Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 47:7
How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
7. How canst thou ] rather, with LXX, Syr., Vulg. How can it. So correct “thee” by mg. it, the sea shore, the Philistine and Phoenician coast.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 7. How can it be quiet] This is the answer of the Sword. I am the officer of God’s judgments, and he has given me a commission against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore; all the coast where the Philistines have their territories. The measure of their iniquities is full; and these God hath appointed this sword to ravage. The Philistines were ever the implacable enemies of the Jews, and the basest and worst of all idolaters. On these accounts the sword of the Lord had its commission against them; and it did its office most fearfully and effectually by the hand of the Chaldeans.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Some make the words of the 6th verse to be the words of the Philistines in their mourning and cutting themselves, crying to God to stop the sword drawn against them, and to return it again into its scabbard: others make them the words of the prophet, lamenting the havoc which he by the eye of the prophecy saw was like to be made amongst the Philistines by the Chaldeans (for good men are affected with the miseries even of the worst of men).
The latter verse must be expounded according to the former; for if the words of the former verse be understood as the words of the Philistines, those of this verse must be understood as the words of the prophet putting them out of hopes of the swords stopping, because what it did was by commission from God, which it must execute. If the words of the former verse be to be understood as the prophets words, the words of this verse are either the prophets words correcting himself, and concluding that this sword could not be quiet, because it was edged by God himself, who had given it his commission, which it must execute; or the words of God, letting the prophet know that he had given this sword its commission, and therefore it could not stop till Ashkelon and the people on the sea-shore were destroyed by it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. Jeremiah, from addressing thesword in the second person, turns to his hearers and speaks of it inthe third person.
Lord . . . given it a charge(Eze 14:17).
the sea-shorethe stripof land between the mountains and Mediterranean, held by thePhilistines: “their valley” (see on Jer47:5).
there hath he appointed it(Mic 6:9). There hath He orderedit to rage.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
How can it be quiet,…. There is no reason to believe it will, nor can it be expected that it should; to stop it is impossible, and to request that it might be stopped is in vain:
seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the seashore? for it had a commission from the Lord to destroy the inhabitants of Ashkelon, and other places, which lay still more towards the sea, as Joppa and Jamne; and indeed all Palestine lay on the coast of the Mediterranean sea:
there hath he appointed it; by an irreversible decree of his, in righteousness to punish the inhabitants of these places for their sins.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Some take it, ה, he, as meaning the land itself; but as it immediately follows, against Ashkelon and against the seashore, it is better to explain it as above.
By the sea-shore some understand Joppa; but it is probable that the Prophet includes the whole coast, and that he thus still speaks of Tyre, and Sidon, and Gaza, though he names Ashkelon, which was a little distant from the sea. When, therefor, God commanded his sword against Ashkelon and all the cities which were by the sea-shore, the execution of his judgement could not be prevented in that region. He further adds, he hath commanded it; but it is in a solemn manner, and hence I have rendered the words, he hath called it to witness, or protested it. He then intimates that God had not simply given his sword a command to commit slaughters through the whole land, but bound his sword, as it were, by solemn protest; as though he had said, that this decree could not be revoked, because Godwill not only command his sword to execute his vengeance, but will also give it a solemn command, and bind it, as it were, by an oath, never to cease from its work until the whole people, and all the cities, and the whole land, should be destroyed together.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) Against the sea shore.In the sea shore, as in Eze. 25:16, we have the term specially appropriate to the territory of the Philistines.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. How can it, etc. A reply to the question asked in Jer 47:6. Jehovah hath given “the sword” a commission, and it cannot be quiet until the commission be fulfilled.
Sea shore A suitable designation of Philistia.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 47:7. Sea-shore Sea-coast.
REFLECTIONS.The Philistines had been the inveterate enemies of Israel: they had received many a severe check in the days of David; but seem to have become a very powerful people, and were in peace, and strongly fortified, when this prophesy was delivered, which was before Pharaoh smote Gaza, an event supposed to have happened during his expedition to Carchemish.
