against The Philistines
4. Prophecy Against The Philistines
Chap. 47
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1 The word of Jehovah, which came to Jeremiah, the prophet, against the Philistines, before Pharaoh had smitten Gaza.
2 Thus saith Jehovah:
Behold, waters rise out of the North,
And become an overflowing torrent,
And overflow the land and whatever is therein,
The city and those that dwell therein;
And the men shall cry aloud,1
And all the inhabitants of the country shall howl,
3 Before the thundering hoof-beat2 of his horses,3
Before the rattling of his chariots,4 the rumbling of his wheels.
Fathers, for feebleness5 of hands, turn not for their children,
4 Because of the day that cometh to extirpate6 all the Philistines,
To exterminate from Tyre and Sidon every escaped one that might help;
For Jehovah extirpates the Philistines,
The remnant of the coasts of Caphtor.
5 Baldness is come upon Gaza,
Ashkelon is struck dumb,7 the remnant of their valley.
How long wilt thou still wound thyself by cutting?
6 Alas! sword of Jehovah, how long ere thou wilt rest?
Back8 into thy sheath, rest and be still!
7 How canst thou rest? Jehovah has given it a charge
Against Ashkelon and against the sea-shore—
Thither9 has he appointed it.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
From the North the prophet sees the hostile hosts approaching like great water-floods against the Philistines. Terror will seize these to such a degree, that fathers will not once look round after their children. Then will the Philistines be extirpated even to the last remnant, and the last helper be taken from the Phœnicians (Jer_47:2-4). Gaza and Ashkelon will fall, for the consideration that the sword of the Lord has already had enough bloody work, and will now stand still before the last of these cities, does not hold good (Jer_47:5-7).
Jer_47:1. The word … smitten Gaza. According to history Jeremiah lived to see one, and possibly two conquests of Gaza by Pharaoh, for Herodotus relates (II., 159): Σύροισι πεζῇ ὁ Νεκὼς συμβαλὼν ἐν Μαγδόῳ ἐνίκσε· μετὰ δὲ τὴν μάχην καδυτην πόλιν τῆς Συρίης ἐον͂σαν μεγάλην εῖλε. Thus after the battle of Megiddo (for this is admitted to be Μάγδολος) Pharaoh-necho conquered Gaza. That Κάδυτις is Gaza (according to the Egyptian Katatu; comp. Duncker. I., S. 342, 818) is now generally acknowledged. Comp. M. Niebuhr, Ass. u. Bab., S. 369; Arnold in Herzog, R.-Enc. IV., S. 672; Grafad h. loc., S. 523; Duncker, etc.—Possibly Gaza had also been conquered by Psammetichus. He took Ashdod, according to Herodotus (II., 157), after a twenty years’ siege. Duncker is correctly of opinion “that the siege of Ashdod could not well be undertaken, before Gaza and Ashkelon had been captured” (S. 816, Anm.). Jeremiah must have survived the capture of Ashdod, for he speaks in Jer_25:20 of the remnant of Ashdod. This must also have occurred in the second decennium of his prophetic labors, since Psammetichus cannot have commenced his expeditions against the Philistines before B. C., 640 (comp. Duncker, S. 816). If then Jeremiah did witness a conquest of Gaza in consequence of the undertaking against Ashdod, it was yet an event of relatively small importance. Gaza appears by no means to have been destroyed, for in the same passage, where Jeremiah speaks of the remnant of Ashdod (Jer_25:20), he speaks of Ashkelon, Gaza and Ekron, as cities still intact. It is inconceivable that this capture of Gaza, which if it took place, was of secondary importance, could be the occasion of this prophecy, since the words “before Pharaoh smote Gaza,” can be understood only of a celebrated, well-known conquest of Gaza. Any other must have required a more particular designation. Add to this, that when Jeremiah prophesies the visitation of Philistia, and mentions the cities to be destroyed by name, he could not have left Ashdod unmentioned, if the great and celebrated siege of this city was then in progress. From his not mentioning it, we may with safety conclude that the capture of this city was already a fact in the past. From all which it follows that the superscription must refer to the capture of Gaza by Pharaoh-necho, which, Herodotus says, took place after the battle of Magdolos or Megiddo. Two points are now to be observed:—
1. This capture took place before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the battle of Megiddo occurring in B. C., 608 (comp. Duncker, S. 817). It is perfectly intelligible that Necho, who, as we have seen above, landed with his army in the bay of Acco, sought to keep his retreat open by subjugating the large fortified cities of Philistia, especially Gaza, the key of the road to Egypt. He would have been lost after the battle of Carchemish, if he had not taken these precautionary measures. Accordingly the present prophecy belongs not to those which Jeremiah published in the year 604, after the battle of Carchemish, but is older. It agrees with this, that in this chapter the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar are not mentioned, but an enemy from the north is spoken of generally.
2. If now the waters rising from the north (Jer_47:2) are the Chaldeans, as according to Jeremiah’s constant usage they must be, this superscription has not the sense that it asserts the fulfilment of the prophecy by the conquest of Gaza which soon followed on the part of Necho, but on the contrary it is to declare, that Jeremiah prophesied destruction to the Philistines by an enemy from the north, at a time when conquest by an enemy from the south was impending. It might indeed be alleged that Jeremiah understood by the “waters from the north” the Egyptians, because they were then making their attack on Philistia from the north. This, however, was only an accidental circumstance which Jeremiah would certainly have designated as such. It was natural that at a time when the Egyptian forces, after the battle of Megiddo, were turned against Philistia, Jeremiah should find occasion for a prophecy against this country, but that at this time he should designate its destruction as the work of a northern enemy, corresponds perfectly to the character of that prophet who buys land which is in possession of the enemy (Jeremiah 32), and proclaims to the Jews in Tahpanhes, that the throne of the Chaldean king will stand before the gates of the royal palace (Jeremiah 43) I do not think that the capture of Gaza was made by the army of the Egyptians returning defeated from Carchemish. I lay no great weight on Herodotus’ placing it immediately after the battle of Magdolos, yet it is in itself improbable that Necho could have deferred the capture of “the key to Egypt” so long, or have accomplished it with his defeated army.
