What does Jeremias Chapter 47 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The before-Gaza date precedes a northern torrent image. Feeble fathers and named coastal peoples receive devastation. Sword and scabbard dialogue retains a local appointment.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 47 dates the word against Palestine before Pharao took Gaza. Waters from the north become an overflowing torrent covering land, city and inhabitants, with cries and howling. Marching arms and soldiers, rushing chariots and many wheels accompany fathers not looking back to children because of feeble hands.

The coming day lays waste the Philistines and destroys Tyre, Sidon and their remaining helpers. The Philistines are called the remnant of the isle of Cappadocia. Baldness comes on Gaza, Ascalon holds her peace with the valley’s remnant, and cutting oneself is questioned. The passage does not name Babylon, military alliances, iron wheels or an ancestral migration history.

A plea asks the Lord’s sword to enter its scabbard and rest. The reply asks how it can be quiet when the Lord has charged it against Ascalon and the seaside countries and appointed it there. The poetic exchange does not identify the speaker’s private emotions or establish a universal law about every war.

The story inside

Opening: The before-Gaza date precedes a northern torrent image. Development: Feeble fathers and named coastal peoples receive devastation. Conclusion: Sword and scabbard dialogue retains a local appointment.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The before-Gaza date precedes a northern torrent image.
2
Feeble fathers and named coastal peoples receive devastation.
3
Sword and scabbard dialogue retains a local appointment.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 88904–88917
47:2. Thus saith the Lord: Behold there come up waters out of the north, and they shall be as an overflowing torrent, and they shall cover the land, and all that is therein, the city and the inhabitants thereof: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl, 47:3. At the noise of the marching of arms, and of his soldiers, at the rushing of his chariots, and the multitude of his wheels. The fathers have not looked back to the children, for feebleness of hands, 47:4. Because of the coming of the day, in which all the Philistines shall be laid waste, and Tyre and Sidon shall be destroyed, with all the rest of their helpers. For the Lord hath wasted the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Cappadocia.
Lines 88919–88927
47:5. Baldness is come upon Gaza: Ascalon hath held her peace with the remnant of their valley: how long shalt thou cut thyself? 47:6. O thou sword of the Lord, how long wilt thou not be quiet? Go into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. 47:7. How shall it be quiet, when the Lord hath given it a charge against Ascalon, and against the countries thereof by the sea side, and there hath made an appointment for it?