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Jeremiah 47

The Lord's message about the Philistines

1 The Lord gave this message to the prophet Jeremiah before Pharaoh and the army of Egypt attacked Gaza. The Lord said this about the Philistines:

2 ‘Look at what is happening!

Armies in the north are rising like a flood of water.

They will pour out from there like a great river.

They will cover the whole land and everything in it.

They will destroy the cities and the people who live in them.

People will shout for help.

Everyone who lives there will cry with pain.

3 They will hear the sound of their enemies' horses

and the loud noises of their chariots.

Fathers will not turn back to save their children,

because fear has made them weak.

4 The time has come when the Lord will destroy all the Philistines.

None of them will remain to give help to Tyre and Sidon.

The Lord is ready to destroy the Philistines who remain.

Those are the people who came from the island of Crete.

47:4The Philistines were enemies of Israel. They had come from the island of Crete. See Amos 9:7. They lived in the country west of Israel, near the Mediterranean Sea. Tyre and Sidon were cities on the coast. Now the Lord will use the armies of Babylon from the north, to destroy them.

5 The people of Gaza will cut the hair off their heads

because they are so upset.

In Ashkelon, nobody will say a word.

You Philistines who live near the sea and are still alive,

will you continue to cut your bodies?

47:5The Philistines would cut themselves to show that they were sad or upset.

6 You shout to the Lord, “How long will you attack us with your sword?

Please stop killing us! Put your sword away!”

7 But the Lord has commanded his sword to kill.

So it cannot rest!

The Lord has commanded his sword to attack Ashkelon

and the people who live on the coast of the sea.’