Jeremiah 47
The full text of Jeremiah 47 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:
2 This is what the LORD says:
"See how the waters are rising in the north;
they will become an overflowing torrent.
They will overflow the land and everything in it,
the towns and those who live in them.
The people will cry out;
all who dwell in the land will wail
3 at the thundering of the hooves of stallions,
at the noise of enemy chariots
and the rumble of their wheels.
Parents do not turn back for their children;
their hands hang limp.
4 For the day has come to destroy all the Philistines
and to cut off all survivors
who could help Tyre and Sidon.
The LORD is about to destroy the Philistines,
the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.
5 Gaza will shave her head in mourning;
Ashkelon will be silenced.
You remnant on the plain,
how long will you cut yourselves?
6 "Ah, sword of the LORD!
How long before you rest?
Return to your sheath;
cease and be still."
7 But how can it rest
when the LORD has commanded it?
He has ordered it
against Ashkelon and the seacoast."
Translation notes (5)
- Jeremiah 47:1a The Hebrew phrase bᵉterem yakkeh parʿōh 'et-ʿazzāh means 'before Pharaoh struck Gaza.' This possibly refers to an Egyptian attack on Gaza in the late 7th or early 6th century BC, indicating that this prophecy was given before the Babylonian conquest.
- Jeremiah 47:2a The Hebrew phrase mayim ʿôlîm miṣṣāp̄ôn, meaning 'waters rising from the north,' uses a flood-invasion metaphor, consistent with the 'foe from the north' in Jeremiah's earlier messages (4:6; 6:1). This imagery is now applied to Philistia.
- Jeremiah 47:3a The Hebrew phrase miqôl šᵉʿaṭ parṣôt 'abbîrāyw, meaning 'from the sound of stamping hooves of his stallions,' describes the terrifying noise of cavalry. This terror is so great that it causes parents to abandon their children, a primal reversal of natural love.
- Jeremiah 47:4a Heb. Kaphtor = Crete/Aegean (the Philistines' ancestral origin according to Amos 9:7; Deut 2:23). The Philistines as 'remnant of Caphtor' = identification of their foreign origin.
- Jeremiah 47:5a Heb. niqrᵉʿāh ʿayyāh — 'Ashkelon is silenced'; or 'Ashkelon is cut off.' Gaza shaving her head = mourning (cf. 16:6; Mic 1:16). Cutting = self-laceration in mourning.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Jeremiah, is free to read here on the web.
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