Jeremiah 47:2

2 This is what the LORD says: Water is rising in the north. It will become an overflowing river. It will overflow the land and everything in it, the cities and those who live in them. People will cry out and everyone who lives in the land will cry loudly.

Jeremiah 47:2 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 47:2

Thus saith the Lord, behold, waters rise up out of the north,
&c.] Meaning an army of men, which should come in great numbers, and with great force and rapidity, like an overflowing flood. So the Targum,

``behold, people shall come from the north;''

that is, from Chaldea, which lay north of Palestine: and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all
that is therein;
or, "the fulness of it" ^F21; the land of the Philistines, and carry off the men and cattle, and all the riches thereof; the city, and them that dwell therein;
not any particular or single city, as Gaza; but the several cities of Palestine, and the inhabitants of them: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl;
not being able to do anything else; not to defend themselves, their families, and property; and seeing nothing but ruin and destruction before their eyes.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 (hawlmw) "et plenitudinem ejus", Schmidt

Jeremiah 47:2 In-Context

1 The LORD spoke this message to the prophet Jeremiah about the Philistines before Pharaoh defeated Gaza.

2 This is what the LORD says: Water is rising in the north. It will become an overflowing river. It will overflow the land and everything in it, the cities and those who live in them. People will cry out and everyone who lives in the land will cry loudly.

3 They will hear the sound of galloping war horses, the rattling of enemy chariots, and the rumbling of their wheels. Fathers who lack courage abandon their children.

4 The time has come to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon any Philistine who might have escaped to get help. The LORD will destroy the Philistines and anyone who is left from the island of Crete.

5 Gaza will shave its head in mourning. Ashkelon will be destroyed. How long will you cut yourselves, you people left on the plains?