“Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, that the rod that smote you is broken; for out of the serpent’s roots comes forth an adder, and its offspring is a fiery flying serpent.
But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; together they plunder the people of the east, their hand stretching forth on Eḏ
The message concerning the beasts of the South. Through a land of trouble and distress, from which came the lioness and lion, the adder and fiery flying serpent, they convey their riches on the backs of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people,
יהוה has done what He planned, He has filled His word Which He commanded in days of old. He has torn down, without compassion, And He has let your enemy rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “Because the Philistines have acted in vengeance, and took vengeance with scorn in their being, to destroy with lasting enmity,”
“Son of man, because Tsor has spoken against Yerushalayim, ‘Aha! She, the gateway of the peoples, has been broken, she has been turned over to me. Let me be filled, she has been ruined.’
Thus said יהוה, “For three transgressions of Azzah, and for four, I do not turn it back, because they took into exile an entire exile, to surrender it to Eḏ
“In that day you shall not be put to shame for any of your deeds in which you have transgressed against Me, for then I shall remove from your midst your proud exulting ones, and you shall no more be haughty in My set-apart mountain.
Ashqelon sees it and fears, Azzah too, writhing in anguish, and Eqron, for her expectation has dried up. And the sovereign shall perish from Azzah, and Ashqelon shall not be inhabited.