King James Version
Jeremiah 46
28 verses with commentary
Prophecy Against Egypt
The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;</strong> This superscription introduces the oracles against foreign nations (chapters 46-51), demonstrating God's sovereignty over all peoples, not merely covenant Israel. The phrase "against the Gentiles" (<em>el-hagoyim</em>, "to/concerning the nations") indicates these prophecies address international affairs....
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
XLVI.
(1) **The word of the Lord . . .**—We come here upon something like the traces of a plan in the arrangement of Jeremiah’s prophecies. Those that were concerned exclusively with the outside nations of the heathen were collected together, and attached as an appendix to those which were addressed directly to his own people. Most of those that follow were connected historically with Jeremiah 25:...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
14-17. Prophecy as to the surrounding nations, the Syrians, Ammonites, &c., who helped forward Judah's calamity: they shall share her fall; and, on their conversion, they shall share with her in the future restoration. This is a brief anticipation of the predictions in the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, and forty-ninth chapters.
**touch--**(Zec 2:8).
**pluck them out ... pluck out ... Judah-...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho</strong>—Chapters 46-51 contain oracles against foreign nations, asserting Yahweh's sovereignty over all kingdoms. <em>Pharaoh-necho</em> (פַּרְעֹה נְכוֹ) was Necho II (610-595 BC), who killed godly King Josiah at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29) and briefly controlled Judah.<br><br><strong>By the river Euphrates in Carchemish</strong> (עַל־נְהַר־פְּ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho.**—The king of Egypt thus named was the last of its great native sovereigns. He was the sixth king of the twenty-sixth dynasty of Manetho, and succeeded his father Psammetichus in B.C. 610, and reigned for sixteen years. Herodotus (ii. 158, 159) relates as his chief achievements that he anticipated the Suez Canal by endeavouring to connect the...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
14-17. Prophecy as to the surrounding nations, the Syrians, Ammonites, &c., who helped forward Judah's calamity: they shall share her fall; and, on their conversion, they shall share with her in the future restoration. This is a brief anticipation of the predictions in the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, and forty-ninth chapters.
**touch--**(Zec 2:8).
**pluck them out ... pluck out ... Judah-...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Order ye the buckler and shield</strong> (עִרְכוּ מָגֵן וְצִנָּה)—The Hebrew imperative <em>irkhu</em> commands battle readiness. <em>Magen</em> (מָגֵן) designates the small round shield, <em>tsinnah</em> (צִנָּה) the large body shield. This begins a vivid, ironic taunt: God commands Egypt to prepare thoroughly for battle—only to demonstrate the futility of human military preparation again...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3, 4) **Order ye the buckler and shield . . .**—The poem opens with a summons to the hosts of Nebuchadnezzar to prepare for their victory. First the foot-soldiers are called, then the horse, lastly the light-armed troops.
**Put on the brigandines.**—The history of the word is not without interest. Light-armed skirmishers were known in Italian as “brigands” (*briganti—*literally, “quarrellers”); t...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
14-17. Prophecy as to the surrounding nations, the Syrians, Ammonites, &c., who helped forward Judah's calamity: they shall share her fall; and, on their conversion, they shall share with her in the future restoration. This is a brief anticipation of the predictions in the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, and forty-ninth chapters.
**touch--**(Zec 2:8).
**pluck them out ... pluck out ... Judah-...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Harness the horses</strong> (אִסְרוּ הַסּוּסִים)—The imperative <em>isru</em> means 'bind' or 'yoke,' referring to hitching war horses to chariots. Egyptian chariot warfare was legendary, the dominant military technology of the Late Bronze Age. The rapid-fire commands create breathless urgency.<br><br><strong>Furbish the spears</strong> (מִרְקוּ הָרְמָחִים)—The verb <em>mirqu</em> means 'p...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
14-17. Prophecy as to the surrounding nations, the Syrians, Ammonites, &c., who helped forward Judah's calamity: they shall share her fall; and, on their conversion, they shall share with her in the future restoration. This is a brief anticipation of the predictions in the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, and forty-ninth chapters.
