Mazmur 87:4

87:4 I mention Rahab ¹  and Babylon to my followers. ² 

Here are ³  Philistia and Tyre, ⁴  along with Ethiopia. ⁵ 

It is said of them, “This one was born there.” ⁶ 

Yesaya 14:29-31

14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,

just because the club that beat you has been broken! ⁷ 

For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,

and its fruit will be a darting adder. ⁸ 

14:30 The poor will graze in my pastures; ⁹ 

the needy will rest securely.

But I will kill your root by famine;

it will put to death all your survivors. ¹⁰ 

14:31 Wail, O city gate!

Cry out, O city!

Melt with fear, ¹¹  all you Philistines!

For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke,

and there are no stragglers in its ranks. ¹² 

Yeremia 47:1-7

Judgment on the Philistine Cities

47:1 The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah ¹³  about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. ¹⁴ 

47:2 “Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river. ¹⁵ 

They will be like an overflowing stream.

They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood.

They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants.

People will cry out in alarm.

Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.

47:3 Fathers will hear the hoofbeats of the enemies’ horses,

the clatter of their chariots and the rumbling of their wheels.

They will not turn back to save their children

because they will be paralyzed with fear. ¹⁶ 

47:4 For the time has come

to destroy all the Philistines.

The time has come to destroy all the help

that remains for Tyre ¹⁷  and Sidon. ¹⁸ 

For I, the Lord, will ¹⁹  destroy the Philistines,

that remnant that came from the island of Crete. ²⁰ 

47:5 The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning.

The people of Ashkelon will be struck dumb.

How long will you gash yourselves to show your sorrow, ²¹ 

you who remain of Philistia’s power? ²² 

47:6 How long will you cry out, ²³  ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,

how long will it be before you stop killing? ²⁴ 

Go back into your sheath!

Stay there and rest!’ ²⁵ 

47:7 But how can it rest ²⁶ 

when I, the Lord, have ²⁷  given it orders?

I have ordered it to attack

the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast. ²⁸ 

[87:4]  ¹ sn “Rahab,” which means “proud one,” is used here as a title for Egypt (see Isa 30:7).

[87:4]  ² tn Heb “to those who know me” (see Ps 36:10). Apparently the Lord speaks here. The verbal construction (the Hiphil of זָכַר, zakhar, “remember” followed by the preposition -לְ [le] with a substantive) is rare, but the prepositional phrase is best understood as indicating the recipient of the announcement (see Jer 4:16). Some take the preposition in the sense of “among” and translate, “among those who know me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). In this case these foreigners are viewed as the Lord’s people and the psalm is interpreted as anticipating a time when all nations will worship the Lord (see Ps 86:9) and be considered citizens of Zion.

[87:4]  ³ tn Heb “Look.”

[87:4]  ⁴ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[87:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “Cush.”

[87:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “and this one was born there.” The words “It is said of them” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarification and stylistic purposes (see v. 5). Those advocating the universalistic interpretation understand “there” as referring to Zion, but it seems more likely that the adverb refers to the nations just mentioned. The foreigners are identified by their native lands.

[14:29]  ⁷ sn The identity of this “club” (also referred to as a “serpent” in the next line) is uncertain. It may refer to an Assyrian king, or to Ahaz. For discussion see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:331-32. The viper/adder referred to in the second half of the verse is his successor.

[14:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “flying burning one.” The designation “burning one” may allude to the serpent’s appearance or the effect of its poisonous bite. (See the note at 6:2.) The qualifier “flying” probably refers to the serpent’s quick, darting movements, though one might propose a homonym here, meaning “biting.” (See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:332, n. 18.) Some might think in terms of a mythological flying, fire breathing dragon (cf. NAB “a flying saraph”; CEV “a flying fiery dragon”), but this proposal does not make good sense in 30:6, where the phrase “flying burning one” appears again in a list of desert animals.

[14:30]  ⁹ tc The Hebrew text has, “the firstborn of the poor will graze.” “Firstborn” may be used here in an idiomatic sense to indicate the very poorest of the poor. See BDB 114 s.v. בְּכוֹר. The translation above assumes an emendation of בְּכוֹרֵי (bÿkhorey, “firstborn of”) to בְּכָרַי (bekharay, “in my pastures”).

[14:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your remnant” (so NAB, NRSV).

[14:31]  ¹¹ tn Or “despair” (see HALOT 555 s.v. מוג). The form נָמוֹג (namog) should be taken here as an infinitive absolute functioning as an imperative. See GKC 199-200 §72.v.

