Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 47

Verses 1-7

JEREMIAH - CHAPTER 47

AN ORACLE CONCERNING PHPISTIA

The Philistines had been Israel’s closest and most per­petual enemy.

Though their power had been considerably diminished during the reign of David, they had managed to maintain their national status.

1. Though this prophecy cannot be dated exactly, it was evidently given between 609-605 B.C.

2 The overflowing flood that Jeremiah sees rising out of the north is a poetic description of the Chaldean army which overwhelms everything that is in its path, (vs. 2a; Jeremiah 46:8; Isaiah 14:31; comp. Isaiah 8:7­8).

3. So utterly terrorized are the Phpistines by the approaching Chaldeans, so vividly described by Jeremiah in verse 3, that strong men cry out in fear, and fathers abandon their children to destruction, in an effort to flee!

4. The time has come for Philistia to be destroyed, and for every potential helper of Tyre and Sidon to be cut off; it is the Lord Himself who is bringing consuming judgment upon the Philistines - a people who evidently sprang from Caphtor (possibly referring to Crete of Cilicia, vs. 4; comp. Amos 9:7; Deuteronomy 2:23).

5. Mourning has come upon the enemies of Israel before whose overwhelming physical superiority they once regarded themselves as "grasshoppers", (vs. 5; Jeremiah 16:6; Deuteronomy 14:1; Micah 1:16 Numbers 13:22; Numbers 13:28; Numbers 13:33; Joshua 11:21-22; Judges 1:20).

6. It appears that verse 6 is a plea from the Philistines for the Lord to put His sword of judgment back into its scabbard that they might find rest.

7. But Jeremiah replies that since the Lord has given it a charge against Ashkelon, there is no way that it can be quiet until its appointed task it accomplished!