**touch--**(Zec 2:8).
**pluck them out ... pluck out ... Judah-...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, saith the LORD. beaten: Heb. broken in pieces fled: Heb. fled a flight
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Wherefore have I seen them dismayed</strong> (מַדּוּעַ רָאִיתִי הֵמָּה חַתִּים)—The interrogative <em>maddua</em> expresses shocked surprise: 'Why do I see...?' The adjective <em>hattim</em> (חַתִּים) means 'terrified' or 'shattered.' After v. 3-4's confident preparation, the sudden reversal is stunning. <strong>Turned away back</strong> (נְסֹגִים אָחוֹר) describes chaotic retreat—discipli...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Wherefore have I seen them dismayed . . .?**—The prophet speaks as seeing already in his mind’s eye the confusion of the defeated army, with no way to escape, driven back on the Euphrates. In the “fear round about” (*Magor-missabib*) we have one of his characteristic formulæ (Jeremiah 6:25; Jeremiah 20:3; Jeremiah 20:10; Jeremiah 49:29).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape</strong>—The negated jussives express divine decree: neither speed (<em>qal</em>, קַל) nor strength (<em>gibbor</em>, גִּבּוֹר) provides escape from God's judgment. This echoes Amos 2:14-15: 'Flight shall perish from the swift...neither shall the mighty deliver himself.' Human advantages become worthless under divine sentence.<br><br><...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 13 Jr 13:1-27. Symbolical Prophecy (Jr 13:1-7).
Many of these figurative acts being either not possible, or not probable, or decorous, seem to have existed only in the mind of the prophet as part of his inward vision. [So Calvin]. The world he moved in was not the sensible, but the spiritual, world. Inward acts were, however, when it was possible and proper, materialized by outward perfo...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Who is this that cometh up as a flood</strong> (מִי־זֶה כַּיְאֹר יַעֲלֶה)—The interrogative introduces poetic imagery mocking Egypt's imperial arrogance. <em>Ye'or</em> (יְאֹר) specifically designates the Nile River, Egypt's lifeblood and symbol of national power. The simile compares Egypt's military expansion to the Nile's annual inundation—seemingly unstoppable, life-giving to Egypt, ove...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7, 8) **Who is this that cometh up as a flood? . . .**—The Hebrew word for “flood” is used as a proper name almost exclusively (Daniel 12:5-6 being the only exception) for the Nile (*e.g., *Genesis 41:1-3; Exodus 2:3; Exodus 4:9; Amos 8:8; Amos 9:5), and thus the very form of the question points to the answer that follows. The prophet goes back, as an English poet might have done after the destru...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers</strong>—Jeremiah employs vivid flood imagery using <em>ye'or</em> (יְאֹר), specifically the Nile River whose annual inundations both sustained and threatened Egypt. The verb <em>ga'ah</em> (גָּאָה, "riseth up") conveys pride, arrogance, and overwhelming force—the same word used for the Red Sea's waves in Exodus 15:1. E...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow. the Ethiopians: Heb. Cush the Libyans: Heb. Put
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots</strong>—The Hebrew <em>alah</em> (עָלָה, "come up") echoes verse 8's ascending waters, now ironically commanding Egypt's military to advance toward their doom. The verb <em>halal</em> (הָלַל, "rage") means to act madly or boast, suggesting frenzied, reckless confidence. Jeremiah catalogs Egypt's mercenary forces: <strong>the Ethiopians</strong> (<...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **The Ethiopians and the Libyans.**—In the Hebrew, *Cush *and *Put. *The verse describes the prominent elements in the composition of the Egyptian army. The “chariots and horses” had long been proverbial (1Kings 10:28-29; 2Chronicles 1:16; Exodus 15:19). The Cushites were the Ethiopians of the Upper Valley of the Nile, sometimes, as under Zerah (2Chronicles 14:9) and Tirhakah (2Kings 19:9), as...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. Euphrates--**In order to support the view that Jeremiah's act was outward, Henderson considers that the Hebrew Phrath here is Ephratha, the original name of Beth-lehem, six miles south of Jerusalem, a journey easy to be made by Jeremiah. The non-addition of the word "river," which usually precedes Phrath, when meaning Euphrates, favors this view. But I prefer English Version. The Euphrates is...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
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KJV Study Commentary
