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Judgment on the Philistines47 The word of the L ord that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza: 2 Thus says the L ord: See, waters are rising out of the north and shall become an overflowing torrent; they shall overflow the land and all that fills it, the city and those who live in it. People shall cry out, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail. 3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, at the clatter of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels, parents do not turn back for children, so feeble are their hands, 4 because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains. For the L ord is destroying the Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor. 5 Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is silenced. O remnant of their power! How long will you gash yourselves? 6 Ah, sword of the L ord! How long until you are quiet? Put yourself into your scabbard, rest and be still! 7 How can it be quiet, when the L ord has given it an order? Against Ashkelon and against the seashore— there he has appointed it.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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He continues the same subject; for he says, that so grievous would be the calamity, that fathers would not have a care for their children, which is a proof of extreme sorrow; for men even in adversity do not divest themselves of their natural feelings. When a father has children, he would willingly undergo ten deaths, if necessary, in order to save their life; but when men forget that they are parents, it is a proof, as I have said, of the greatest grief, as though men, having changed their nature, were become logs of wood. But the Prophet expresses the cause, not only of sorrow, but also of anxiety; From the voice, he says, of the noise of the hoofs of his valiant ones; he does not name the horses, but פרסות, peresut, refer to horses; hoofs, he says, shall make a great noise by stamping. And then such would be the commotion by the driving of chariots, and such a tumult would the revolving wheels create, that fathers, being astonished, would not. look on their children At length, he adds, through dissolution of hands By dissolution of hands he means loss of courage or fainting. For as vigor spreads from the heart through every part of the body, so also the bands are the chief instruments of all actions. When therefore the bands are relaxed and become feeble, it follows that men become as it were inanimate. The Prophet now means that the Philistines would become like the dead, so as not to move, no, not even their fingers; and why? because they would be so terrified by the stamping of horses, by the commotion of chariots, and by the rumbling of wheels, that they would lose their senses. It follows, — |