at the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his steeds, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels fathers shall not look back for [their] children, from feebleness of hands;
Jeremiah 47 is God's word against the Philistines, Israel's neighbours on the south-west coast. Verse 3 lets us hear the invasion before we see it: hooves, chariot wheels, and then a silence where a father's rescue of his child should be.
The chapter opens with an attack by Egypt on Gaza, but the horses of verse 3 come from the opposite direction. One writer traces the rising water of the opening verses to the invaders who came from the north:
The king of the south might strike Gaza. But graver dangers were coming from a completely different quarter, and God announced these too before the king of Egypt struck his blow. Under the well-known figure of rising waters and an overflowing flood, the overwhelming scourge was set out. Isaiah makes that figure very familiar to his reader. The scourge came from "the north" — the means by which God was going to visit the neighbours of Israel on their south-western frontier. Utter devastation would come through their Chaldean invaders.
The verse does not describe a battle. It describes what the sound of an army does to people who once had the upper hand over Israel. It also shows where they turn when their own hands fail:
So the Spirit sets out with force the might of the attackers, bearing down everything before them. He also sets out the helpless agony of the once proud lords who used to tyrannise over Israel. They would look in vain for help to Tyre and Sidon. Their superstitious self-humbling before their gods would be as useless as the help of their old allies, who were themselves ruined and cut off.
The Philistines heard cavalry. The Lord had sent it. Neither the empire doing the damage nor the city suffering it understood what was happening:
It is a staggering thought that the Lord's sword should have no rest, but so it was. That invading nation was bitter and hasty, and its justice and dignity came from itself alone. Nebuchadnezzar had little idea that the Lord had arranged his campaign. Ashkelon on the sea shore saw only swift and fiery horsemen, and had little idea that the Lord had appointed them to strike the city.
Philistia was not a distant empire. Its cities sat inside the land promised to Israel. That closeness made them all the more dangerous:
They appear to me to represent the power of the enemy acting within the circle of God's people. They were in the territory of the Israelites — inside the land, and even on this side of the Jordan. They were not, like the Egyptians or Assyrians, enemies from outside. They were always hostile to Israel, to those who by God's appointment should have owned the land of promise. They were all the more dangerous because they were always close at hand and claimed the country as their own.
Another writer links this same enemy to the struggle believers face now, and to the day Christ appears:
The Philistines, the enemies of God's people in the land, are judged in Jeremiah 47. They represent the powers that believers, blessed in the heavenly places in Christ, have to struggle against today (Eph. 6:12)... Finally Christ will appear. The sword of the Lord to strike the nations will not then be in the hand of any earthly king. It is seen with the King of kings and Lord of lords when He comes in victorious power and great glory.
Jeremiah 46–49 deals with nation after nation, and they do not all end the same way. Philistia is missing from the list of those with a future:
These nations were all to fall under the power of Nebuchadnezzar. But some of them are to be restored in the last days. Among them will be Elam, Egypt, Moab and Ammon. Philistia is not among them, nor Damascus, nor Hazor, and above all not Babylon. Chapters 50 and 51 set out Babylon's destruction in great detail.
- Noise — The verse works on the ear first: hooves, chariots, wheels. The sound alone is enough, because the flood God announced was rolling in from the north, not from Egypt.
- Nerve — That sound empties the hands. Fathers do not turn back for their own children. The proud lords who once tyrannised over Israel find only helpless agony.
- Nowhere — They look to Tyre and Sidon and to their gods, and find both as ruined as themselves. Old alliances and religious self-humbling save no one on that day.
- Nebuchadnezzar — He thought the campaign was his. Ashkelon thought the horsemen were Babylon's. Both were wrong: the sword had a charge appointed by the Lord.
- Now — Philistia was the enemy inside the land. It pictures the powers believers still struggle against. The final sword belongs to no earthly king, but to the King of kings.
because of the day that cometh to lay waste all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remaineth; for Jehovah will lay waste the Philistines, the remnant of the island of Caphtor.
Jeremiah names a fixed day for Philistia, a day that leaves Tyre and Sidon without a single helper. The verse then looks back to where these people came from — the remnant of Caphtor — so who were they, and who is really behind their ruin?
Philistia was a small power next to Egypt. By Jeremiah's time it had long lost the strength it had in Saul's day. None of that mattered:
Jehovah was now judging: who could escape? Certainly not the Philistines. They were nowhere near as important as Egypt. But this was the judgment of the nations under God's hand. Their strength had shrunk since the days of Saul, and they were nothing beside a power that reached (though in vain) for the rule of the world. Neither fact could give them any protection.
The day also strips Philistia of its allies. Where was help to come from?
In this way the Spirit sets out with force the might of the attackers, who sweep all before them. He sets out too the helpless agony of the once proud lords who had ruled harshly over Israel. They would look to Tyre and Sidon for help, and look in vain. Their superstitious bowing down before their gods would be as useless as the help of their old allies, who were themselves ruined and cut off.
The verse traces the Philistines back to Caphtor. Nobody knows for certain where that was:
Caphtor is the country that some of the Philistines came from, as well as the Caphtorim. They sprang from Mizraim, son of Ham. Deuteronomy 2:23; Amos 9:7. In Jeremiah 47:4 the word given as "isles" in the margin may only mean "maritime border." Caphtor is thought to be somewhere in Egypt, but no one has identified it.
Their name, and the road they came by, both carry a lesson:
Their name means "emigrants" in Ethiopic, and "wanderers" in Hebrew. Exodus marks the "way of the Philistines" as the "near" way out of Egypt into the land. It was as easy as it was near: no Red Sea to cross, and no Jordan. … So the Philistines are natural men who have come into spiritual things, not by the power of God, but in a natural way.