Jer_47:2-4. Thus saith … coasts of Caphtor. The figure of an overflowing stream is frequently used of armies. Comp. ex. gr., Isa_8:7; Jer_46:7.—From the north. Comp. Jer_1:13-17.—And overflow. Comp. Jer_8:16.—The city, etc. Comp. Jer_46:8.—On turn not. Comp. Jer_46:5. The exhaustion caused by the terror of that day will hinder even parents from going to the help of their children. A similar expression, but in a different sense, is found in Mal. 3:24; Luk_1:17.—The prediction of Jer_47:4 was soon afterwards fulfilled. The Phœnicians in the distress caused by the Chaldeans which followed the destruction of Jerusalem, must have grievously missed the aid of their Philistine neighbors.—The remnant, etc. Comp. Amo_9:7; Gen_10:14; Deu_2:23; Eze_25:16; Zep_2:5. It is certain that a part of the Philistines originated from Caphtor, but not whether by Caphtor we are to understand Creta or the coast of the Egyptian delta (so Starke, Gaza, S. 76). Comp. Herz.R.-Enc., the articles “Philistia,” “Creta,” and “Caphtor.”
Jer_47:5-7. Baldness … appointed it. While in the previous context the catastrophe is designated as still future, it appears here in great part to have occurred. The prophet in spirit sees the country already in the hands of the enemy. Gaza, the strong southern fortification, the key of the country is, as it were, a head shaven bare (comp. Jer_2:16); Ashkelon, the seaport, the mouth of the stream of traffic, is a mouth struck dumb. It is not yet, indeed, destroyed like Gaza, but its gates are closed. No one any more goes in or out, for the enemy is before them:—Remnant of their valley. In the topography of Philistia a hilly country (in the east), and a low country may be distinguished. Comp. Vaihinger’s art., Philistia in Herz. R.-Enc. XI., S. 553. Although the proper name of this low land is שְׁפֵּלָה, it is yet possible that עֵמֶק also may be put for it (comp. 1Sa_31:7). It must further be admitted that Ashkelon and Gaza are not inappropriately termed the remnant of the valley, for they were the strongest cities: the enemy coming from the north through Judea, has beset the hill region (אֲשׁדוֹת, Jos_10:40; Jos_12:8. Comp. Vaihinger, ut sup.): in the low country Gaza and Ashkelon resist the longest; when these are fallen, the last remnant of the low lands, consequently the whole land, is in the power of the enemy.—Their and the following sentence how long, etc., refer to the whole Philistia. These self-woundings were a heathen custom in conjunction with earnest supplication of their deities (comp. 1Ki_18:28; Herz.R.-Enc., Art. Baal). The prophet then represents the Philistines here as humbling themselves. They perceive that it is the God of Israel, who is bringing this judgment upon them (comp. 1 Samuel 5), they therefore appeal to Him after their manner for grace. The prophet tells them, however, that this can no longer help them, the judgment having already begun with the facts intimated in Jer_47:5, a. This explanation appears satisfactory. I cannot, therefore, conclude to read with Gesenius (Thes. s. v., עֵמֶק), Hitzig and Graf after the LXX., עֲנָקִם (Anakim), much as this reading has in its favor, affording, as it does, a suitable supplementation to “remnant of the coasts of Caphtor,” Jer_47:4, and an appropriate allusion to Gath, the chief residence of the last of these giants (1Sa_17:4; 1Ch_20:5-8). Alterations of the reading are to be permitted only in cases of extreme necessity. The words of Jer_47:6 contain the import of the supplications accompanying the self-woundings. There seems to me to be an intimation that these were the words of the Philistines in the expression of Jehovah (לַיהוָֹה), for though not bad Hebrew, it has a foreign sound and makes the impression that the speakers attribute the sword raging against them only unwillingly and hesitatingly to Jehovah. In Jer_6:25; Jer_12:12, the construction is different.—In Jer_47:7 the prophet, answers the petition of Jer_47:6. In the first clause attaching himself closely to the question, a change of person is thus occasioned, as so often in Jeremiah. Comp. Jer_5:14; Jer_12:13; Jer_17:13; Jer_21:12 (Chethibh), Jer_36:29-30; Jer_46:3; Jer_46:9.—The seashore is used in Eze_25:16 also of Philistia, but it is not impossible that, as Graf supposes, it may refer also to the Phenicians of Jer_47:4. It also intimates that the enemy will advance from the East. Comp. Jer_23:19-20; Jer_48:10; Isa_55:10.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
Among all the neighboring nations the Philistines were those who showed enmity to the Israelites longest and with most success. For from the times of Shamgar (Jdg_3:31) down to Hezekiah (2Ki_18:8), they were both hostile (comp. אֵיבַת עוֹלָם, Eze_25:15), and dangerous neighbors. Even Israel’s great heroic and victorious period, the time of Samuel, Saul and David, did not result in rendering these opponents perfectly innoxious (comp. 1Ki_15:27; 1Ki_16:15; 2Ch_21:16-17; 2Ch_28:18). Ezekiel even mentions them among those who delighted with malicious joy in the fall of Jerusalem. Since now it is perfectly natural that the theocratic prophecy should include the Philistines and reckon the destruction of these old enemies among the bright points in Israel’s future (comp. Isa_11:14; Isa_14:28-29 : Oba_1:19; Amo_1:6; Zep_2:4; Eze_25:15), our prophecy is probably the earliest of Jeremiah’s predictions against foreign nations. As, however, Jeremiah in Jer_47:6 predicts a humbling of the Philistines, so Zechariah their complete conversion to the Lord and their reception into Israel (Jer_9:7).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_47:1. The inviolable majesty of the divine word has nothing to fear from an apparent momentary violation. Jeremiah predicts too the Philistines’ destruction by an enemy from the north, at the moment when an enemy from the south was about successfully to assail them.
