Ezekiel 25:15-17

‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Because the Philistine have dealt by revenge, and have taken revenge with heartfelt malice to destroy it with perpetual enmity, therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold I will stretch out my hand on the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. And I will execute vengeance on them with severe rebukes, and they will know that I am Yahweh when I will lay my vengeance on them.” ’

The oracle is short and to the point. ‘Because -- therefore --.’ Those who are at enmity with God’s people are at enmity with God, especially as by their attitude they are declaring their attitude towards Yahweh Himself (for here they were to be made to know that He is Yahweh). Here the enmity of Philistia is depicted as permanent and perpetual. There was no pity, only malice. That I why they were to be punished (compare Zephaniah 2:5). Those who show malice will reap what they sow.

The Cherethites were regularly linked with the Philistines as one. The name probably connects with ‘Cretans’. They had come over together from Crete and the Aegean. They are last mentioned in the Old Testament in Zechariah 9:6. After Maccabaean times the Philistines ceased as a people although the names of their cities were perpetuated. The alliteration ‘the cutting off of the Cherethites’ is more prominent in the Hebrew.