# Jeremiah 47 📖: Judgment on the Philistines
[[📚 Explore the Bible Books]]
[[-Jeremiah Overview]] | [[Jeremiah 46]] | [[Jeremiah 48]]
> [!info] Table of Contents
> [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]]
> [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]]
> [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]]
> [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]]
> [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]]
> [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]]
> [[#💬 Discussion Questions]]
> [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]]
> [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]]
> [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]]
> [[#📂 Internal Notes]]
## 📜 Scripture Text (NET)
(The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005)
### Judgment on the Philistine Cities
[[#Verse 01.]] This was the Lord’s message to the prophet Jeremiah about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:
[[#Verse 02.]] “Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river.
They will be like an overflowing stream.
They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood.
They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants.
People will cry out in alarm.
Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.
[[#Verse 03.]] Fathers will hear the hoofbeats of the enemies’ horses,
the clatter of their chariots and the rumbling of their wheels.
They will not turn back to save their children
because they will be paralyzed with fear.
[[#Verse 04.]] For the time has come
to destroy all the Philistines.
The time has come to destroy all the help
that remains for Tyre and Sidon.
For I, the Lord, will destroy the Philistines,
that remnant that came from the island of Crete.
[[#Verse 05.]] The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning.
The people of Ashkelon will be struck dumb.
How long will you gash yourselves to show your sorrow,
you who remain of Philistia’s power?
[[#Verse 06.]]How long will you cry out, ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,
how long will it be before you stop killing?
Go back into your sheath;
stay there and rest!’
[[#Verse 07.]] But how can it rest
when I, the Lord, have given it orders?
I have ordered it to attack
the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast.”
## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary
###### Overall.
###### Verse 01.
###### Verse 02.
###### Verse 03.
###### Verse 04.
###### Verse 05.
###### Verse 06.
###### Verse 07.
## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights
1. This oracle came before Pharaoh attacked Gaza (47:1), though the exact Pharaoh and date are debated.
2. The enemy is pictured as floodwaters rising from the north (47:2), meaning Babylon.
3. The thunder of horses' hooves and rumbling chariots would make fathers too weak to turn back for their children (47:3).
4. Caphtor (47:4) is usually identified as Crete, the place the Philistines came from (Amos 9:7).
5. Tyre and Sidon are mentioned as allies who would lose their helpers (47:4).
6. Gaza would shave its head and Ashkelon would be silenced (47:5), both signs of mourning.
7. Cutting oneself (47:5) was a pagan mourning rite.
8. The Babylonian Chronicle records Nebuchadnezzar destroying Ashkelon in 604 BC.
9. After the Babylonian period, the Philistines no longer appear as a distinct people in history.
10. Gaza later appears in the New Testament when Philip is sent on the road to Gaza and leads an Ethiopian official to Christ (Acts 8:26-39).
## 🧠 Chapter Summary
> [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way.
## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter
Christ is the One who brings the sword of judgment to rest. The prophet cried, "Sword of the Lord, how long until you are quiet?" (47:6), and Jesus bore judgment Himself so that we have peace with God (Romans 5:1).
## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application
> [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way.
## 💬 Discussion Questions
1. Fathers fled without looking back at their children (47:3). What does this picture say about the terror of judgment?
2. The prophet asks the sword of the Lord, "How long?" (47:6). How do we wrestle with God's judgments in a broken world?
3. The Philistines were long-time enemies of Israel, yet God is Lord over them too (47:4). How does God's rule over all nations shape your view of history?
## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember
- 📖 verse 2: Waters rise from the north and become an overflowing torrent.
- 📖 verse 4: The Lord is destroying the Philistines, the remnant from the coastland of Caphtor.
- 📖 verse 6: Sword of the Lord, how long until you are quiet?
## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference
- 🔗 [[Romans 05#Verse 01.|Romans 5:1]] - We have peace with God through Jesus.
- 🔗 [[Amos 01#Verse 06.|Amos 1:6-8]] - Judgment on Gaza and Ashkelon.
- 🔗 [[Zephaniah 02#Verse 04.|Zephaniah 2:4-7]] - Gaza will be abandoned.
- 🔗 [[Acts 08#Verse 26.|Acts 8:26]] - The road to Gaza.
- 🔗 [[Amos 09#Verse 07.|Amos 9:7]] - God brought the Philistines from Caphtor.
## 🙏 Devotional Reflection
📝 SOAP: [[Jeremiah 47 - SOAP|Prepare for the Future]]
## 📂 Internal Notes