⁵ Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast,
    you nation of the Cherethites!
The word of the Lord is against you,
    O Canaan, land of the Philistines,
    and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.^(B)
6 And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,
    meadows for shepherds,
    and folds for flocks.^(C)
7 The seacoast shall become the possession
    of the remnant of the house of Judah,
    on which they shall pasture,
and in the houses of Ashkelon
    they shall lie down at evening.
For the Lord their God will be mindful of them
    and restore their fortunes.^(D)

⁵ Ashkelon shall see it and be afraid;
    Gaza, too, and shall writhe in anguish;
    Ekron also, because its hopes are withered.
The king shall perish from Gaza;
    Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;^(A)
6 a mongrel people shall settle in Ashdod,
    and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia.^(B)
7 I will take away its blood from its mouth
    and its abominations from between its teeth;
it, too, shall be a remnant for our God;
    it shall be like a clan in Judah,
    and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.^(C)

⁶ Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Gaza,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,^[a]
because they carried into exile entire communities,
    to hand them over to Edom.^(A)
7 So I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza,
    and it shall devour its strongholds.
⁸ I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod
    and the one 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.^(B)

² Thus says the Lord:
See, waters are rising out of the north
    and shall become an overflowing torrent;
they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who live in it.
People shall cry out,
    and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.^(B)
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,
    at the clatter of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,
parents do not turn back for children,
    so feeble are their hands,^(C)
4 because of the day that is coming
    to destroy all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon
    every helper that remains.
For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,
    the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.^(D)
5 Baldness has come upon Gaza;
    Ashkelon is silenced.
O remnant of Anakim!^[a]
    How long will you gash yourselves?^(E)
6 Ah, sword of the Lord!
    How long until you are quiet?
Put yourself into your scabbard;
    rest and be still!^(F)
7 How can it^[b] be quiet,
    when the Lord has given it an order?
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore—
    there he has appointed it.^(G)