God declares the battle where Egypt falls is 'the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance.' This applies 'Day of the LORD' language (usually reserved for Israel) to pagan nations, showing God's sovereignty extends to all. The battle becomes a sacrifice to God - Egypt's army is the offering. God's justice requires satisfaction, and He will have His vengeance on the proud who oppose His pur...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **This is the day of the Lord God of hosts.—**The prophet contemplates the issue of all these great preparations, and sees that they will end in a disastrous overthrow, the righteous retribution for long years of cruelty and outrage. In doing so he falls back upon the language of earlier prophets (Isaiah 34:8; Zephaniah 1:7), in part also upon that of Deuteronomy 32:42. There is to be a “grea...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured. thou shalt: Heb. no cure shall be unto thee
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt</strong>—The bitter irony intensifies as Jeremiah prescribes medicine for a mortal wound. Gilead's balm (<em>tsori</em>, צֳרִי), a resinous healing substance exported throughout the ancient world (Genesis 37:25), symbolizes therapeutic hope. Yet the diagnosis is devastating: <strong>in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **Go up into Gilead, and take balm . . .**—The words have the tone of a triumphant irony. The “balm of Gilead” was looked on as a cure for all wounds (Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 51:8), but the wounds which Egypt received at Carchemish would be found incurable. It proved, in fact, to be a blow from which the old Egyptian monarchy never recovered. In the “virgin, the daughter of Egypt”—virgin, as ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. after many days--**Time enough was given for the girdle to become unfit for use. So, in course of time, the Jews became corrupted by the heathen idolatries around, so as to cease to be witnesses of Jehovah; they must, therefore, be cast away as a "marred" or spoiled girdle.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land</strong>—Egypt's humiliation becomes international spectacle. The Hebrew <em>qalon</em> (קָלוֹן, "shame") denotes disgrace, dishonor, and ignominy—the opposite of the glory (<em>kavod</em>, כָּבוֹד) Egypt sought. The phrase <em>tsa'aqatekh</em> (צַעֲקָתֵךְ, "thy cry") refers to the shriek of terror and anguish in defeat,...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt</strong>—This verse introduces a second oracle against Egypt, predicting Nebuchadnezzar's later invasion of Egypt itself (fulfilled 568 BC). The phrase <em>devar-YHWH</em> (דְּבַר־יְהוָה, "word of the LORD") emphasizes divine origin—this is not political speculat...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **The word that the Lord spake . . .**—The opening words clearly point to this as a distinct prophecy from the preceding, pointing to subsequent events, and it was probably delivered much later, possibly in connexion with Jeremiah 43:10, and placed where it is as belonging to the series of predictions which had Egypt as their subject.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-13** Here the folly of those who made idols, and then prayed to them, is exposed. How does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants, but are for a religion which costs them nothing! The service of sin always costs a great deal. God puts it to them what senseless, helpless things idols are. Let, then, the Jews show themselves men, av...
Read full commentary →Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes</strong>—The command to <em>higgidu</em> (הַגִּידוּ, "declare") and <em>hashmi'u</em> (הַשְׁמִיעוּ, "publish/proclaim") emphasizes public, unavoidable announcement. Jeremiah names specific Egyptian cities: <em>Migdol</em> (מִגְדֹּל, fortress in the eastern Nile delta), <em>Noph</em> (נֹף, Memphis, ancient capi...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **Declare ye in Egypt.**—The general proclamation is afterwards defined by the names of the cities which were the more immediate objects of Nebuchadrezzar’s attack. For the three cities named see Note on Jeremiah 44:1.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
9. (Le 26:19).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →Why are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Why are thy valiant men swept away?</strong>—The rhetorical question drips with irony, using <em>madua</em> (מַדּוּעַ, "why") to probe Egypt's humiliation. The phrase <em>niskhaf abbireyka</em> (נִסְחַף אַבִּירֶיךָ, "swept away thy valiant men") employs <em>sakhaf</em> (סָחַף), meaning swept away like flood debris, and <em>abbirim</em> (אַבִּירִים), referring to mighty bulls or champions—E...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(15) **Why are thy valiant men swept away?**—Better, *Why is thy strong bull dragged away! *The Hebrew verbs are in the singular, and the adjective is given in the same number both in the LXX. and Vulgate. The former gives the rendering “Why did Apis flee from thee, and thy chosen calf abode not” as if referring to the bull Apis as the representative of Osiris, the chief deity of Egypt; and this v...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. imagination--**rather, "obstinacy."
