Jeremiah 47:5

5 Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is destroyed. O remnant of their valley, {how long} will you cut yourself with a blade?

Jeremiah 47:5 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 47:5

Baldness is come upon Gaza
The Targum is,

``vengeance is come to the inhabitants of Gaza.''

It is become like a man whose hair is fallen from his head, or is clean shaved off; its houses were demolished; its inhabitants slain, and their wealth plundered; a pillaged and depopulated place. Some understand this of shaving or tearing off the hair for grief, and mourning because of their calamities; which agrees with the latter clause of the verse: Ashkelon is cut off [with] the remnant of their valley;
this was one of the live cities of the Philistines; it lay north of Gaza. Herodotus ^F24 calls Ashkelon a city of Syria, in which was the temple of Urania Venus, destroyed by the Scythians; said to be built by Lydus Ascalus, and called so after his name ^F25. Of this city was Herod the king, and therefore called an Ashkelonite; it was now destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, but afterwards rebuilt and inhabited; and with it were destroyed the remainder of the cities, towns, and villages, in the valley, adjoining to that and Gaza; or Ashkelon and Gaza, now destroyed, were all that remained of the cities of the valley, and shared the same fate with them. The Targum is,

``the remnant of their strength;''

so Kimchi, who interprets it of the multitude of their wealth and power; how long wilt thou cut thyself?
their faces, arms, and other parts of their body, mourning and lamenting their sad condition; the words of the prophet signifying hereby the dreadfulness of it, and its long continuance.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Clio, sive l. 1. c. 105.
F25 Vid. Bochart. Phaleg l. 2. c. 12. p. 88.

Jeremiah 47:5 In-Context

3 from the sound of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, from the clattering of his chariots, the noise of their wheels. Fathers do not turn to [their] children because of [the] slackness of [their] hands.

4 Because of the day that is coming to destroy all [the] Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and from Sidon every survivor [who could] help, for Yahweh [is] destroying [the] Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.

5 Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is destroyed. O remnant of their valley, {how long} will you cut yourself with a blade?

6 Ah, sword of Yahweh, {how long} will you not be quiet? Gather to your sheath, keep quiet and stand still.

7 How can you be quiet when Yahweh has given an order to it? Against Ashkelon and against the shore of the sea, there he has appointed it."

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "until when"