Jeremiah 47:6

6 Oh, sword of ADONAI, how long till you can be quiet? Put yourself back in your scabbard! Stop! Be still!

Jeremiah 47:6 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 47:6

O thou sword of the Lord
For though it was the sword of the Chaldeans, yet being appointed and sent by the Lord, and having a commission from him, and being ordered and directed in his providence to do his will, it is called his sword: how long [will it be] ere thou be quiet?
and cease from destroying men; wilt thou not cease till thou hast no more to destroy? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still;
and make no more havoc among the people: these are either the words of the Philistines, entreating a stop might be put to the ravages of the sword, and that the war might cease, and the desolations of it; or rather of the prophet, commiserating their state as a man, though they had been the avowed enemies of his people; to which the following words of him are an answer, either to the Philistines, showing why their request could not be granted, or as correcting himself.

Jeremiah 47:6 In-Context

4 because the day has come for destroying all the P'lishtim, for cutting off from Tzor and Tzidon the last of their allies; for ADONAI is destroying the P'lishtim, the remnant from the island of Kaftor.

5 'Azah is shaved bald, Ashkelon reduced to silence. Those of you who remain in their valley, how long will you go on gashing yourselves?'"

6 Oh, sword of ADONAI, how long till you can be quiet? Put yourself back in your scabbard! Stop! Be still!

7 But how can you be still? For ADONAI has given it orders against Ashkelon, against the seacoast; he has assigned it its task there.