2. On Jer_47:3. A noble picture of extreme despair! Comp. Isa_49:15. Yet it has occurred that women have killed and eaten their children: 2Ki_6:28-29. Comp. Deu_28:53-57; Lam_2:20; Lam_4:10.
3. On Jer_47:6. “The terribly pathetic discourse which the prophet here holds with God’s sword, should remind us; 1, that no calamity comes, but by the Lord’s will; 2, that it goes no further than God will; 3, that it will not cease before God will.” Cramer.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer_47:2.—In regard to the construction, there are only two principal verbs from 2 b to 4 a:—וְזָעֲקוּ and הִפּנוּ. Evidently whatever comes before the latter depends on the former, and what follows on the latter.
[2]Jer_47:3.—שְׁעָטָה ἅπ. λεγ. From analogies like לוּץ and בוּם ,לָעַז and קוּם ,בָּעָט and קָעַם (Samar.), בּוּל and בָּעַל (comp. Fuerst, H.- W.- B., s. v. בּוּל) there can be no doubt that the radix is identical with שׁוּט, which appears to me, according to שׁוָט, flagellum, שָׁטִים (Eze_27:8, remiges, remigare—remis percutere), שָׁטִים (strike out, discurrere), to have the radical signification of “beating.”
[3]Jer_47:3.—אביריז. Comp. rems. on Jer_46:15.
[4]Jer_47:3.—רעשׁ לרכבו The construction with לִ seems to proceed here from a striving after change. Otherwise in Jer_47:6. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 67, 2.
[5]Jer_47:3.—רִפיון is ἅπ. λεγ.
[6]Jer_47:4.—להכרית. Comp. Jer_44:7. We should expect כּל עזֵֹר שָׂריד. But the radical meaning of שריד is not reliquus, but elapsus. Hence the meaning of the expression is not “every helper remaining,” but “every escaped one that might help,” i.e. even the weakest, separated, ineffective helper.
[7]Jer_47:5.—If we should take נדְמְתָה in the sense of “being destroyed,” the prophet must have suddenly dropped his figure. I therefore take דָּמָה, with Graf, in its original meaning=דָּמַם (comp. Psa_49:13), and regard this being made dumb as a lower grade, or preliminary, of destruction, for Philistia still supplicates and according to Jer_47:7 b the enemy has still to take Ashkelon and the sea-coast.
[8]Jer_47:6.—האספּי, put up thyself. Comp. Ezek. 21:35.
[9]Jer_47:7.—The emphatic repetition of the object by שָׁם is the reverse of the anticipatory construction, which occurs more frequently in Jeremiah. Comp. Jer_9:14; Jer_11:15; Jer_41:3; Jer_51:56, etc.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–7 waters-- (Isa 8:7). The Chaldeans from the north are…
waters-- (Isa 8:7). The Chaldeans from the north are compared to the overwhelming waters of their own Euphrates. The smiting of Gaza was to be only the prelude of a greater disaster to the Philistines. Nebuzara-dan was left by Nebuchadnezzar, after he had taken Jerusalem, to subdue the rest of the adjoining cities and country.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–7 THE TITLE, Jer_47:1.
THE TITLE, Jer_47:1.
1. The word of the Lord… against the Philistines — “The prophecy against Philistia was one of those contained in Jehoiakim’s roll, but there are many difficulties connected with the superscription, owing to our ignorance of contemporaneous history.” — Dean Smith.
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Before that Pharaoh smote Gaza — Probably Pharaoh-necho, after his defeat at Carchemish. The possession of this stronghold might enable him to hold in check his conquering enemy, and thus serve as a protection to his own land. With this view this prophecy would come between the battle of Carchemish and the capture of Gaza.
THE PROPHECY OF RUIN, 2-7.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1. This v. in LXX consists simply of the…
1. This v. in LXX consists simply of the words “Concerning the Philistines.” At any rate we shall probably be right in considering “before that … Gaza” as a gloss added by a scribe who had regard to Jer_47:5, but failing to see that the disaster there spoken of was to come on Gaza from the north, not from Egypt, identified it with Pharaoh-neco’s capture of “Kadytis,” probably Gaza (Herod. II. 159), after the battle of Megiddo (b.c. 608).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 (1) Against the Philistines.—Here also we have, as in…
XLVII.
(1) Against the Philistines.—Here also we have, as in the preceding chapter, a message connected with Jer_25:20. The Gaza of this verse is the Azzah of that, and the date is fixed at a time prior to Necho’s attack on that city. Writers who, like Hitzig, identify the Oadytis of Herod. ii. 159, 3:5, with Gaza, suppose his attack to have been made on his return from his victory at Carchemish. The date of the prophecy is thus fixed in the interval between the two events. Eze_25:15 should be compared as a contemporary and parallel prediction.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–7 It is clear from the contents of the prophecy…
It is clear from the contents of the prophecy (and the inference is thoroughly confirmed by its position) that it was written after the battle of Carchemish, with reference to the dreaded northern foe Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. The prophecy against Egypt precedes, because Egypt was by far the most important of the nations threatened by the advance of Nebuchadnezzar. But chronologically and geographically, it ought rather to have been placed at the end of the series, for Palestine had to be conquered before a design upon Egypt could have a reasonable chance of success. The commentators have given themselves much unnecessary trouble with the heading in ver. 1, which assigns the date of the prophecy to a period prior (as it would seem) to the battle of Carchemish. They forget that the headings are not to be received without criticism as historical evidence for the date of the prophecies. Knowing, as we do, that the prophecies were edited, not only by the disciples of the prophets, but by students of the Scriptures long after their time, it is gratuitously embarrassing one"s self to give as much historical weight to the statement of a heading as to a clear inference from the contents of a prophecy. No doubt Providence watched over the movements of the editors; they must even be credited with a degree of inspiration, so far as moral and religious truths are concerned; but they were not exempt from being dependent on the ordinary sources of information in matters of history. It would seem, then, that, out of the various sieges of Gaza in the last century of the Jewish state, one in particular had fixed itself in the memory of the Jews; and it was not a siege by the Babylonians, but by the Egyptians. Seeing a reference to Gaza in ver. 5, a late editor of Jeremiah appended to the heading already in existence the words, "before that Pharaoh smote Gaza." He was wrong in so doing, but he only carried out, like many favourite modern preachers, what has been called the atomistic method of exegesis, by which a single verse is isolated from its context, and interpreted with total disregard of the rest of the passage.
