Jeremiah 47:1-7 - Exposition

PROPHECY ON THE PHILISTINES .

But which Pharaoh did this editor mean? and when did he lay siege to Gaza? The general view is that he means Pharaoh-necho, who, according to Herodotus (2:159), first defeated "the Syrians at Magdolus," and then "made himself master of Cadytis, a large city of Syria." It is assumed that Magdolus is a mistake for Megiddo, and that Cadytis means Gaza; and the former supposition is probable enough (a similar confusion has been made by certain manuscripts at Matthew 15:39 ; comp. the Authorized and Revised Versions); but the latter is rather doubtful. It is true that in Jeremiah 3:5 Herodotus speaks of "the country from Phoenicia to the borders of the city Cadyfis" as belonging to "the Palestine Syrians;" but is it not more probable that Herodotus mistook the position of Jerusalem ( Cadushta , "the holy (city)," in Aramaic) than that he called Gaza "a city almost as large as Sardis"? Gaza was never called" the holy city;" Jerusalem was. Sir Gardner Wilkinson (ap. Rawlinson's 'Herodotus') takes a different view. According to him (and to Rashi long before) it was Pharaoh-hophra or Apries who captured Gaza. We know from Herodotus (2:161) that this king waged war with Phoenicia, which is, perhaps, to be taken in connection with the notice in Jeremiah 37:5 , Jeremiah 37:11 , of the diversion created by an Egyptian army during the siege of Jerusalem. This hypothesis is to a certain extent confirmed by the mention of "Tyrus and Zidon" in Jeremiah 37:4 , but stands in much need of some direct historical confirmation.