“How can you be quiet, since Yahweh has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there has he appointed it.”
Parallel translations
- KJV How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
- BSB How can it rest when the LORD has commanded it? He has appointed it against Ashkelon and the shore of its coastland.”
- NKJV How can it be quiet, Seeing the Lord has given it a charge Against Ashkelon and against the seashore? There He has appointed it.”
- NASB “How can it be quiet, When the Lord has given it an order? Against Ashkelon and against the sea shore— There He has summoned it.”
- NLT “But how can it be still when the Lord has sent it on a mission? For the city of Ashkelon and the people living along the sea must be destroyed.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The sword cannot rest because the LORD Himself has commanded it against Ashkelon and the seacoast.
Overview
The answer to the plea is that the sword has been appointed by God and must complete its task. Judgment is not random fury but the ordained work of a sovereign and just God. This sobering truth that God commissions judgment makes the mercy of the gospel all the more precious, where Christ bears the sword of justice for His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Mic 6:9Yahweh’s voice calls to the city, and wisdom sees your name: “Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it.
- Ezek 14:17“Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, ‘Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and animal;’
- Isa 10:6I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me will I give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
- Isa 37:26Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.
- Isa 13:3I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
- Amos 3:6Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?
- Ezek 25:16therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will stretch out my hand on the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.
- 1 Sam 15:3Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
- Zeph 2:6–7The sea coast will be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks.
- Isa 46:10–11I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please.
- Isa 45:1–3Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armor; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 47:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.