1. Before - In the time of the Philistines prosperity.

4. The day - Which God hath set, and appointed for their ruin. Caphtor - Tyre and Sidon were neighbours to the Philistines, and so were often called to their help. The Philistines and Caphtorim were related, for their first progenitors, Philistim and Caphtorim, were both the sons of Mizriam the son of Ham, one of the sons of Noah.

5. The remnant - Those who lived in the valleys near Ashkelon. But thyself - Why will you afflict yourselves, when all your mourning will do you no good.

6. O thou sword - Perhaps they are the words of the prophet, lamenting the havock which he made among the Philistines by the Chaldeans.

7. How - God lets the prophet know that he had given this sword its commission, and therefore it could not stop 'till Ashkelon and the people on the sea-shore were destroyed by it.