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword. made: Heb. multiplied the faller
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another</strong>—The Hebrew <em>hirbah koshel</em> (הִרְבָּה כּוֹשֵׁל, "made many to fall/stumble") and <em>gam ish el re'ehu naphal</em> (גַּם־אִישׁ אֶל־רֵעֵהוּ נָפָל, "one fell upon another") paint chaos—soldiers tripping over fallen comrades in panicked retreat, the antithesis of military order. The LORD (<em>YHWH</em>) is the active subject who ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **Arise, and let us go again to our own people.**—The case contemplated is that of the settlers in Egypt, the Lydians, Ionians, and Carians (see Note on Jeremiah 46:9) whom Psammetichus had encouraged, or the fugitives from Judæa of Jeremiah 43:5-7. These should find that it was no longer a safe home for them. The “oppressing sword” is beyond question the right rendering, but it is curious th...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
11. (Jr 33:9; Ex 19:5).
**glory--**an ornament to glory in.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise</strong>—The fleeing mercenaries' taunt devastates Egypt's reputation. The phrase <em>qar'u sham Par'oh melekh-Mitsrayim sha'on</em> uses <em>sha'on</em> (שָׁאוֹן), meaning tumult, noise, empty sound—all bluster, no substance. Egypt's ruler, who presented himself as divinely powerful, is exposed as mere noise without ability to deliv...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **They did cry there . . .**—Better, Th*ere they cry** . . .*** The difficulty of the verse has led to very various renderings. The meaning of the English version is that the exiles returning to their own land would say that Pharaoh with all his haughty boasts was but an empty noise, that he had passed the limit of God’s long-suffering, and that the day of retribution had come. A slight chang...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
12. A new image.
**Do we not ... know ... wine--**The "bottles" are those used in the East, made of skins; our word "hogshead," originally "oxhide," alludes to the same custom. As they were used to hold water, milk, and other liquids, what the prophet said (namely, that they should be all filled with wine) was not, as the Jews' taunting reply implied, a truism even literally. The figurative sens...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →As I live, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>As I live, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts</strong>—This divine oath begins with <em>khai-ani</em> (חַי־אָנִי, "as I live"), God's most solemn form of oath, swearing by His own eternal life since there is none greater (Hebrews 6:13). The title <em>ha-melekh</em> (הַמֶּלֶךְ, "the King") contrasts sharply with Pharaoh, the false king who is "but a noise." <em>YHWH Tseva'ot</e...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **Surely as Tabor is among the mountains . . .**—Nebuchadnezzar in his high-towering greatness is compared to two of the most conspicuous mountains of Palestine, Tabor rising in solitary greatness 1,350 feet above the plain, Carmel 1,805 feet above the sea. So, in Jeremiah 22:6, the king of Judah is compared to “Gilead and the head of Lebanon.”
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13. upon David's throne--**literally, who sit for David on his throne; implying the succession of the Davidic family (Jr 22:4).
**all--**indiscriminately of every rank.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity : for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant. furnish: Heb. make thee instruments of captivity
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity</strong> (הֵיכִינִי לָךְ כְּלֵי גוֹלָה)—The imperative <em>heikiniy</em> commands Egypt's inhabitants to prepare <em>keliy golah</em> (vessels of exile), the baggage of deportation. <strong>Noph</strong> (נֹף), Hebrew for Memphis, Egypt's ancient capital and religious center, would become <strong>waste and desolate</st...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt.**—As in Jeremiah 46:11, the daughter is Egypt itself personified. She is to prepare herself (literally, *with the instruments of captivity*)*, *as with “bag and baggage” for a long journey. (Comp. Ezekiel 12:3.) Noph (= Memphis) is to be left as a depopulated city.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**14. dash--**(Psa 2:9). As a potter's vessel (Re 2:27).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Egypt is like a very fair heifer</strong> (עֶגְלָה יְפֵה־פִיָּה מִצְרָיִם)—The Hebrew <em>eglah yafah-fiyyah</em> portrays Egypt as a beautiful, well-fed young cow, pampered and proud. Yet <strong>destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north</strong> (קֶרֶץ מִצָּפוֹן בָּא בָא)—the doubled <em>ba ba</em> (it cometh, it cometh) intensifies the certainty and imminence of Babylon's approach....
