“See, the enemy is gathering in the north like rising waters.
    They will become like an overflowing stream.
They will cover the whole country like a flood.
    They will cover the towns and the people living in them.
Everyone living in that country
    will cry for help.
    The people will cry painfully.
³ They will hear the sound of the running horses.
    They will hear the noisy chariots.
    They will hear the rumbling chariot wheels.
Fathers will not help their children to safety.
    Those fathers will be too weak to help.
⁴ The time has come
    to destroy all the Philistines.
It’s time to destroy all who are left alive
    who could help Tyre and Sidon.
The Lord will soon destroy the Philistines.
    He will destroy those left alive from the island of Crete.
⁵ The people from Gaza will be sad and shave their heads.
    The people from Ashkelon will be made silent.
Those left alive from the valley,
    how long will you cut yourselves?^[a]

⁶ “You cry, ‘Sword of the Lord,
    how long will you keep fighting?
Return to your holder.
    Stop! Be still.’
⁷ But how can the sword of the Lord rest?
    The Lord gave it a command.
The Lord has ordered it
    to attack the city of Ashkelon and the seacoast.”