“See, the enemy is gathering in the north like rising waters.
    They will become like an overflowing stream
and will cover the whole country like a flood,
    even 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
    and the noisy chariots
    and the rumbling chariot wheels.
Parents will not help their children to safety,
    because they will be too weak to help.
⁴ The time has come
    to destroy all the Philistines.
It is time to destroy all who are left alive
    who could help the cities of Tyre and Sidon.
The Lord will soon destroy the Philistines,
    those left alive from the island of Crete.
⁵ The people from the city of Gaza will be sad and shave their heads.
    The people from the city of 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 and be still.’
⁷ But how can his sword rest
    when the Lord has given it a command?
He has ordered it
    to attack Ashkelon and the seacoast.”