UNROLL
The mound of Ashkelon by the sea under a heavy storm front rolling in from the north, its mud-brick walls pale against the dark cloud, grain fields bent by the wind.

The nations

Jeremiah 47

When grief comes, where do you take your question ‘How long?’

7 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
  2. 2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
  3. 7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
  4. 11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessions
  5. 21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
  6. 30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
  7. 34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)
  8. 40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
  9. 46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earthChapter 47
  10. 52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

Judgment on the Philistines

This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet about the Philistines before Pharaoh struck down Gaza.

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God
A winter flash flood: a brown torrent foaming down a wadi out of the hills onto the flat coastal plain, tearing at grain fields, a mud-brick town on its mound beyond under dark cloud.

This is what the LORD says:

“See how the waters are rising from the north

and becoming an overflowing torrent.

They will overflow the land and its fullness,

the cities and their inhabitants.

The people will cry out,

and all who dwell in the land will wail

at the sound of the galloping hooves of stallions,

the rumbling of chariots,

and the clatter of their wheels.

0:25

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

God

The fathers will not turn back for their sons;

their hands will hang limp.

Question

Quick question

The LORD pictures the army from the north before it is ever named.

What did the LORD compare the army from the north to (47:2)?

God
God

For the day has come

to destroy all the Philistines,

to cut off from Tyre and Sidon

every remaining ally.

Indeed, the LORD is about to destroy the Philistines,

the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.

God

The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning;

Ashkelon will be silenced.

O remnant of their valley,

how long will you gash yourself?

God

‘Alas, O sword of the LORD,

how long until you rest?

Return to your sheath;

cease and be still!’

God

How can it rest

when the LORD has commanded it?

Jeremiah 47:7

God
God

He has appointed it against Ashkelon

and the shore of its coastland.”

PhilistiaJerusalemGazaAshkelonTyre

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

The coast of the Philistines

Gaza and Ashkelon were the southern towns of Philistia, on the coast road between Egypt and the north. Tyre and Sidon lay far up the coast to the north.

Pray

Pray

Lord, Your word does not rest until it has done what You command. When I cry ‘How long?’, teach me to trust that You are just, and that You set the limits. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Jeremiah 47

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A verse to carry with you

How can it rest when the LORD has commanded it?

Jeremiah 47:7

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