Jeremiah 47:6
O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
Jeremiah 47:6 stands in the closing portion of Jeremiah amid accounts of Jeremiah's personal experiences and his going into Egypt. There it stands alongside prophecies that Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, and Elam were to fall before Nebuchadnezzar, together with prophecies concerning Babylon and the doom of Babylon. The prophecy is placed out of chronological order, belonging after chapters 40-45 and before chapter 46, with its chapter showing its own time, yet this displacement makes no change in its teaching.
The sword of the Lord is an instrument of divine judgment whose rest and stillness are only temporary. Its coming unsheathing shows that judgment is approaching. Its image calls for urgent warning before people are overtaken by it.