“Look, waters are rising from the north,
    and they will become as a raging torrent,
and they will overflow the land,
    and that which fills it,
    the city and those who live in it.
And the people will cry out,
    and every inhabitant of the land will wail,
³ from the sound of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,
    from the clattering of his chariots,^[b]
    the noise of their wheels.
Fathers do not turn to their children
    because of the slackness of their hands.
⁴ Because of the day that is coming
    to destroy all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and from Sidon
    every survivor who could help,
for Yahweh is destroying the Philistines,
    the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
⁵ Baldness has come upon Gaza,
    Ashkelon is destroyed.
O remnant of their valley,
    how long^[c] will you cut yourself with a blade?
⁶ Ah, sword of Yahweh,
    how long^[d] will you not be quiet?
Gather to your sheath,
    keep quiet and stand still.
⁷ How can you be quiet
    when Yahweh has given an order to it?
Against Ashkelon and against the shore of the sea,
    there he has appointed it.”