But which Pharaoh did this editor mean? and when did he lay siege to Gaza? The general view is that he means Pharaoh-necho, who, according to Herodotus (2:159), first defeated "the Syrians at Magdolus," and then "made himself master of Cadytis, a large city of Syria." It is assumed that Magdolus is a mistake for Megiddo, and that Cadytis means Gaza; and the former supposition is probable enough (a similar confusion has been made by certain manuscripts at Mat_15:39; comp. the Authorized and Revised Versions); but the latter is rather doubtful. It is true that in 3:5 Herodotus speaks of "the country from Phoenicia to the borders of the city Cadyfis" as belonging to "the Palestine Syrians;" but is it not more probable that Herodotus mistook the position of Jerusalem (Cadushta, "the holy (city)," in Aramaic) than that he called Gaza "a city almost as large as Sardis"? Gaza was never called" the holy city;" Jerusalem was. Sir Gardner Wilkinson (ap. Rawlinson"s "Herodotus") takes a different view. According to him (and to Rashi long before) it was Pharaoh-hophra or Apries who captured Gaza. We know from Herodotus (2:161) that this king waged war with Phoenicia, which is, perhaps, to be taken in connection with the notice in Jer_37:5, Jer_37:11, of the diversion created by an Egyptian army during the siege of Jerusalem. This hypothesis is to a certain extent confirmed by the mention of "Tyrus and Zidon" in ver. 4, but stands in much need of some direct historical confirmation.
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Against the Philistines; rather, concerning (as usual in similar cases). Before that Pharaoh, etc. (see introduction to chapter).
Vers. 1-7. The judgment of the Philistines.
I A JUDGMENT ON THE ANCIENT ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. They have long ceased to be a power; now they shall cease to have any national existence. They are but a remnant; even this is to be cut off. Gradually the spiritual foes of the Christian are reduced in power and number. Old sins and old temptations are slowly subdued. Some linger on till the end of life. But all shall be overthrown, even the last enemy, death.
II AN OVERWHELMING JUDGMENT. It comes up like a flood; i.e. it is swift, and it spreads far and wide. Such is a characteristic of Divine judgments.
1. They may be long delayed, but when they appear they rush down as a flood.
2. They penetrate to secret hiding places and flow to the most remote quarters, reaching those who would fain separate themselves from their companions in sin when they are forced to be also companions in suffering.
III A DISTRESSING JUDGMENT. The Philistines suffer grief they cry and howl; these people are also smitten with the paralysis of fear fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands" (ver. 3). Some troubles can be endured and lived down by fortitude, by patient submission, or by the comforting resources of the inner life. But this is not possible with the judgments of Heaven. They are too terrific to be calmly endured. The inner sources of consolation are withheld. The soul is punished as well as the body. There is the bitterest drop in the cup of anguish. The soul will be tortured with shame, with remorse, with horror. That is hell.
IV A DESTRUCTIVE JUDGMENT. "Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off." Great cities are overthrown, the ruins of them testifying to this day to the violence they have undergone. The end of the broad way is destruction. "The wages of sin is death. Whatever be the exact character of the destruction and death, the analogy of national judgment and the known deadening effects of sin upon the spiritual, the intellectual, and even the physical powers lead us to expect that the fearful fate of sin continued, unchecked, and unrepented of through all stages of chastisement will be some destroying process.
V AN ENDURING JUDGMENT. "Alas! thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet?" (ver. 6). Philistia has never been restored. Some judgments appear to be irretrievable. All punishment must be sufficiently enduring to effect its end. The punishment of the next world is always referred to as terribly enduring, as partaking of the awful duration of aeons. How long such vague, vast ages will last none can say. May it not be the fate of any of us to make the experiment!
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv5–6 How long wilt thou cut thyself?
Jer_47:5
How long wilt thou cut thyself?
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The tender inquiry of a friend
Travellers in the East tell us that among the most melancholy scenes they witness is the following:--Men inflict upon themselves very grievous, voluntary wounds, and then exhibit themselves in public. They even disfigure themselves with gashes m me presence of excited throngs. I am speaking of what has occurred even within, the last few years among the Moslems. When some great prophet or emir is coming that way, a certain number of fanatical Mahometans take swords, spears, and other sharp instruments, and gash themselves terribly therewith, cutting their breasts, their faces, their heads, and all parts of their bodies. Frequently they have taken care to dress themselves in white sheets, in order that, as the blood flows copiously from their bodies, it may be the more clearly seen, that they may become the more ghastly spectacles of misery, or the more fully display the religious excitement under which they labour. As everything in the East remains for ever the same, thin Moslem superstition carries us back to the olden times whereof we read in the Old Testament, when the priests of Baal, having cried in vain to their idol, cut themselves with lances and with knives. Our translators were probably afraid to write the harsher words, and so they translated the passage knives and lances, but they might have written swords and spears sharp instruments of a desperate character. Thus they displayed their inward zeal, and thus, perhaps, they hoped to move the pity of their god. The Lord expressly forbade His people, the Jews, to perpetrate such folly. They were not even to shave the corners of their beards, or to hack their hair, as the Orientals do in the hour of their grief; and then they were further prohibited from injuring their bodies by the command (Lev_19:28). Men in Eastern lands, not only in connection with fanaticism, but in reference to domestic affairs, will cut themselves to express their grief and anguish, or to make other people believe that they are feeling such grief and anguish. We may congratulate ourselves that we are free from at least one foolish custom. The prophet here speaks to the Philistines who were about to endure the tremendous judgments of God, and, indeed, to be crushed Out as a nation by the Egyptians and the Chaldeans; and he says to Philistia How long wilt thou cut thyself? How long would they continue to bring upon themselves such terrible judgments?
