^29 (A)People of Philistia, the rod that beat you is broken, but you have no reason to be glad. When one snake dies, a worse one comes in its place. A snake's egg hatches a flying dragon. ³⁰ The Lord will be a shepherd to the poor of his people and will let them live in safety. But he will send a terrible famine on you Philistines, and it will not leave any of you alive.

³¹ Howl and cry for help, all you Philistine cities! Be terrified, all of you! A cloud of dust is coming from the north—it is an army with no cowards in its ranks.

Prophecy against Philistia

^15 (A)The Sovereign Lord said, “The Philistines have taken cruel revenge on their agelong enemies and destroyed them in their hate. ¹⁶ And so I am announcing that I will attack the Philistines and wipe them out. I will destroy everyone left living there on the Philistine Plain. ¹⁷ I will punish them severely and take full revenge on them. They will feel my anger. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

^4 (A)“What are you trying to do to me, Tyre, Sidon, and all of Philistia? Are you trying to pay me back for something? If you are, I will quickly pay you back! ⁵ You have taken my silver and gold and carried my rich treasures into your temples. ⁶ You have taken the people of Judah and Jerusalem far from their own country and sold them to the Greeks. ⁷ Now I am going to bring them out of the places to which you have sold them. I will do to you what you have done to them. ⁸ I will let your sons and daughters be sold to the people of Judah; they will sell them to the far-off Sabeans. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Philistia

^6 (A)The Lord says, “The people of Gaza have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They carried off a whole nation and sold them as slaves to the people of Edom. ⁷ So I will send fire upon the city walls of Gaza and burn down its fortresses. ⁸ I will remove the rulers of the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon. I will punish the city of Ekron, and all the Philistines who are left will die.”

The Doom of the Nations around Israel

^4 (A)No one will be left in the city of Gaza. Ashkelon will be deserted. The people of Ashdod will be driven out in half a day,^[a] and the people of Ekron will be driven from their city. ⁵ You Philistines are doomed, you people who live along the coast. The Lord has passed sentence on you. He will destroy you, and not one of you will be left. ⁶ Your land by the sea will become open fields with shepherd's huts and sheep pens. ⁷ The people of Judah who survive will occupy your land. They will pasture their flocks there and sleep in the houses of Ashkelon. The Lord their God will be with them and make them prosper again.

^5 (A)The city of Ashkelon will see this and be afraid. The city of Gaza will see it and suffer great pain. So will Ekron, and her hopes will be shattered. Gaza will lose her king, and Ashkelon will be left deserted. ⁶ People of mixed race will live in Ashdod. The Lord says, “I will humble all these proud Philistines. ⁷ They will no longer eat meat with blood in it, or other forbidden food. All the survivors will become part of my people and be like a clan in the tribe of Judah. Ekron will become part of my people, as the Jebusites^[a] did.