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **Egypt is like a very fair heifer.**—The similitude points, like the “strong one” of Jeremiah 46:15, to the Apis worship of Egypt. The nation is like its god. The figure is continued in the words that follow. There comes from the north (from the land of the Chaldees, as in Jeremiah 1:1), not “destruction,” but a *gadfly *that shall sting the heifer into the madness of agony. So, in Isaiah 7:...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**15. be not proud--**Pride was the cause of their contumacy, as humility is the first step to obedience (Jr 13:17; Psa 10:4).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation. fatted: Heb. bullocks of the stall
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks</strong> (גַּם־שְׂכִרֶיהָ בְקִרְבָּהּ כְּעֶגְלֵי מַרְבֵּק)—Egypt's mercenaries (<em>sekireyha</em>) are compared to <em>egley marbeq</em> (calves of the stall), pampered livestock raised for slaughter. The irony is devastating: soldiers hired for strength prove as helpless as penned animals. <strong>They did not stand</strong> (לֹא...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(21) **Her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks.**—Literally, *bullocks of the stall. *The prophet harps, as it were, on the same image. The mercenaries—Ionians, Carians, and others—in the army of Pharaoh-Hophra, who had their camp at Bubastis (Herod. ii. 152, 163), should be like a drove of terrified cattle, fed to the full, driven to the slaughter-house.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**16. Give glory, &c.--**Show by repentance and obedience to God, that you revere His majesty. So Joshua exhorted Achan to "give glory to God" by confessing his crime, thereby showing he revered the All-knowing God.
**stumble--**image from travellers stumbling into a fatal abyss when overtaken by nightfall (Is 5:30; 59:9, 10; Am 8:9).
**dark mountains--**literally, "mountains of twilight" ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The voice thereof shall go like a serpent</strong> (קוֹלָהּ כַּנָּחָשׁ יֵלֵךְ)—Egypt's once-mighty voice is reduced to a serpent's hiss (<em>qolah kannachash</em>), a whisper of former power. This evokes Genesis 3, where the serpent deceived Eve in Egypt-like abundance. <strong>They shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood</strong> (כִּי בְחַיִל יֵלֵכוּ ו...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(22) **The voice thereof shall go like a serpent.—**Better, *her voice*—*i.e., *the voice of Egypt. In early prophecies Egypt had been compared to a “dragon” or “serpent” (Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 51:9; Psalm 74:13). Here the serpent is represented as hissing in its rage and terror in the forest against which the enemies are advancing. The sign then gives way to the thing signified, and the latter clau...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**17. hear it--**my exhortation.
**in secret--**as one mourning and humbling himself for their sin, not self-righteously condemning them (Php 3:18).
**pride--**(see on Jr 13:15; Job 33:17).
**flock--**(Jr 13:20), just as kings and leaders are called pastors.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable .
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched</strong> (כָּרְתוּ יַעְרָהּ נְאֻם־יְהוָה כִּי לֹא יֵחָקֵר)—The verb <em>karatu</em> (cut down) continues the timber metaphor, with <em>yaarah</em> (her forest) representing Egypt's dense population or military forces. The phrase <em>lo yechaqer</em> (cannot be searched/penetrated) emphasizes the forest's seeming i...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**18. king--**Jehoiachin or Jeconiah.
**queen--**the queen mother who, as the king was not more than eighteen years old, held the chief power. Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan, carried away captive with Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 24:8-15).
**Humble yourselves--**that is, Ye shall be humbled, or brought low (Jr 22:26; 28:2).
**your principalities--**rather, "your head ornament."
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north</strong> (הֹבִישָׁה בַּת־מִצְרָיִם נִתְּנָה בְּיַד עַם־צָפוֹן)—The verb <em>hovishshah</em> (confounded/ashamed) denotes humiliation and disappointment of false hope. <em>Bat Mitsrayim</em> (daughter of Egypt) personifies the nation as a woman stripped of dignity, <em>nittenah</em> (d...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**19. cities of the south--**namely, south of Judea; farthest off from the enemy, who advanced from the north.