I. I shall ask this question very despairingly--How long wilt thou cut thyself?--for many are cutting themselves very terribly, and will have to feel the wounds thereof for a long time, neither can we induce them to cease therefrom.
1. I allude, first, to some professors of religion who have been Church members for ten, twenty, or more years, and yet have practically done nothing at all for the Saviour. If they were really to awaken to a sense of their neglect, I do not know how long- they would be in anguish, or how deep would be their distress; for if Titus mourned that he had lost a day when he had done no good action for twenty-four hours, and he but a heathen, what would happen to a Christian if he were really to see his responsibility before God, and to feel that he has not only lost a day but a year--perhaps many years? Have not some of you well-nigh lost a whole lifetime?
2. The same may be applied, and applied very solemnly, too, to those who backslide--who, in addition to being- useless, are injurious, because their example tends to hinder others from coming to Christ. Oh, if any of you that name the name of Jesus, and have been happy in His service, and have enjoyed high days and holy days in His presence, turn aside, I shall use this lamentation over you! You will do yourselves terrible injury, and I shall shudder as I see the edged tools of sin in your reckless hands. Every sin is a gash in the soul. The Lord will bring you back and save you, as I believe; but oh, how long will you cut yourselves?
3. There is one thing which comes after these, and comes in connection with them. If you and I should know that souls have been lost--lost as far as we are concerned--through our neglect, how long- shall we cut ourselves on that account? Fathers, if you have never sought to bring your children to repentance, how will you excuse yourselves? If you have never prayed with them, or wept with them--if you have never even instructed them in the things of God, what flattering unction will you lay to your guilty consciences? What will you say, mother, if your daughter passes into eternity unforgiven, and you have never tried to lead her to Jesus?
4. One other most solemn use may be made of this question God grant that it may never be so, but if any one of you should die in his sins, how long will you regret it, think you? Oh, thou who hast lost eternal life, how long wilt thou cut thyself? If thou shouldst miss Christ, and miss mercy, and miss heaven, and miss eternal glory, if there were naught else, how long wilt thou bemoan thyself? With what depth of anguish wilt thou smart to have lost all this--to have, in fact, lost all which makes up life and joy!
II. i shall ask this question hopefully, trusting that in many their sorrow is nearing- its end.
1. This text may be very profitably and prudently applied to those who have been bereaved, and who, being bereaved, sorrow, and sorrow to excess. How long wilt thou cut thyself? Is not thy child in Jesus bosom? Has not thy friend gone among the angels, to join the sweet singers of God? Is it not a gain to the departed, though it be a loss to thee, that they are translated to the place of everlasting bliss?
2. Turning to quite another character, I would use the same expression for another purpose. There are some persons with whom God is dealing in great love, and yet they are very rebellious. How long wilt thou cut thyself? Already they have met with great disasters and misfortunes: they will meet with many more when the dogs are out hunting, they run in packs. The plagues of Egypt are ten at least, and every one who plays the Pharaoh may expect the full number.
3. I might use this expression even to the Jewish nation itself. Ah, God, through what seas of trouble have they had to swim since the day when they said, His blood be on us, and on our children!
4. But, now, all this has rather kept me from my main design, which is to speak to those dear friends of ours who are afflicting their souls with needless fears. No good can possibly come by a continuance in their unhappy moods: they are cutting themselves quite needlessly. They might at once have peace, and rest, and joy if they were willing to accept the Lord s gracious way of salvation. Despairing and desponding are not commanded in the Gospel, but they are forbidden by it. Do not cultivate these gross follies, these deadly sins. Do not multiply these poisonous weeds--this hemlock and this darnel--as if they were fair flowers of paradise. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Jeremiah 47
CHAPTER XVIII
THE PHILISTINES
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Jeremiah 47
"O sword of Jehovah, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be still."- Jer_47:6
ACCORDING to the title placed at the head of this prophecy, it was uttered "before Pharaoh smote Gaza." The Pharaoh is evidently Pharaoh Necho, and this capture of Gaza was one of the incidents of the campaign which opened with the victory at Megiddo and concluded so disastrously at Carchemish. Our first impulse is to look for some connection between this incident and the contents of the prophecy: possibly the editor who prefixed the heading may have understood by the northern enemy Pharaoh Necho on his return from Carchemish; but would Jeremiah have described a defeated army thus?
"Behold, waters rise out of the north, and become an overflowing torrent;
They overflow the land, and all that is therein, the city and its inhabitants.
Men cry out, and all the inhabitants of the land howl,
At the sound of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,
At the rattling of his chariots and the rumbling of his wheels."
Here as elsewhere the enemy from the north is Nebuchadnezzar. Pharaohs might come and go, winning victories and taking cities, but these broken reeds count for little; not they, but the king of Babylon is the instrument of Jehovahs supreme purpose. The utter terror caused by the Chaldean advance is expressed by a striking figure:-
"The fathers look not back to their children for slackness of hands."