The verse does not say Babylon will plunder Philistia. It says the LORD will. The invading army was real, but it was not the author of what happened.
It is a tremendous thought that Jehovah's sword should have no rest; but so it was. Nebuchadnezzar never thought that Jehovah had arranged the campaign of that bitter and hasty nation, whose law and honour came from no one but themselves. Ashkelon on the sea shore never saw in those swift and fiery horsemen a charge that Jehovah had appointed against them.
These enemies inside the land stand for more than themselves — a struggle now, and a victory still to come:
The Philistines, the enemies of God's people in the land, are judged in Jeremiah 47. They represent the powers against whom those who are blessed in the heavenly places in Christ have to struggle today (Eph. 6:12)… The sword of the Lord that strikes the nations will not then be in the hand of any earthly king. It is seen with the King of kings and Lord of lords, when He comes in victorious power and great glory (see Rev. 19:15-16).
- Day. God sets a day for Philistia. Being small is no shelter, because the judgment of the nations is in His hand.
- Helpers. The last helper is cut off from Tyre and Sidon. The old allies are ruined themselves, and the gods they beg prove just as useless.
- Origin. They are what is left of Caphtor, a land no one has identified. They came by the easy road out of Egypt: no Red Sea, no Jordan — natural men in spiritual things.
- Hand. Nebuchadnezzar planned a campaign; the LORD had appointed a sword. The instrument never knew whose charge it was carrying out.
- Reach. Those blessed in the heavenly places still struggle against these powers today. And the sword passes at last from an earthly king to the King of kings.
Baldness is come upon Gazah; Ashkelon is cut off, the remnant of their valley how long wilt thou cut thyself?
Jeremiah 47 carries a message against the Philistines, Israel's neighbours on the south-west coast. Verse 5 turns to two of their chief cities as the blow lands. Shaved heads and cut flesh were the usual signs of grief among the nations around Israel. The verse asks what such mourning can do when God Himself has ordered the disaster.
Gaza was no minor town. It sat on the Canaanite border in the earliest pages of Scripture, and more than one prophet had already warned it.
One of the five royal cities of the Philistines. We read of it as early as Genesis 10:19 as a border of the Canaanites… It was afterwards struck by Pharaoh (Jeremiah 47:1, 5). It was a stronghold of the Philistines, and the prophets pronounced woes against it: Amos 1:6-7; Zephaniah 2:4; Zechariah 9:5.
Baldness here can be read two ways: a judgement God sends, or a sign of mourning that people put on themselves. Either way, God had banned the practice among His own people.
God forbade the Israelites to cut themselves or to shave their heads for the dead, as the nations around them did. They were a holy people to the Lord (Leviticus 21:5; Deuteronomy 14:1; Jeremiah 16:6). Baldness is one of the judgements of the Lord: perhaps they would make themselves bald in their distress.
The verse ends by asking how long they will gash themselves. Where did that custom come from, and what did it ever achieve?
The ungodly nations practised such things as cutting themselves and shaving the front of their head. This was their way of showing respect for people who had died. This was empty hypocrisy, a show of religiousness intended to draw attention to themselves… Cutting oneself, shaving the hair, weeping and wailing, can do nothing for the person who has died.
Philistia had two hopes in a crisis: its allies up the coast and its gods. Both were about to fail.
Here the Spirit sets out with force the might of the attackers, who carried all before them. He also sets out the helpless agony of the once-proud lords who used to tyrannise over Israel. They would look in vain to Tyre and Sidon for help. Their superstitious self-humbling before their gods would prove as useless as the help of their old allies, who were themselves ruined and cut off. In truth, as the prophet tells them, it was Jehovah who would ruin the Philistines, whatever instrument He chose to use.
Jehovah's sword had no rest. The army that swept down the coast was carrying out orders it never knew it had received.
It is a tremendous thought that Jehovah's sword should have no rest; but so it was. Nebuchadnezzar never guessed that Jehovah had arranged the campaign of that bitter and hasty nation, whose judgment and dignity came from themselves. Ashkelon on the sea shore never saw that those swift and fiery horsemen were a charge Jehovah had appointed against them.
The Philistines held land that was never theirs. How they got in is the point.
It is the land of the Philistines, as you might say, and yet they had no right to it. They were intruders, or, as their name suggests, wanderers — people who had no right there at all. They had wandered in and settled down along the sea coast, where there was an easy way of getting into the land. God plainly refused to lead His people that way. They needed the training that conflict and hardship would give. They also needed to be examples for all time, showing that the only true way into God's inheritance is through death and resurrection.
The verse says Ashkelon has perished. That is not Scripture's last word over the place.
God declared His judgements against this city (Jeremiah 25:20; Jeremiah 47:5, 7; Amos 1:8; Zechariah 9:5). The remnant of Judah would live there (Zephaniah 2:4, 7).
- Blow. Gaza and Ashkelon were royal Philistine cities. More than one prophet had already marked them for judgement.
- Ritual. Shaved heads and cut flesh were mourning customs of the nations. God forbade them to Israel, and here they mark His judgement, not a cure for it.
- Futility. Tyre and Sidon could not help, and bowing to their gods did nothing. Such rites are a show that cannot help the dead.
- Command. The advancing army was a sword under orders it never suspected. The Lord Himself was ruining the Philistines.
- Warning. Philistia pictures intruders who took the easy way into the land. The true way into God's inheritance runs through death and resurrection — and that coast is promised to His people in the end.