Jeremiah 47:6,7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

O thou sword of the Lord By the sword of the Lord, war is here intended, with which, as a great instrument of calamity and destruction, God punishes the crimes of his enemies, and pleads the cause of his people. Some have understood the prophet as speaking in the words of the Philistines, complaining of the havoc which the sword made among them; but however weary they might be of the war, and desirous of its ceasing, it is not likely they should see the hand of God in it, or term it his sword. The words are rather to be considered as the lamentation of the prophet, (and it is a most pathetic and animated one,) over the miseries with which God, in his just displeasure, was punishing the nations for their sins. How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath, given it a charge against Ashkelon, &c. Here the prophet returns an answer to the foregoing inquiry, importing, that the havoc made by the sword was the effect of God's irreversible purpose and decree. He gives the sword its commission, and it slays when and where he appoints, and continues to destroy a longer or shorter time, as he determines. When it is drawn, it will not be sheathed till it has fulfilled its charge. As God's word, so his rod and his sword shall accomplish that for which he sends them.