Their very bodies are possessed and crippled with fear, their palsied muscles cannot respond to the impulses of natural affection; they can do nothing but hurry on in headlong flight, unable to look round or stretch out a helping hand to their children:-
"Because of the day that cometh for the spoiling of all the Philistines,
For cutting off every ally that remaineth unto Tyre and Zidon:
For Jehovah spoileth the Philistines the remnant of the coast of Caphtor.
Baldness cometh upon Gaza; Ashkelon is destroyed:
O remnant of the Anakim, how long wilt thou cut thyself?"
This list is remarkable both for what it includes and what it omits. In order to understand the reference to Tyre and Zidon, we must remember that Nebuchadnezzars expedition was partly directed against these cities, with which the Philistines had evidently been allied. The Chaldean king would hasten the submission of the Phoenicians, by cutting off all hope of succour from without. There are various possible reasons why out of the five Philistine cities only two-Ashkelon and Gaza-are mentioned; Ekron, Gath, and Ashdod may have been reduced to comparative insignificance. Ashdod had recently been taken by Psammetichus after a twenty-nine years siege. Or the names of two of these cities may be given by way of paronomasia in the text: Ashdod may be suggested by the double reference to the spoiling and the spoiler, Shdod and Shoded; Gath may be hinted at by the word used for the mutilation practised by mourners, Tithgoddadi, and by the mention of the Anakim, who are connected with Gath, Ashdod, and Gaza in Jos_11:22.
As Jeremiah contemplates this fresh array of victims of Chaldean cruelty, he is moved to protest against the weary monotony of ruin:-
"O sword of Jehovah, how long will it be ere thou be quiet?
Put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be still."
The prophet ceases to be the mouthpiece of God, and breaks out into the cry of human anguish. How often since, amid the barbarian inroads that overwhelmed the Roman Empire, amid the prolonged horrors of the Thirty Years War, amid the carnage of the French Revolution, men have uttered a like appeal to an unanswering and relentless Providence! Indeed, not in war only, but even in peace, the tide of human misery and sin often seems to flow, century after century, with undiminished volume, and ever and again a vain "How long" is wrung from pallid and despairing lips. For the Divine purpose may not be hindered, and the sword of Jehovah must still strike home.
"How can it be quiet, seeing that Jehovah hath given it a charge?
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore, there hath He appointed it."
Yet Ashkelon survived to be a stronghold of the Crusaders, and Gaza to be captured by Alexander and even by Napoleon. Jehovah has other instruments besides His devastating sword; the victorious endurance and recuperative vitality of men and nations also come from Him.
"Come and let us return unto Jehovah:
For He hath torn, and He will heal us;
He hath smitten, and He will bind us up." {Hos_6:1}
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter.—“Before that…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter.—“Before that Pharaoh smote Gaza” (Jer_47:1); but which Pharaoh? Pharaoh-Necho, on his return from defeating Josiah at Megiddo (2Ch_35:20), or Pharaoh-Hophra, on his return from the fruitless effort to save Jerusalem from the Chaldeans (chap. Jer_37:5; Jer_37:7); or this same Pharaoh-Hophra after his defeat at Carchemish (vide previous chapter, notes)? The probabilities favour Pharaoh-Necho, and date the prophecy before the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Note, that just as an enemy from the north (Egypt) is about to assail Philistia, the prophet predicts the seemingly unlikely and remote fact that an enemy from the north (the Babylonians) should invade and spoil them! Note further, that the country of the Philistines was overrun by the army of Nebuchadnezzar during, or immediately after, the siege of Tyre, while prosecuting his march towards Egypt.
2. Geographical References (Jer_47:1). “Philistines … Gaza.” Philistia bordered upon Egypt, and Pharaoh-Necho seized this on his retreat (defeated by the Chaldeans) from Carchemish; for Gaza was “the key to Egypt,” and his holding this would check the now victorious Chaldeans from invading Egypt itself.
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Jer_47:4. “Tyrus and Zidon.” Neighbours to Philistia, so that the Phœnicians of Tyre and Sidon would naturally become “helpers” to the Philistines, making common cause against the invader, for the overthrow of Philistia carried, as a consequence, the overthrow of Tyre and Sidon also. “The country of Caphtor:” perhaps Crete (so Gesenius), or Cyprus (so Kitto). Others suggest Cappadocia; and the city Caparorsa, situate between Palestine and Idumæa, is pointed out as probable on account of being adjacent.
Jer_47:5. “Ashkelon … their valley.” The “valley” is the inland valley of Philistia as distinguished from her maritime fortresses, Gaza and Askelon.
THE SWORD OF THE LORD UPON PHILISTIA
For ages long had the Philistines embittered the lot of Israel. From the times of Shamgar (Jdg_3:31), down to those of Hezekiah (2Ki_18:8), they were both hostile and dangerous neighbours. Now the day of retribution had arrived, when Philistia’s hostility should be punished. For “God is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering,” &c.
I. The avenging sword—
1. Falls at length, though long sheathed (Jer_47:4). Compare Psa_37:12-13.
2. Is wielded by other hands than we surmise (Jer_47:2). “The north” (see note above to Chronology). God selects His own agencies for punishing men.
II. The smitten sufferers—
1. Paralysed with terror (Jer_47:3). Solicitous for themselves to the forgetting of all natural affection.
2. Destitute of helpers (Jer_47:4). For when God’s sword smites, no confederacy of defence can protect or shield.
3. Abject in grief and dismay (Jer_47:5). “Baldness” a sign of anguish; “cut thyself” the conduct of terrified despair. When God smites, we feel His strokes.