1. The northern army of the Chaldeans is represented as a swelling flood, which bears down all opposition. In terrors at their approach, the Philistines will howl, unable to resist the torrent; affrighted at the stamping of the horses and the rattling of the chariots, and flying as if death was at their heels, their fears should overcome the strongest natural affection, so that they should not look back to their children, and through feebleness of hands be unable to defend or carry them away. It is the day of divine appointment for the destruction of the Philistines; and Tyre and Zidon must share the like fate, together with the remnant of the country of Caphtor, their near kin and neighbours. Their cities are spoiled, their country plundered, their inhabitants destroyed, and Gaza and Ashkelon are described with signs of deepest woe, shaving off their hair, and cutting themselves, bemoaning these desolations. Note; The strongest holds are no proof against the artillery of divine threatenings.
2. The prophet, tenderly affected with the scene, cries out, O thou sword of the Lord! (for though in the hand of the Chaldeans, yet God put it there), how long will it be ere thou be quiet? and the dire contention cease; put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest and be still. A good man prays thus for his bitterest enemies; and charity teaches us to pray that wars may cease in all the world, and a stop be put to the effusion of human gore so lavishly shed. But when God has a controversy, and his sword is drawn against a nation, how can it be quiet, till it has executed vengeance on God’s enemies, and accomplished his purposes towards a guilty people? seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore, the places above-mentioned, there hath he appointed it? Note; Every thing here below is under the immediate government of God; even the ambition of princes, and the horrid ravages of war, are instruments in his hands to execute the decrees of his providence on those nations whose provocations call for judgment.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
METHINKS the Lord, the Holy Ghost, hath opened to the believer’s view sweet instructions in this Chapter. Here we learn, that however long and oppressive the Philistines, in all ages and generations, may bear hatred, and show forth their malice against the Lord’s heritage, yet a day of reckoning is sure, and a time of recompense must come. The Lord may, and the Lord will correct his children when they offend, and with the rod of men, for so the Covenant of grace declares; but all this shall be but in measure, while in the end their enemies will finally perish, and that forever.
And is it not a gracious, part also in God, to teach his people these precious truths, and to help them by such promises, even during their exercises, to live by faith in the expectation what the end shall be? Oh! for grace to watch and mark the unceasing tendencies of divine love in all his appointments. Surely the Lord doth stay his rough wind, in the day of the east wind. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away sin.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 47:7 How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
Ver. 7. How can it be quiet? ] Heb., How shalt thou be quiet? Here the prophet quieteth himself howsoever by a humble submission to his holy will, who had put the sword in commission. God’s will is the rule of right, neither can force or entreaty prevail aught against it in this world, much less in the world to come, where each one must hold him to his doom, which is irreversible.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
How . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
can it: Heb. canst not
the Lord: 1Sa 15:3, Isa 10:6, Isa 13:3, Isa 37:26, Isa 45:1-3, Isa 46:10, Isa 46:11, Eze 14:17, Amo 3:6
the sea: Eze 25:16, Zep 2:6, Zep 2:7
hath he: Mic 6:9
Reciprocal: Psa 114:5 – General Isa 23:9 – Lord Isa 23:11 – the Lord Jer 25:27 – because Jer 34:17 – to the sword Eze 21:3 – will draw Eze 21:30 – Shall I cause it to return Eze 33:2 – When I bring the sword upon a land Zep 2:5 – Cherethites Zep 2:12 – my Mat 8:9 – Go
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 47:7. This verse is the answer of the Lord to the pleading of the Philistines. They are told that it, the sword, cannot be quiet because the Lord had given it a charge, which was against Ashkeion, one of the cities of the Philistines.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
47:7 How can it be {h} quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
(h) Meaning, that it is not profitable that the wicked should by any means escape or hinder the Lord when he will take vengeance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Then Jeremiah remembered that the Lord’s sword (the invader from the north) had to continue to slay the Philistines until it had finished the job He had given it to do. Nebuchadnezzar may have fulfilled this prophecy in 604 B.C. when he destroyed Ashkelon. [Note: See Wiseman, pp. 68-69.] It was the sacking of Ashkelon at this time that moved the people in Jerusalem to fast during Jehoiakim’s reign, which led to the reading, followed by the burning, of Jeremiah’s scroll (cf. ch. 36).
"A Babylonian prism, now in Istanbul, mentions the presence-presumably with little choice in the matter-of the kings of Tyre and Sidon (cf. Jer 47:4), of Gaza (5) and of Ashdod, at the court of Nebuchadrezzar; while a prison list now in Berlin records the rations for the king of Ashkelon (5), among other noted prisoners (including Jehoiachin of Judah)." [Note: Kidner, p. 141. See Pritchard, ed., p. 308, for extracts from both lists.]