The Bible

 

Jeremiah 47

Study

   

1 The word of Jehovah that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote Gazah.

2 Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl,

3 at the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his steeds, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels: fathers shall not look back for [their] children, from feebleness of hands;

4 because of the day that cometh to lay waste all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remaineth; for Jehovah will lay waste the Philistines, the remnant of the island of Caphtor.

5 Baldness is come upon Gazah; Ashkelon is cut off, the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?

6 Alas! sword of Jehovah, how long wilt thou not be quiet? Withdraw into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.

7 How shouldest thou be quiet? -- For Jehovah hath given it a charge: against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore, there hath he appointed it.

   

Commentary

 

Valley

  

Mountains in the Bible represent people's highest points, where we are closest to the Lord -- our love of the Lord and the state of caring for one another. By extension, then, it makes sense that valleys represent our lowest points, the ones most distant from the Lord: Our external, bodily lives in the day-to-day world. Valleys can also represent the external level of other things, depending on context. For instance, the Valley of Shinar, where the Tower of Babel was built, represents the external state of worship people had at the time. And in Genesis 26:19, when Isaac's servants dig a well in a valley, it represents seeking true ideas in the external, literal sense of the Bible.