III. The appeal for mercy (Jer_47:6).
1. Though smitten for their sin, men cry out against its punishment.
2. Though prayerless while sinning, men appeal for pity when its chastisements are upon them.
3. Though stubborn against God’s word, sinners cannot hold out long under His “sword.”
IV. The full measure of doom (Jer_47:7).
1. Appointed judgments will be effectually carried out.
2. No pleadings for mercy will stay those judgments when they at last come on the guilty.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v6 Jer 47:6 - Jer 47:7.
Jeremiah
THE SWORD OF THE LORD
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Jer 47:6 - Jer 47:7.
The prophet is here in the full tide of his prophecies against the nations round about. This paragraph is entirely occupied with threatenings. Bearing the cup of woes, he turns to one after another of the ancestral enemies of Israel, Egypt and Philistia on the south and west, Moab on the south and east, then northwards to Ammon, south to Edom, north to Damascus, Kedar, Hagor, Elam, and finally to the great foe-Babylon. In the hour of Israel’s lowest fortunes and the foe’s proudest exultation these predictions are poured out. Jeremiah stands as if wielding the sword of which our text speaks, and whirls and points the flashing terror of its sharpened edge against the ring of foes. It turns every way, like the weapon of the angelic guard before the lost paradise, and wherever it turns a kingdom falls.
In the midst of his stern denunciations he checks himself to utter this plaintive cry of pity and longing. A tender gleam of compassion breaks through the heart of the thunder-cloud. It is very beautiful to note that the point at which the irrepressible welling up of sweet waters breaks the current of his prophecy is the prediction against Israel’s bitterest, because nearest, foe, ‘these uncircumcised Philistines.’ He beholds the sea of wrath drowning the great Philistine plain, its rich harvests trampled under foot by ‘stamping of hoofs of his strong ones,’ and that desolation wrings from his heart the words of our text. I take them to be spoken by the prophet. That, of course, is doubtful. It may be that they are meant to give in a vivid dramatic form the effect of the judgments on the sufferers. They recognise these as ‘the sword of the Lord.’ Their only thought is an impatient longing that the judgments would cease,-no confession of sin, no humbling of them selves, but only-’remove Thy hand from us.’
And the answer is either the prophet’s or the divine voice; spoken in the one case to himself, in the other to the Philistines; but in either setting forth the impossibility that the sweeping sword should rest, since it is the instrument in God’s hand, executing His charge and fulfilling His appointment.
I. The shrinking from the unsheathed sword of the Lord.
We may deal with the words as representing very various states of mind.
They may express the impatience of sufferers. Afflictions are too often wasted. Whatever the purpose of chastisement, the true lesson of it is so seldom learned, even in regard to the lowest wisdom it is adapted to teach. In an epidemic, how few people learn to take precautions, such as cleanliness or attention to diet! In hard times commercially, how slow most are to learn the warning against luxury, over-trading, haste to be rich! And in regard to higher lessons, men have a dim sense sometimes that the blow comes from God, but, like Balaam, go on their way in spite of the angel with the sword. It does not soften, nor restrain, nor drive to God. The main result is, impatient longing for its removal.
The text may express the rooted dislike to the thought and the fact of punishment as an element in divine government. This is a common phase of feeling always, and especially so now. There is a present tendency, good in many aspects, but excessive, to soften away the thought of punishment; or to suppose that God’s punishments must have the same purposes as men’s. We cannot punish by way of retribution, for no balance of ours is fine enough to weigh motives or to determine criminality. Our punishments can only be deterrent or reformatory, but this is by reason of our weakness. He has other objects in view.
Current ideas of the love of God distort it by pitting it against His retributive righteousness. Current ideas of sin diminish its gravity by tracing it to heredity or environment, or viewing it as a necessary stage in progress. The sense of God’s judicial action is paralysed and all but dead in multitudes.
All these things taken together set up a strong current of opinion against any teaching of punitive energy in God.
The text may express the pitying reluctance of the prophet.
Jeremiah is remarkable for the weight with which ‘the burden of the Lord’ pressed upon him. The true prophet feels the pang of the woes which he is charged to announce more than his hearers do.
Unfair charges are made against gospel preachers, as if they delighted in the thought of the retribution which they have to proclaim.
II. The solemn necessity for the unsheathing of the sword.
The judgments must go on. In the text the all-sufficient reason given is that God has willed it so. But we must take into account all that lies in that name of ‘Lord’ before we understand the message, which brought patience to the heart of the prophet. If a Jewish prophet believed anything, he believed that the will of the Lord was absolutely good. Jeremiah’s reason for the flashing sword is no mere beating down human instincts, by alleging a will which is sovereign, and there an end. We have to take into account the whole character of Him who has willed it, and then we can discern it to be inevitable that God should punish evil.
His character makes it inevitable. God’s righteousness cannot but hate sin and fight against it. To leave it unpunished stains His glory.
God’s love cannot but draw and wield the sword. It is unsheathed in the interests of all that is ‘lovely and of good report.’ If God is God at all, and not an almighty devil, He must hate sin. The love and the righteousness, which in deepest analysis are one, must needs issue in punishment. There would be a blight over the universe if they did not.
The very order of the universe makes it inevitable. All things, as coming from Him, must work for His lovers and against His enemies, as ‘the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.’
The constitution of men makes it inevitable. Sin brings its own punishment, in gnawing conscience, defiled memories, incapacity for good, and many other penalties.
It is to be remembered that the text originally referred to retribution on nations for national sins, and that what Jeremiah regarded as the strokes of the Lord might be otherwise regarded as political catastrophes. Let us not overlook that application of the principles of the text. Scripture regards the so-called ‘natural consequences’ of a nation’s sins as God’s judgments on them. The Christian view of the government of the world looks on all human affairs as moved by God, though done by men. It takes full account of the responsibility of men the doers, but above all, recognises ‘the rod and Him who hath appointed it.’ We see exemplified over and over again in the world’s history the tragic truth that the accumulated consequences of a nation’s sins fall on the heads of a single generation. Slowly, drop by drop, the cup is filled. Slowly, moment by moment, the hand moves round the dial, and then come the crash and boom of the hammer on the deep-toned bell. Good men should pray not, ‘Put up thyself into thy scabbard,’ but, ‘Gird Thy sword on Thy thigh, O thou most mighty. . . on behalf of truth and meekness and righteousness.’
