Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.
I will cut off the Cherethims. There is a play on similar sounds in the Hebrew, 'Hichratti Cherethim,' I will slay the slayers. The name may have been given to a section of the Philistines, from their warlike disposition (1 Samuel 30:14). They excelled in archery, whence David enrolled a bodyguard from them (2 Samuel 8:18; 2 Samuel 15:18; 2 Samuel 20:7). They sprang from Caphtor, identified by many with Crete, which was famed for archery, and to which the name Cherethim seems akin. Though in emigration, which mostly tended westwards, Crete seems more likely to be colonized from Philistia than Philistia from Crete, a section of Cretans may have settled at Cherethim in south Philistia, while the Philistines, as a nation, may have come originally from the east (cf. Deuteronomy 2:23; Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7; Zephaniah 2:5, "Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coasts, the nation of the Cherethites"). In Genesis 10:14 the Philistines are made distinct from the Caphtorim, and are said to come from the Casluhim; so that the Cherethim were but a part of the Philistines, which 1 Samuel 30:14 confirms.
And destroy the remnant of the sea coast - i:e., 'on the sea coast' of the Mediterranean; those left remaining after the former overthrows inflicted by Samuel, David, Hezekiah, and Psammetichus of Egypt, father of Pharaoh-necho (Jeremiah 25:20).