Jeremiah 47:2

47:1-7 The calamities of the Philistines. - The Philistines had always been enemies to Israel; but the Chaldean army shall overflow their land like a deluge. Those whom God will spoil, must be spoiled. For when the Lord intends to destroy the wicked, he will cut off every helper. So deplorable are the desolations of war, that the blessings of peace are most desirable. But we must submit to His appointments who ordains all in perfect wisdom and justice.

Thus saith the Lord, behold, waters rise up out of the north,.... Meaning an army of men, which should come in great numbers, and with great force and rapidity, like an overflowing flood. So the Targum, "behold, people shall come from the north;'' that is, from Chaldea, which lay north of Palestine: and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; or, "the fulness of it" (u); the land of the Philistines, and carry off the men and cattle, and all the riches thereof; the city, and them that dwell therein; not any particular or single city, as Gaza; but the several cities of Palestine, and the inhabitants of them: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl; not being able to do anything else; not to defend themselves, their families, and property; and seeing nothing but ruin and destruction before their eyes. (u) "et plenitudinem ejus", Schmidt, &c.

Jeremiah 47:2-3 . Behold, waters rise out of the north — Waters sometimes signify multitudes of people and nations, Revelation 17:15 ; sometimes great and threatening calamities, Psalm 69:1 , these waters mean both. By the north, in this prophecy, the country of the Chaldeans is intended, from whence it is here foretold an army should come and overflow the land like a deluge, spreading devastation and destruction everywhere. At the noise of the stamping, &c. — The word שׁעשׂת , here rendered stamping, occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Scriptures. The LXX. render it, ορμης , impetus, force, rushing along: the Syriac and Chaldee, by words that respectively denote a progressive motion. “But Grotius,” says Blaney, “seems to have expressed it most happily, who has rendered מקול שׁעשׂת , a quadrupedante sono: having in view, no doubt, that line of Virgil, Æn. 8: 596. Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum. We may therefore render it, At the galloping sound, or, at the sound of the galloping,” of the hoofs of his strong horses — Hebrew, אביריז , of his mighty ones; namely, horses.

At the rushing of his chariots, the rumbling of his wheels — Blaney unites these two particulars in one, and reads, “At the rattling of the multitude of his wheels as he drove along.” The fathers shall not look back to their children — To provide for their safety, or so much as to see what becomes of them; for feebleness of hands — Their bodily vigour being dissolved, or relaxed, through the impression made by fear on their minds, which shall be such as to incapacitate them from exerting their strength to any efficacious purpose.

Verses 2-4. - Hostile bands advance from the north; horror seizes the Philistines. Verse 2. - Waters rise up. The prophets think in figures, and no figure is so familiar to them (alas for the unstable condition of those times!) as that of an overflowing torrent for an invading army (see on Jeremiah 46:8, and add to the parallel passages Isaiah 28:18 ; Ezekiel 26:19 ; Daniel 11:10 ). Out of the north. To suppose that this refers to Pharaoh-necho returning from Carchemish seems forced and unnatural. If Necho conquered Gaza at the period supposed, it would be on his way to Carchemish, and not on his return. Besides," the north" is the standing symbol for the home of the dreaded Assyrian and Babylonian foes (see on Jeremiah 1:14). Isaiah had uttered a very similar prediction when the Assyrian hosts were sweeping through Palestine ( Isaiah 14:31 ). An overflowing flood; rather, torrent. The same phrase occurs in Isaiah 30:28 , where the "breath" of the angry God is described with this figurative expression. It is in autumn time that the torrents of Palestine become dangerous, and water courses, dry or almost dry in summer (comp. Jeremiah 15:18 ), become filled with a furiously rushing stream. Jeremiah 47:2

2–7. The Prophecy regarding Philistia 2 . waters rise up ] In Jeremiah 46:8 the same figure was used for an army. Cp. Isaiah 8:7 (on which Co. thinks this v . to be based), where the Assyrian army is likened to the floods of the Euphrates. an overflowing stream ] a river suddenly swelling up through the effect of the winter rains; a frequent occurrence in Palestine. and the men … shall howl ] Co. rejects this part of the v . both as over-passing the proper limits of the metre, and suggesting a universal judgement, which would be, according to him, a later conception.

Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise out of the {b} north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is in it; the city, and them that dwell in it: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail. (b) He means the army of the Chaldeans, Isa 8:7,8.

(2) Behold, waters rise up out of the north.— The reference to the north indicates that the invasion which the prophet contemplates is that of Nebuchadnezzar, not of Pharaoh-necho. For the metaphor of the overflowing river see Jeremiah 46:7 ; Isaiah 8:7 . For “the land and all that is therein” read, as in the margin, “the land and the fulness thereof.”

Waters rise up - A metaphor for the assembling of an army (compare the marginal references). Out of the north - The Chaldaean army must cross the Euphrates at Carchemish. An overflowing flood - Or, "torrent." To understand the metaphors of the Bible we must keep the natural phenomena of the country in mind. In Palestine rivers are torrents, dashing furiously along in the rainy seasons, and dry, or nearly so, in the summer. All that is therein - The marginal rendering contrasts the wealth of Egypt, which forms its fullness, and the inhabitants.

Calamities and afflictions are often in Scripture set out under the notion of waters; and as the miseries of Egypt were set out by the overflowings of their great river Nilus, so the calamities of the Philistines are expressed by the overflowings of the great river Euphrates; these miseries coming upon them by the Chaldeans, which were a northern people, their waters are said to rise up out of the north. It is said to be an overflowing flood that should overflow the land, because it was to be a sweeping judgment, which like a flood should carry all before it, which should produce amongst the inhabitants of Gaza a great howling and lamentation.

2. waters—(Isa 8:7). The Chaldeans from the north are compared to the overwhelming waters of their own Euphrates. The smiting of Gaza was to be only the prelude of a greater disaster to the Philistines. Nebuzara-dan was left by Nebuchadnezzar, after he had taken Jerusalem, to subdue the rest of the adjoining cities and country.

"Thus saith Jahveh: Behold, waters shall rise up out of the north, and shall become an inundating stream, and they shall inundate the land and its fulness, cities and those who dwell in them; and men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl. Jeremiah 47:3 . Because of the sound of the trampling of the hoofs of his strong horses, because of the din of his chariots, the noise of his wheels, fathers to not look back to their children from weakness of hands; Jeremiah 47:4 . Because of the day that cometh to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Zidon every one remaining as a helper; for Jahveh destroyeth the Philistines, the remnant of the coast of Caphtor. Jeremiah 47:5 . Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is destroyed, the rest of their plain. How long wilt thou cut thyself? Jeremiah 47:6 . O sword of Jahveh, how long wilt thou not rest? Draw thyself back into thy sheath; rest, and be still. Jeremiah 47:7 . How canst thou be quiet, when Jahveh hath commanded thee? Against Ashkelon and against the sea-coast, there hath He appointed it." The address opens with a figure. The hostile army that is to devastate Philistia is represented as a stream of water, breaking forth from the north, and swelling to an overflowing winter-torrent, that inundates the country ad cities with their inhabitants. The figure is often used: cf.