III. The sheathing of the sword.
The passionate appeal in the text, which else is vain, has in large measure its satisfaction in the work of Christ.
God does not delight in punishment. He has provided a way. Christ bears the consequence of man’s sin, the sense of alienation, the pains and sorrows, the death. He does not bear them for Himself. His bearing them accomplishes the ends at which punishment aims, in expressing the divine hatred of sin and in subduing the heart. Trusting in Him, the sword does not fall on us. In some measure indeed it still does. But it is no longer a sword to smite, but a lancet to inflict a healing wound. And the worst punishment does not fall on us. God’s sword was sheathed in Christ’s breast. So trust in Him, then shall you have ‘boldness in the day of judgment.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Against Philistia
Against Philistia
The Chaldean armed men with horses and chariots shall carry terror and desolation into Philistia and its cities.
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1. Before that Pharaoh smote Gaza] The main views as to the date of this prophecy are (a) that the 'Pharaoh 'is Necho, and that he captured Gaza about the time of his defeat of Josiah's army at Megiddo (608 b.c.); (b) that the reference is to the same king, as having taken Gaza on his way back from his defeat at Carchemish (605 b.c.); (c) that the 'Pharaoh' is Hophra (588-570 b.c.), and that he captured Gaza in the course of an expedition against Tyre and Sidon.
2. Waters.. out of the north] i.e. the Chaldean army.
4. Caphtor] the place of origin of the Philistines (see Deu_2:28; Amo_9:7), probably to be identified with Crete.
5. Baldness] in token of mourning: cp. Jer_48:37. Cut thyself] see on Jer_16:6.
6. The prayer of the Philistines.
7. Jere- miah's reply.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Concerning the Philistines
CHAPTER 47
Concerning the Philistines
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This brief chapter is concerning the inhabitants of the borderland of Canaan, called Philistia. This announced judgment was fulfilled a short time after it was spoken by the prophet.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Prophecy against the Philistines.
Prophecy against the Philistines.
v. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah, the prophet, against the Philistines, the ancient enemies of the people of Israel on the west, along the shores of the Mediterranean, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza. The exact occasion of this conquest is a matter of conjecture. It may be that Pharaoh-necho took the city after the battle of Megiddo, or that Pharaoh-hophra smote the city after his vain attempt to drive the Chaldeans out of the country. At any rate, Gaza was strong enough after its conquest by Pharaoh to be an object of anxious concern and to demand stern measures on account of its opposition to Jehovah.
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v. 2. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, waters rise up out of the North, namely, the Chaldean armies, and shall be an overflowing flood and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and them that dwell therein, like a winter torrent, carrying everything before it. Then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl, for terror at the impending calamity. The figurative description is now explained.
v. 3. At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, all expressive of the Chaldean power, the fathers shall not look back to their children, thereby denying even the natural affections, for feebleness of hands, a general powerlessness having taken hold of them, making it impossible for them even to think of defending themselves,
v. 4. because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth, so that all the allies would withdraw their assistance; for the Lord will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor, most likely Crete; for it was from this island that the Philistines, although descended from the Mizraim, Gen 10:13-14, originally emigrated to the shores of the Mediterranean. Cf Amo 9:7; Deu 2:23.
v. 5. Baldness is come upon Gaza, one of the city-states of Philistia, due to tearing out the hair because of great grief; Ashkelon, another of the Philistine cities, is cut off with the remnant of their valley, the long coastal plain which was the territory of Philistia. How long wilt thou cut thyself? with incisions in the flesh, after the manner in which the heathen expressed the height of sorrow and mourning.
v. 6. O thou sword of the Lord, so the prophet apostrophizes Jehovah’s weapon of punishment, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? desisting from further slaughter. Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. But the prophet, after addressing the sword in the second person, turns to his hearers and explains in the third person why this deliverance is impossible, why God cannot rest, desist from punishing.
v. 7. How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the seashore? Not only Philistia, but also Phenecia was included in the Lord’s punishment. There hath He appointed it, ordering the sword of His anger to work havoc against these obstinate enemies of His plans; for those who rebel against His authority make themselves subject to His condemnation.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5 This is the word of Yahweh that came to…
This is the word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah
The idiom "the word of Yahweh that came to" is used to introduce a special message from God. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 14:1, and make any changes as needed. AT: "This is the message that Yahweh gave to Jeremiah" or "This is the message that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah" (See: Idiom)
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This word came to him
The idiom "this word came to" is used to introduce a special message from God. AT: "Yahweh gave this message to Jeremiah" or "Yahweh spoke this message to Jeremiah" (See: Idiom)
before Pharaoh
Here "Pharaoh" represents the Egyptians army. AT: "before Pharaoh's army" (See: Metonymy)
See
The word "see" alerts us to pay attention to what is about to be said.
floods of water are rising in the north. They will be like an overflowing river!
The two phrases have a similar meaning. The enemy army is spoken of as if it were a flood. AT: "an army in the north will come like a flood. They will be powerful like an overflowing river" (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)
they will overflow the land
This continues speaking of the army from the north as an overflowing river. AT: "like an overflowing river, the army from the north will destroy the land" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word of God
Jeremiah
prophet
Philistines
Pharaoh
Gaza
flood
water
lament
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 47:1-7 This message from the Lord was directed against…
47:1-7 This message from the Lord was directed against the Philistine cities along the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and their allies farther north. The Lord had determined that these cities would be destroyed in connection with the Babylonian invasion of the area.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.