Jeremiah 47

Jeremiah turns to the Philistines, Israel’s old neighbors on the coast. God says a flood of invasion from the north will sweep over them, and no ally will save them. The chapter ends with the sword of the LORD, which will not rest until it has done what he has commanded.

Jeremiah 47:1

This is a message from God about the Philistines, given through Jeremiah. It is tied to a time before Pharaoh struck Gaza. The nations are not outside God’s notice. He speaks about them and governs their rise and fall.

BSA: word (“message from God, declaration”): What follows is God’s own declaration, not Jeremiah’s opinion or a political forecast.

See also: Jeremiah 1:10.

Jeremiah 47:2

God pictures an invading army as rising floodwater. It begins as a stream and becomes a torrent that covers fields, cities and people. The north is the direction from which Jeremiah’s other warnings come. No one escapes, and all cry out in distress.

BSA: north (“the direction of divine judgment”): In Jeremiah, trouble from the north means judgment that God himself is sending. overflowing torrent (“a flood, a deluge”): The picture is of a flood nobody can hold back once it is released.

See also: Isaiah 8:7-8; Jeremiah 1:14.

Jeremiah 47:3

The terror is shown through sound: pounding horses, rumbling chariots and rattling wheels. The fear is so great that fathers do not turn back to rescue their children. Their hands hang limp. Panic strips away even the strongest natural instinct.

BSA: limp (“feeble, weak”): The strength drains from the hands, so the people are helpless even to protect their own.

Jeremiah 47:4

God has set a day for the Philistines to be destroyed. Tyre and Sidon, their trading partners, will lose them as allies, so help from outside will fail. The Philistines came originally from Caphtor, thought to be Crete. Their last remnant will fall.

BSA: day (“of reckoning, a time of judgment”): This is an appointed day when God settles accounts, not a chance event. ally (“helper, supporter”): The Philistines’ human supports will be cut away just when they are needed most.

See also: Amos 9:7.

Jeremiah 47:5

Grief shows itself in bodily signs. Gaza shaves its head, and Ashkelon, a major Philistine city, falls silent. The survivors cut themselves in mourning, a custom God forbade his own people. The question ‘how long?’ shows how endless the sorrow feels.

BSA: silenced (“cease, brought to nothing”): Ashkelon’s busy life is brought to a sudden, deathly quiet. gash (“cut, wound”): Their mourning turns to self-harm, which shows how deep and hopeless the grief is.

See also: Leviticus 19:28.

Jeremiah 47:6

The people cry out to the sword of the LORD, begging it to go back into its sheath and be still. They speak to the sword because it is the tool of the God they have not sought. It is a picture of desperate pleading, but the plea is aimed at the wrong place.

BSA: sheath (“scabbard, resting place”): They ask the blade to return to its place of rest, hoping the killing will stop.

See also: Isaiah 34:5-6.

Jeremiah 47:7

The answer is simple: the sword cannot rest because the LORD has given it a charge. He has appointed it against Ashkelon and the coast. Judgment is not random. It carries out God’s purpose. The reader sees that God is in command, and nothing moves outside his orders.

BSA: commanded (“given a charge, appointed”): The sword has a task assigned by God and does not act on its own. appointed (“assigned, designated”): God has chosen the place and the target, so the outcome is certain.

See also: Ezekiel 21:3-5.