4  ^aFor Gaza shall be deserted,

and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;

Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon,

and Ekron shall be uprooted.

5  ^oAshkelon shall see it, and be afraid;

Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish;

Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded.

The king shall perish from Gaza;

Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;

6  ^pa mixed people¹ shall dwell in Ashdod,

and I will cut off the pride of Philistia.

7  I will take away ^qits blood from its mouth,

and ^rits abominations from between its teeth;

^sit too shall be a remnant for our God;

it shall be like ^ta clan in Judah,

and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.

^k“For three transgressions of ^uGaza,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because ^vthey carried into exile a whole people

to deliver them up to Edom.

7  So I will send a fire upon the wall of ^uGaza,

and it shall devour her strongholds.

8  I will cut off the inhabitants from ^wAshdod,

and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon;

I will turn my hand against Ekron,

and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,”

says the Lord God.

6  nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,

nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

4  ^g“Prepare war against her;

arise, and let us attack ^hat noon!

Woe to us, for the day declines,

for the shadows of evening lengthen!

8  I have made their widows more in number

than ^gthe sand of the seas;

I have brought against the mothers of young men

a destroyer at noonday;

I have made anguish and terror

fall upon them suddenly.

2  “Thus says the Lord:

^hBehold, waters are rising ⁱout of the north,

^hand shall become an overflowing torrent;

they shall overflow ^jthe land and all that fills it,

the city and those who dwell in it.

Men shall cry out,

and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.

3  At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,

^lat the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,

the fathers ^mlook not back to their children,

so feeble are their hands,

4  because of the day that is coming to destroy

all ^fthe Philistines,

to cut off from ⁿTyre and Sidon

every helper that remains.

For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,

^othe remnant of the coastland of ^pCaphtor.

5  ^qBaldness has come upon Gaza;

^rAshkelon has perished.

O remnant of their valley,

^show long will you gash yourselves?

6  ^tAh, sword of the Lord!

How long till you are quiet?

Put yourself into your scabbard;

rest and be still!

7  How can it¹ be quiet

^uwhen the Lord has given it a charge?

Against ^vAshkelon and against the seashore

^whe has appointed it.”