⁵ The city of Ashkelon will see Tyre fall
    and will be filled with fear.
Gaza will shake with terror,
    as will Ekron, for their hopes will be dashed.
Gaza’s king will be killed,
    and Ashkelon will be deserted.
⁶ Foreigners will occupy the city of Ashdod.
    I will destroy the pride of the Philistines.
⁷ I will grab the bloody meat from their mouths
    and snatch the detestable sacrifices from their teeth.
Then the surviving Philistines will worship our God
    and become like a clan in Judah.^[a]
The Philistines of Ekron will join my people,
    as the ancient Jebusites once did.

“The people of Gaza have sinned again and again,
    and I will not let them go unpunished!
They sent whole villages into exile,
    selling them as slaves to Edom.
⁷ So I will send down fire on the walls of Gaza,
    and all its fortresses will be destroyed.
⁸ I will slaughter the people of Ashdod
    and destroy the king of Ashkelon.
Then I will turn to attack Ekron,
    and the few Philistines still left will be killed,”
    says the Sovereign Lord.

“A flood is coming from the north
    to overflow the land.
It will destroy the land and everything in it—
    cities and people alike.
People will scream in terror,
    and everyone in the land will wail.
³ Hear the clatter of stallions’ hooves
    and the rumble of wheels as the chariots rush by.
Terrified fathers run madly,
    without a backward glance at their helpless children.

⁴ “The time has come for the Philistines to be destroyed,
    along with their allies from Tyre and Sidon.
Yes, the Lord is destroying the remnant of the Philistines,
    those colonists from the island of Crete.^[a]
5 Gaza will be humiliated, its head shaved bald;
    Ashkelon will lie silent.
You remnant from the Mediterranean coast,^[b]
    how long will you cut yourselves in mourning?

⁶ “Now, O sword of the Lord,
    when will you be at rest again?
Go back into your sheath;
    rest and be still.

⁷ “But how can it be still
    when the Lord has sent it on a mission?
For the city of Ashkelon
    and the people living along the sea
    must be destroyed.”

⁸ There will be more widows
    than the grains of sand on the seashore.
At noontime I will bring a destroyer
    against the mothers of young men.
I will cause anguish and terror
    to come upon them suddenly.