This verse, literally rendered, retains more of its poetic character,— 4. For Gaza, forsaken shall she be, And Ashkelon shall be a desolation; Ashdod, at mid-day shall they drive it out, And Ekron shall be rooted up. In the first and the last line there is a correspondence in the sound of the words. The following presents another instance of the nominative case absolute,— 5. Woe to the dwellers of the line of the sea, The nation of the Kerethites! The word of Jehovah is against you: Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. The line of the sea, meaning the coast along the shore, is so called, says Henderson, “from the custom of using a cord or line in measuring off or dividing a territory.” Some derive “Kerethites” from [כרת], to cut off, to destroy; and so they were cutters off or destroyers. They were celebrated men of war in the time of David, 2 Samuel 8:18. “Philistines” mean emigrants, says Henderson; the word being derived from a verb, which signifies, in the Ethiopic language, to rove, to migrate.—Ed.