[14:31]  ¹² tn Heb “and there is no one going alone in his appointed places.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. בּוֹדֵד (boded) appears to be a participle from בָּדַד (badad, “be separate”; see BDB 94 s.v. בָּדַד). מוֹעָד (mo’ad) may mean “assembly” or, by extension, “multitude” (see HALOT 558 s.v. *מוֹעָד), but the referent of the third masculine pronominal suffix attached to the noun is unclear. It probably refers to the “nation” mentioned in the next line.

[47:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah.” For this same construction see 14:1; 46:1 and see the translator’s note at 14:1 for explanation.

[47:1]  ¹⁴ sn The precise dating of this prophecy is uncertain. Several proposals have been suggested, the most likely of which is that the prophecy was delivered in 609 b.c. in conjunction with Pharaoh Necho’s advance into Palestine to aid the Assyrians. That was the same year that Josiah was killed by Necho at the battle of Megiddo and four years before Necho was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, the foe from the north. The prophecy presupposes that Ashkelon is still in existence (v. 5) hence it must be before 604 b.c. For a fairly complete discussion of the options see G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 299-300.

[47:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Behold! Waters are rising from the north.” The metaphor of enemy armies compared to overflowing water is seen also in Isa 8:8-9 (Assyria) and 46:7-8 (Egypt). Here it refers to the foe from the north (Jer 1:14; 4:6; etc) which is specifically identified with Babylon in Jer 25. The metaphor has been turned into a simile in the translation to help the average reader identify that a figure is involved and to hint at the referent.

[47:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “From the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, from the rattling of his chariots at the rumbling of their wheels, fathers will not turn to their children from sinking of hands.” According to BDB 952 s.v. רִפָּיוֹן the “sinking of the hands” is figurative of helplessness caused by terror. A very similar figure is seen with a related expression in Isa 35:3-4. The sentence has been restructured to put the subject up front and to suggest through shorter sentences more in keeping with contemporary English style the same causal connections. The figures have been interpreted for the sake of clarity for the average reader.

[47:4]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[47:4]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[47:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “For the Lord will.” The first person style has been adopted because the Lord is speaking (cf. v. 2).

[47:4]  ²⁰ sn All the help that remains for Tyre and Sidon and that remnant that came from the island of Crete appear to be two qualifying phrases that refer to the Philistines, the last with regard to their origin and the first with regard to the fact that they were allies that Tyre and Sidon depended on. “Crete” is literally “Caphtor” which is generally identified with the island of Crete. The Philistines had come from there (Amos 9:7) in the wave of migration from the Aegean Islands during the twelfth and eleventh century and had settled on the Philistine plain after having been repulsed from trying to enter Egypt.

[47:5]  ²¹ sn Shaving one’s head and gashing one’s body were customs to show mourning or sadness for the dead (cf. Deut 14:1; Mic 1:16; Ezek 27:31; Jer 16:6; 48:37).

[47:5]  ²² tn Or “you who are left alive on the Philistine plain.” Or “you who remain of the Anakim.” The translation follows the suggestion of several of the modern commentaries that the word עֵמֶק (’emeq) means “strength” or “power” here (see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 698; J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 310; and see also HALOT 803 s.v. II עֵמֶק). It is a rare homonym of the word that normally means “valley” that seems to be an inappropriate designation of the Philistine plain. Many of the modern English versions and commentaries follow the Greek version which reads here “remnant of the Anakim” (עֲנָקִים [’anaqim] instead of עִמְקָם [’imqam], a confusion of basically one letter). This emendation is followed by both BDB 771 s.v. עֵמֶק and KBL 716 s.v. עֵמֶק. The Anakim were generally associated with the southern region around Hebron but an enclave of them was known to have settled in Gaza, Gath, and Ekron, three of the Philistine cities (cf. Josh 11:22). However, the fact that this judgment is directed against the Philistines not the Anakim and that this homonym apparently appears also in Jer 49:4 makes the reading of “power” more likely here.

[47:6]  ²³ tn The words “How long will you cry out” are not in the text but some such introduction seems necessary because the rest of the speech assumes a personal subject.

[47:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”

[47:6]  ²⁵ sn The passage is highly figurative. The sword of the Lord, which is itself a figure of the destructive agency of the enemy armies, is here addressed as a person and is encouraged in rhetorical questions (the questions are designed to dissuade) to “be quiet,” “be at rest,” “be silent,” all of which is designed to get the Lord to call off the destruction against the Philistines.

[47:7]  ²⁶ tn The reading here follows the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions. The Hebrew text reads “how can you rest” as a continuation of the second person in v. 6.

[47:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “When the Lord has.” The first person is again adopted because the Lord has been speaking.

[47:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Against Ashkelon and the sea coast, there he has appointed it.” For the switch to the first person see the preceding translator’s note. “There” is poetical and redundant and the idea of “attacking” is implicit in “against.”