The Bible

 

Jeremiah 47

Study

   

1 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh struck Gaza.

2 Thus says Yahweh: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.

3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don't look back to their children for feebleness of hands;

4 because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains: for Yahweh will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor.

5 Baldness is come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?

6 You sword of Yahweh, how long will it be before you be quiet? Put up yourself into your scabbard; rest, and be still.

7 How can you be quiet, since Yahweh has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there has 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.