Jeremiah 47:2

2 This is what the Lord has said: See, waters are coming up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, overflowing the land and everything in it, the town and those who are living in it; and men will give a cry, and all the people of the land will be crying out in pain.

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 word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet about the Philistines, before Pharaoh's attack on Gaza.

2 This is what the Lord has said: See, waters are coming up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, overflowing the land and everything in it, the town and those who are living in it; and men will give a cry, and all the people of the land will be crying out in pain.

3 At the noise of the stamping of the feet of his war-horses, at the rushing of his carriages and the thunder of his wheels, fathers will give no thought to their children, because their hands are feeble;

4 Because of the day which is coming with destruction on all the Philistines, cutting off from Tyre and Zidon the last of their helpers: for the Lord will send destruction on the Philistines, the rest of the sea-land of Caphtor.

5 The hair is cut off from the head of Gaza; Ashkelon has come to nothing; the last of the Anakim are deeply wounding themselves.