Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageGaza shaves her head bare in mourning; Ashkelon is struck utterly silent. You survivors in the valley — how long will you keep cutting yourselves in grief?
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GBaldness has come upon Azzah; Ashkelon is struck silent. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourselves?
KJV
King James VersionBaldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
BSB
Berean Standard BibleThe people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?
Footnotes
Two grief rituals appear here: *qorchah* (baldness/shaving the head) and *titgodedi* (ritual self-laceration, from *gadad*, to cut or incise). Both were common mourning practices across the ancient Near East, and both were explicitly forbidden to Israel as incompatible with covenant identity (Deut. 14:1; Lev. 19:28). The prophet does not condemn these practices here — he simply describes them as the inevitable response to catastrophe, giving the oracle an almost compassionate edge. The question "how long will you gash yourselves?" reads as either a taunt or a lament — or both simultaneously. FOG renders the rituals literally to honour their cultural specificity; FOG Message adds "in grief" to make the emotional context accessible to modern readers.