Verse 4

Judgment on Surrounding Nations Indeed, Gaza will be deserted and Ashkelon will become a heap of ruins. Invaders will drive away the people of Ashdod by noon, and Ekron will be overthrown.

Referenced Verses

  • Zech 9:5-7 : 5 Ashkelon will see and be afraid; Gaza will be in great anguish, as will Ekron, for her hope will have been dried up. Gaza will lose her king, and Ashkelon will no longer be inhabited. 6 A mongrel people will live in Ashdod, for I will greatly humiliate the Philistines. 7 I will take away their abominable religious practices; then those who survive will become a community of believers in our God, like a clan in Judah, and Ekron will be like the Jebusites.
  • Amos 1:6-8 : 6 This is what the LORD says:“Because Gaza has committed three crimes– make that four!– I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They deported a whole community and sold them to Edom. 7 So I will set Gaza’s city wall on fire; fire will consume her fortresses. 8 I will remove the ruler from Ashdod, the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. I will strike Ekron with my hand; the rest of the Philistines will also die.” The Sovereign LORD has spoken!
  • Jer 6:4 : 4 They will say,‘Prepare to do battle against it! Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’ But later they will say,‘Woe to us! For the day is almost over and the shadows of evening are getting long.
  • Jer 15:8 : 8 Their widows will become in my sight more numerous than the grains of sand on the seashores. At noontime I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men. I will cause anguish and terror to fall suddenly upon them.
  • Jer 25:20 : 20 the foreigners living in Egypt; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines, the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod;
  • Jer 47:1-7 : 1 Judgment on the Philistine Cities This was the LORD’s message to the prophet Jeremiah about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. 2 “Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river. They will be like an overflowing stream. They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood. They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants. People will cry out in alarm. Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain. 3 Fathers will hear the hoofbeats of the enemies’ horses, the clatter of their chariots and the rumbling of their wheels. They will not turn back to save their children because they will be paralyzed with fear. 4 For the time has come to destroy all the Philistines. The time has come to destroy all the help that remains for Tyre and Sidon. For I, the LORD, will destroy the Philistines, that remnant that came from the island of Crete. 5 The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning. The people of Ashkelon will be struck dumb. How long will you gash yourselves to show your sorrow, you who remain of Philistia’s power? 6 How long will you cry out,‘Oh, sword of the LORD, how long will it be before you stop killing? Go back into your sheath! Stay there and rest!’ 7 But how can it rest when I, the LORD, have given it orders? I have ordered it to attack the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast.
  • Ezek 25:15-17 : 15 A Prophecy Against Philistia“This is what the Sovereign LORD says:‘The Philistines have exacted merciless revenge, showing intense scorn in their effort to destroy Judah with unrelenting hostility. 16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Take note, I am about to stretch out my hand against the Philistines. I will kill the Cherethites and destroy those who remain on the seacoast. 17 I will exact great vengeance upon them with angry rebukes. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I exact my vengeance upon them.’”
  • Ps 91:6 : 6 the plague that stalks in the darkness, or the disease that ravages at noon.