Judgment on the Philistines
(Zephaniah 2:4–7)

1That which was the word of YHWH to Jeremiah the prophet regarding the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza. 2Thus says YHWH:

“Behold, the waters are coming up from the north,

and they will be overwhelming as a flood,

and they will overwhelm the land and its fullness,

the city and those dwelling in it;

and man will cry out,

and all those dwelling in the land will wail.

3Before the sound of the stamping of the hooves of his mighty ones,

from the quaking of his chariots,

the rumbling of his wheels,

the fathers will not turn back toward the sons,

from feebleness of hands,

4For the day is coming

to destroy all the Philistines,

to cut off from Tyre and Sidon

every remaining one giving help;

for YHWH will destroy the Philistines,

the remnant from the coast of Caphtor.†

5Baldness has come to Gaza;

Ashkelon has been cut off,

O remnant of their valley,†

until when will you cut yourself?

6‘Alas, O sword of YHWH,

until when will you not be quiet?

Be removed to your sheath;

rest and be silent!’

7How can it be quiet

when YHWH has given a command to it?

Against Ashkelon, and against the coast of the sea,

there He has appointed it.”