Jeremiah
Chapter 47
This short chapter is a message from God about the Philistines, a people living on the coast southwest of Judah. An army is pictured as a flood pouring down from the north, so terrifying that fathers run without turning back for their children. Gaza and Ashkelon, two Philistine cities, mourn, and the chapter ends with a question: how can the sword stop when God has ordered it to strike?
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
1This is the message the LORD gave to Jeremiah the prophet about the Philistines. It came before Pharaoh attacked the city of Gaza.
Pharaoh is the title of the king of Egypt, not a personal name.
2Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
2This is what the LORD says: Look, waters are rising in the north. They will become a flood that spills over the land and everything in it, over the cities and the people living in them. The people will cry out, and everyone in the land will wail.
3At 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, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
3They will cry at the pounding hooves of the war horses, the rushing chariots, and the rumble of their wheels. Fathers will not even turn back for their children, because their hands hang weak with fear.
4Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
4For the day is coming when all the Philistines will be destroyed. Every ally still left to the cities of Tyre and Sidon will be cut off. The LORD is destroying the Philistines, the people who are left from the shores of Caphtor.
Caphtor is most likely the island of Crete. The Philistines were remembered as coming from there by sea.
5Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
5The people of Gaza shave their heads in grief. Ashkelon is silenced. You who are left in the valley, how long will you cut yourselves?
Shaving the head and cutting the skin were public ways of showing deep grief in that part of the world.
6O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
6You cry out, "Sword of the LORD, how long until you rest? Go back into your case. Stop, and be still."
7How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
7But how can it rest, when the LORD has given it an order? He has sent it against Ashkelon and against the seacoast.
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