How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
How can it be quiet? Jeremiah, from addressing the sword in the second person, turns to his hearers and speaks of it in the third person.
Seeing the Lord hath given it charge - (Ezekiel 14:17, "Sword, go through the land").
The sea-shore - the strip of land between the mountains and Mediterranean held by the Philistines: "their valley" (note, Jeremiah 47:5).
There hath he appointed it - (Micah 6:9). There hath He ordered it to rage.
Remarks:
(1) The Philistines had been always enemies of Israel, and as a thorn in their side. Occupying the narrow strip of territory between the mountains and the western shore the Holy Land, they had countless opportunities of harassing God's elect people; so much so, that they at one time got forcible possession of the sacred ark of God in the battle in which Hophni and Phinehas were killed. The divine judgment against them, though long deferred, overtook them at last. The Chaldean hosts, like "an overflowing flood," deluged their land. Nor could those most powerful of the maritime cities of old, the neighbouring Tyre and Zidon, render them any substantial help. Nay, those cities too fell before Nebuchadnezzar; nor could the Philistines, disabled as they were. render them, as formerly, any help (Jeremiah 47:4).
(2) The opponents and injurers of the people of God may seemingly flourish for a time, but they shall ere long perish forever. No helper can avail to mitigate the stroke of vengeance, much less to save them altogether from it, when God has given His charge to the sword of justice (Jeremiah 47:6-7).
(3) It is impossible, in the eternal nature of things, as constituted by God, but that unatoned sin must sooner or later bring down vengeance. Wherever "the carcass" case of corruption is, there must "the eagles" of heaven be gathered together (Matthew 24:28).
(4) Blessed be God, the sword of justice, which was unsheathed against our guilty race, is put up again into (4) Blessed be God, the sword of justice, which was unsheathed against our guilty race, is put up again into the scabbard, rests, and is still (Jeremiah 47:6), in the case of all who are one with Christ our Saviour by a living faith. For God the Father gave it a charge against Him who, though He knew no sin, became sin for us, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts." Since the shepherd has been smitten for us, according to the eternal "appointment" of God's love, the sword has no charge from God against thee of us who believe. But unbelievers are still under the abiding wrath of God, which hangs over their heads like a sword suspensed by a thread, and ready to fall at any moment. May the readers of this Commentary be all led now, while there is time, to Him who alone can save them from the wrath to come!