“Now you are walled around
With a wall.
Siege is laid against us.
With a rod,
They strike
The ruler of Israel.”
This appears to be an insult to the king of Israel. He apparently was surrounded on all sides, with a siege set against him. Then these invaders would strike the king of Israel with a rod or stick, as they humiliated him. There is a slight discrepancy whether this is the first verse of chapter 5 or the last verse of chapter 4.
“The slaughter
With the violence
Done to your brother Jacob
Means that shame
Shall cover you!
You shall be cut off forever!
On the day
That you stood aside,
On the day
That strangers
Carried off his wealth,
On the day
That foreigners
Entered his gates,
On the day
That they cast lots
For Jerusalem,
You too were
Like one of them.”
For all the violence and slaughter that was done to Edom’s brother Jacob, shame would come upon the Edomites. They would be cut off forever. In other words, these Edomites were as guilty as the strangers who attacked Jerusalem. On that day of attack on the holy city, when the foreigners and strangers entered the gates of Jerusalem and took their wealth, the Edomites were like the attackers who were casting lots for Jerusalem. They were just like these invaders in their complicity. They did nothing to help the people of Jerusalem and Judah.
“At the noise
Of the stamping
Of the hoofs
Of his stallions,
At the clatter
Of his chariots,
At the rumbling
Of their wheels,
The parents do not
Look back
For children.
Their hands are so feeble.
The day is coming
To destroy
All the Philistines.
They will be cut off
From Tyre and Sidon,
From every helper
That remains.
Yahweh is destroying
The Philistines,
The remnant
Of the coastland
Of Caphtor.”
The Philistines were going to hear the hoofs of the stallions of these invaders. They would hear the noise of the rumbling chariot wheels. Parents would not turn back to save their children, because their own hands would be too weak. The Philistines would be destroyed, since they were cut off from any help from the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon. Yahweh was going to destroy the remnant of the coastal people, who may have come from the island of Caphtor or Crete.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 