**shut up--**that is, deserted (Is 24:10); so that none shall be left to open the gates to travellers and merchants again [Henderson]. Rather, shut up so closely by Nebuchadnezzar's forces, sent on before (2Ki 24:10, 11), that none shall be allowed by the enemy to get out (compare Jr 13...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him: multitude: or, nourisher: Heb. Amon
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No</strong> (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אָמַר הִנְנִי פוֹקֵד אֶל־אֲמוֹן מִנֹּא)—<em>YHWH Tsevaot</em> (LORD of armies) emphasizes divine military supremacy. <em>Amon mi-No</em> refers to the god Amon-Re worshiped at No (Thebes), Egypt's religious capital. The verb <em>foqed</em> (punish/visit) is th...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(25) **The multitude of No.**—More accurately, *I will punish Amon No. *The first word is the Egyptian Ammon or Hammon, but is probably used also, with a natural paronomasia on the name of the city, in its Hebrew sense of “multitude.” “No” here, and as No Amon in Nahum 3:8, stands for Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt. The name appears in the form NIA in Assyrian inscriptions. Compare also Ezekie...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**20. from ... north--**Nebuchadnezzar and his hostile army (Jr 1:14; 6:22).
**flock ... given thee--**Jeremiah, amazed at the depopulation caused by Nebuchadnezzar's forces, addresses Jerusalem (a noun of multitude, which accounts for the blending of plural and singular, Your eyes ... thee ... thy flock), and asks where is the population (Jr 13:17, "flock") which God had given her?
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon</strong> (וּנְתַתִּים בְּיַד מְבַקְשֵׁי נַפְשָׁם וּבְיַד נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּר מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל)—The Hebrew <em>mevaqqeshey nafsham</em> (seekers of their life/soul) intensifies the threat beyond mere conquest to annihilation. Yet astonishingly, <strong>and afterward it shall b...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(26) **Afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days . . .**—As in the earlier utterance of Isaiah (Isaiah 19:21-25) and the contemporary prophecies of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 29:11-16) there is a gleam of hope at the end of the vision of judgment. Egypt was to revive, though not again to take its place among the conquerors and tyrants of the world. (Comp. Jeremiah 48:47; Jeremiah 49:39.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**21. captains, and as chief--**literally, "princes as to headship"; or "over thy head," namely, the Chaldeans. Rather, translate, "What wilt thou say when God will set them (the enemies, Jr 13:20) above thee, seeing that thou thyself hast accustomed them (to be) with thee as (thy) lovers in the highest place (literally, 'at thy head')? Thou canst not say God does thee wrong, seeing it was thou th...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
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KJV Study Commentary
'Fear not, O Jacob my servant' appears frequently in prophetic literature (Isa 41:10, 44:2). Despite judgment, God's ultimate purpose is restoration. The phrase 'I will save thee from afar' acknowledges the distance of exile but affirms God's ability to reach across it. No distance separates God's people from His saving power (Rom 8:38-39).
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(27, 28) **Fear not thou, O my servant Jacob . . .**—The words that follow are found also in Jeremiah 30:10-11, and have been commented on there, and were either inserted here by the prophet himself, or by some later editor of his writings, as an appropriate conclusion, contrasting the care of Jehovah for His people with the sentence upon the power in which they were trusting for protection. Why s...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. if thou say--**connecting this verse with "What wilt thou say" (Jr 13:21)?
**skirts discovered--**that is, are thrown up so as to expose the person (Jr 13:26; Is 3:17; Na 3:5).
**heels made bare--**The sandal was fastened by a thong above the heel to the instep. The Hebrew, is, "are violently handled," or "torn off"; that is, thou art exposed to ignominy. Image from an adulteress.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished. not leave: or, not utterly cut thee off
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
In the midst of prophecies of judgment on nations, God promises not to make 'a full end' of Israel. Though scattered, disciplined, and punished, God will preserve a remnant. This echoes the Abrahamic covenant's unconditional promise (Gen 12:1-3). God's chastening of His people proves His covenant faithfulness - He won't let them go, won't utterly destroy them. This grounds Christian assurance in G...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. Ethiopian--**the Cushite of Abyssinia. Habit is second nature; as therefore it is morally impossible that the Jews can alter their inveterate habits of sin, nothing remains but the infliction of the extremest punishment, their expatriation (Jr 13:24).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 46
The idols could not save themselves, but God saves his people. (Is. 46:1-4) The folly of worshipping idols. (Is. 46:5-13)
**Verses 1-4** The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from...
Read full commentary →