Verse 2

(2) Behold, waters rise up out of the north.—The reference to the north indicates that the invasion which the prophet contemplates is that of Nebuchadnezzar, not of Pharaoh-necho. For the metaphor of the overflowing river see Jeremiah 46:7; Isaiah 8:7. For “the land and all that is therein” read, as in the margin, “the land and the fulness thereof.”

Verse 3

(3) The fathers shall not look back to their children.—The selfishness of panic was to reach its highest point, and to crush out the instincts of natural affection. Even fathers would be content to save themselves, regardless of their children’s lives.

Verse 4

(4) To cut off from Tyrus and Zidon.—The two Phœnician cities are coupled with Philistia. Both, as occupying the sea-board of Palestine, were to suffer from Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion. Psalms 83:7 indicates that they were not unfrequently in alliance. In the “helper that remaineth” we have probably a reference to the foreign mercenaries, especially the Philistines, employed by the two great commercial cities. “Caphtor” has been identified with Crete, Cyprus, Caria, Cappadocia, and the delta of the Nile. On the latter view the name is held to be connected with Coptic. Amos 9:7 points to a migration of the people known as Philistines from that region, and there is accordingly a touch of scorn in the way in which Jeremiah speaks of them as the mere “remnant of Caphtor.” In agreement with the first view we find among David’s mercenaries the Cherethim and Pelethim (2 Samuel 8:18), the two names being probably modifications of Cretans and Philistines. The ethnological table of Genesis 10:14 connects both the Philistines and the Caphtorim with Mizraim or Egypt, and is, so far as it goes, in favour of the Egyptian identification.

Verse 5

(5) Baldness is come upon Gaza.—The baldness is the outward sign of extremest mourning (Jeremiah 48:37; Isaiah 15:2-3), perhaps, also, of extremest desolation (Isaiah 7:20).

Ashkelon is cut off . . .—Better, perhaps, Ashkelon is speechless. The LXX. apparently followed a different text, and gives “the remnant of the Anakim” instead of “the remnant of their valley.” Hitzig adopts this rendering, and connects it with the known fact that a remnant of the old gigantic non-Semitic race had taken refuge among the Philistines (1 Samuel 17:4; 2 Samuel 21:22; 1 Chronicles 20:5-8) after they had been driven from Hebron (Joshua 14:12-15; Joshua 15:13-14). Others, without adopting the LXX. reading, interpret the word rendered “their valley” as meaning, as in Isaiah 33:19, those that speak an unintelligible language, barbarians (Amakim), and suppose this form to have passed in the LXX. into the more familiar form of Anakim. The English version, however, is accepted by many critics, and may refer to Ashkelon and Gaza as the “remnant,” the last resource of the valley (Emek) or low-country of the Philistines, more commonly known as the Shephelah.

How long wilt thou cut thyself?—The words point to a ritual of supplication, like that of the priests of Baal in 1 Kings 18:28, as prevailing among the Philistines.

Verse 6

(6) O thou sword of the Lord . . .—This is the question and entreaty of the Philistines, “When will there be an end of war?” And the prophet has but one answer: the sword must do its work till it has done what Jehovah had appointed it to do.

Verse 7

(7) Against the sea shore.—In the “sea shore,” as in Ezekiel 25:16, we have the term specially appropriate to the territory of the Philistines.