Jeremiah 47:6

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