And this doom the Lord pronounced to the prophet Jeremias against the Philistines, before the defeat of Gaza by king Pharao.

Waters rising in the north,✻ the Lord says, a river that overflows its banks, covering earth and earth’s increase, city and citizen! Loud the cries everywhere, a whole world in lament,

as the sound of armed hosts draws nearer, groan of chariot and rattle of wheels; listless hang hands, father for son has never a glance to spare.

So comes the day when Philistia shall be plundered, all of it, Tyre and Sidon of all their defenders shall be stripped; Philistia the Lord despoils, and all that is left of the island-dwellers from Caphtor.

Shorn heads in Gaza; Ascalon is silent now, silent all their valleys. Long wilt thou bear the marks of thy mourning!

Rest thee, sword of the Lord! Back into thy scabbard, calm thyself, and rest!

Nay, rest how should it? It holds the Lord’s warrant to subdue Ascalon and the sea-board country; there he has made tryst with it.