Jeremiah 47:5

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet about the Philistines before Pharaoh conquered Gaza. ²This 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 ³at the sound of the galloping hooves of stallions, the rumbling of chariots, and the clatter of their wheels. The fathers will not turn back for their sons; their hands will hang limp. ⁴For 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. ⁵The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?⁶'Alas, O sword of the LORD, how long until you rest? Return to your sheath; cease and be still!' ⁷How can it rest when the LORD has commanded it? He has appointed it against Ashkelon and the shore of its coastland."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Baldness: Jeremiah 48:37, Isaiah 15:2, Ezekiel 7:18, Micah 1:16

Gaza: Jeremiah 47:1, Amos 1:6-8, Zephaniah 2:4-7, Zechariah 9:5-7

the remnant: Jeremiah 47:4, Jeremiah 25:20, Ezekiel 25:16

how: Jeremiah 16:1, Jeremiah 41:5, Jeremiah 48:37, Leviticus 19:28, Leviticus 21:5, Deuteronomy 14:1, 1 Kings 18:28, Mark 5:5

Reciprocal: Joshua 15:47 - Gaza Jeremiah 7:29 - Cut Jeremiah 16:6 - nor cut Ezekiel 27:31 - they shall make Amos 1:8 - I will cut

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Baldness is come upon Gaza,.... The Targum is,

"vengeance is come to the inhabitants of Gaza.''

It is become like a man whose hair is fallen from his head, or is clean shaved off; its houses were demolished; its inhabitants slain, and their wealth plundered; a pillaged and depopulated place. Some understand this of shaving or tearing off the hair for grief, and mourning because of their calamities; which agrees with the latter clause of the verse:

Ashkelon is cut off [with] the remnant of their valley; this was one of the live cities of the Philistines; it lay north of Gaza. Herodotus x calls Ashkelon a city of Syria, in which was the temple of Urania Venus, destroyed by the Scythians; said to be built by Lydus Ascalus, and called so after his name y. Of this city was Herod the king, and therefore called an Ashkelonite; it was now destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, but afterwards rebuilt and inhabited; and with it were destroyed the remainder of the cities, towns, and villages, in the valley, adjoining to that and Gaza; or Ashkelon and Gaza, now destroyed, were all that remained of the cities of the valley, and shared the same fate with them. The Targum is,

"the remnant of their strength;''

so Kimchi, who interprets it of the multitude of their wealth and power;

how long wilt thou cut thyself? their faces, arms, and other parts of their body, mourning and lamenting their sad condition; the words of the prophet signifying hereby the dreadfulness of it, and its long continuance.

x Clio, sive l. 1. c. 105. y Vid. Bochart. Phaleg l. 2. c. 12. p. 88.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 47:5. Baldness is come upon Gaza — They have cut off their hair in token of deep sorrow and distress.

Ashkelon is cut off — Or put to silence; another mark of the deepest sorrow. Ashkelon was one of the five seignories of the Philistines, Gaza was another.

The remnant of their valley — Or plain; for the whole land of the Philistines was a vast plain, which extended along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea from Phoenicia to the frontiers of Egypt. The whole of this plain, the territory of the Philistines, shall be desolated.