Jeremiah 47:6

Jeremiah THE SWORD OF THE LORDJeremiah 47:6 - Jeremiah 47:7 . The prophet is here in the full tide of his prophecies against the nations round about. This paragraph is entirely occupied with threatenings. Bearing the cup of woes, he turns to one after another of the ancestral enemies of Israel, Egypt and Philistia on the south and west, Moab on the south and east, then northwards to Ammon, south to Edom, north to Damascus, Kedar, Hagor, Elam, and finally to the great foe-Babylon. In the hour of Israel’s lowest fortunes and the foe’s proudest exultation these predictions are poured out. Jeremiah stands as if wielding the sword of which our text speaks, and whirls and points the flashing terror of its sharpened edge against the ring of foes. It turns every way, like the weapon of the angelic guard before the lost paradise, and wherever it turns a kingdom falls. In the midst of his stern denunciations he checks himself to utter this plaintive cry of pity and longing. A tender gleam of compassion breaks through the heart of the thunder-cloud. It is very beautiful to note that the point at which the irrepressible welling up of sweet waters breaks the current of his prophecy is the prediction against Israel’s bitterest, because nearest, foe, ‘these uncircumcised Philistines.’ He beholds the sea of wrath drowning the great Philistine plain, its rich harvests trampled under foot by ‘stamping of hoofs of his strong ones,’ and that desolation wrings from his heart the words of our text

. I take them to be spoken by the prophet. That, of course, is doubtful. It may be that they are meant to give in a vivid dramatic form the effect of the judgments on the sufferers. They recognise these as ‘the sword of the Lord.’ Their only thought is an impatient longing that the judgments would cease,-no confession of sin, no humbling of them selves, but only-’remove Thy hand from us.’ And the answer is either the prophet’s or the divine voice; spoken in the one case to himself, in the other to the Philistines; but in either setting forth the impossibility that the sweeping sword should rest, since it is the instrument in God’s hand, executing His charge and fulfilling His appointment. I. The shrinking from the unsheathed sword of the Lord. We may deal with the words as representing very various states of mind. They may express the impatience of sufferers. Afflictions are too often wasted. Whatever the purpose of chastisement, the true lesson of it is so seldom learned, even in regard to the lowest wisdom it is adapted to teach. In an epidemic, how few people learn to take precautions, such as cleanliness or attention to diet! In hard times commercially, how slow most are to learn the warning against luxury, over-trading, haste to be rich! And in regard to higher lessons, men have a dim sense sometimes that the blow comes from God, but, like Balaam, go on their way in spite of the angel with the sword. It does not soften, nor restrain, nor drive to God.

Jeremiah 47:6-7 . O thou sword of the Lord — By the sword of the Lord, war is here intended, with which, as a great instrument of calamity and destruction, God punishes the crimes of his enemies, and pleads the cause of his people. Some have understood the prophet as speaking in the words of the Philistines, complaining of the havoc which the sword made among them; but however weary they might be of the war, and desirous of its ceasing, it is not likely they should see the hand of God in it, or term it his sword. The words are rather to be considered as the lamentation of the prophet, (and it is a most pathetic and animated one,) over the miseries with which God, in his just displeasure, was punishing the nations for their sins. How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath, given it a charge against Ashkelon, &c. — Here the prophet returns an answer to the foregoing inquiry, importing, that the havoc made by the sword was the effect of God’s irreversible purpose and decree. He gives the sword its commission, and it slays when and where he appoints, and continues to destroy a longer or shorter time, as he determines. When it is drawn, it will not be sheathed till it has fulfilled its charge. As God’s word, so his rod and his sword shall accomplish that for which he sends them.

Baldness - Extreme mourning (see Jeremiah 16:6 ). Is cut off - Others render, is speechless through grief. With the remnant of their valley - Others, O remnant of their valley, how long wilt thou cut thyself? Their valley is that of Gaza and Ashkelon, the low-lying plain, usually called the Shefelah, which formed the territory of the Philistines. The reading of the Septuagint is remarkable: "the remnant of the Anakim," which probably would mean Gath, the home of giants 1 Samuel 17:4. Jeremiah 47:6. Or, Alas, Sword of Yahweh, how long wilt thou not rest? For the answer, see Jeremiah 47:7.