Jeremiahchapter 46
28 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah:
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
This chapter opens the last great section of Jeremiah, a series of messages about the nations around Judah, and it begins with Egypt. Judah's kings had leaned on Egypt for help against the powers of the north for a century. Jeremiah was appointed a prophet to the nations as well as to his own people, and these oracles are that part of his work. The chapter is war poetry, full of commands, armour and running men. Listen for the two separate messages it holds, and for the change of voice in its closing lines, where the LORD speaks to Jacob.
Context
- Who
- Judeans whose government had been betting the nation on Egyptian protection
- What
- Two poems of judgment on Egypt, one on its defeat at Carchemish and one on an invasion of its own land, closed by a word of comfort to Israel.
- Where
- Carchemish on the upper Euphrates for the first poem, and the cities of the Nile delta and Upper Egypt for the second.
- When
- The first poem is dated to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, 605 BC, and the second looks ahead to Babylon's later campaign into Egypt.
- Why
- To show that Egypt, the power Judah trusted, would fall to Babylon, and that Israel would be disciplined but never destroyed.
Historical context
Carchemish sat where the main road from Mesopotamia crossed the Euphrates in what is now southern Turkey. In 605 BC the Egyptian army under Pharaoh Neco was destroyed there by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar and pursued all the way back to the border. The Babylonian Chronicle records the rout in a few flat sentences; this chapter gives the same event as a battle scene.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The details are those of a real army of that century. Buckler and shield are prepared, horses harnessed, cavalry mount up, helmets are polished and body armour buckled on, spears are sharpened. The auxiliary troops are named, Cush, Put and Lud, that is Nubian, Libyan and Lydian mercenaries, who really did fill out the Egyptian ranks.
The retreat is described in pictures a river people would use. The Egyptian advance rises like the Nile in flood; the collapse is men slipping, falling over each other and running without looking back. Pharaoh gets a nickname: a loud noise who has let the appointed time pass.
The second oracle looks ahead to Nebuchadnezzar coming into Egypt itself. Amon of Thebes is named, Thebes far up the Nile was the great southern religious centre, and its god Amon the state deity. A defeated nation goes to Gilead for balm, and the medicine does not work.
Significance
For the first hearers this was foreign policy, not geography. Judah's court had spent decades leaning on Egypt, and had done so again under Jehoiakim and would again under Zedekiah. This chapter says the wall they were leaning on had already fallen at Carchemish.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter ends by turning to Israel with a promise in a different tone: do not fear, my servant Jacob, for I am with you; I will save you from far away, and I will make a full end of the nations where I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts sets this chapter in one prophetic reading of the annual cycle. It is read as the Haftarah of Bo, Jeremiah 46:13 to 46:28, in both rites, on the Sabbath of the portion Exodus 10:1 to 13:16. A congregation keeping that cycle hears the verses of the reference read aloud after the Torah portion of its Sabbath. The portion tells of the last plagues on Egypt and the going out, and the Haftarah is the word on Egypt's fall to Nebuchadnezzar, which opens at the thirteenth verse.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the fifteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bo 19:5. Under the twentieth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Chukat 27:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and his headwords, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi reads the first oracle on Egypt as the battle at Carchemish and the second as a later blow. "This was a second blow", when Nebuchadnezzar laid Egypt waste in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, as Seder Olam teaches (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:13:1). The Egypt that rose like the Nile was the one "Who was wont to bring up troops around him like the waters of a river" (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:7:1).
His notes on the battle are concrete. The shield "is made of leather, and it is boiled", and the soldier anoints it with oil before battle (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:3:1). The warriors who stumble over one another did so "When they were fleeing" (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:12:1). The one who made them stumble is God, "Who pushed him down" (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:16:1). The baggage for exile is "a flask and an earthenware cup with which to drink" (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:19:1).
The oath by Tabor and Carmel he reads as a comparison of certainties: as surely as they stand, "so is it true that this thing shall come upon Egypt" (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:18:1). The fair heifer is "A beautiful kingdom" (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:20:1). At the sound of the snake in the twenty-second verse he says the verse comes to teach about Egypt "but ends by learning". It shows that the serpent's feet were cut off and its voice went out to the end of the world (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:22:1). He credits the rule to the Thirty-two Methods of Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Jose the Galilean.
At the fifteenth verse he sets three grammarians side by side. The word is sweeping away by his own reading, complete destruction by Menahem, and cutting by Dunash (Rashi on Jeremiah 46:15:1).
The corpus carries five further notes on this chapter without an English text. Each is marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, so each is cited here and none is quoted. The note of Metzudat David is cited at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 46:1:1. The notes of Radak are cited at Radak on Jeremiah 46:2:1, 46:6:1, 46:11:1 and 46:24:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse it holds Chullin 92a:13, Seder Olam Rabbah 24:1 and Sotah 9a:8. On the tenth verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 93:1. On the twelfth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 20:5. On the fifteenth verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 13:2:11, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bo 19:5, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 16:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria 11:1. On the seventeenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Moed Katan 3:3, Moed Katan 16a:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 750:22.
On the eighteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 99:1, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 4:8, Megillah 29a:9, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 5:5, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 5:6 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 20:2:6. It holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 286:8 there as well. On the twentieth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 3:4:3, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 15:10:6, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 12:33:1, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 14:2:4, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Chukat 27:1 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 4:9. It holds Pesikta Rabbati 14:1 and Yoma 32b:12 there as well. On the twenty-second verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Lech Lecha 20, Esther Rabbah, Petichta 5, Kohelet Rabbah 10:11:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 4:1, Midrash Tehillim 120:2 and Midrash Tehillim 18:9. It holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of The 32 Midot of Aggadah 1:17 there as well. On the twenty-seventh verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 36, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 121:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 157:1. On the twenty-eighth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:2, Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 1:21:1 and Midrash Tehillim 93:3.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 46:3:1 to 46:22:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 46:1:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 46:2:1, 46:6:1, 46:11:1 and 46:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/46.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing the Haftarah of Bo, Jeremiah 46:13 to 46:28, for this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Egypt at Carchemish: a River Rising Like a Flood
The heading opens the oracles about the nations, and Egypt comes first, the power Judah’s kings kept turning to. The date is Carchemish, where Nebuchadnezzar defeated Pharaoh Neco “in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,” 605 BC. 2 Kings 24:7 records that Egypt did not march out of its land again.
Jeremiah 46:1
“The word of the Lord - against the Gentiles - This is a general title to the following collection of prophecies, written concerning different nations, which had less or more connection with the Jews, either as enemies, neighbors, or allies. They were not written at the same time; and though some of them bear dates, yet it would be difficult to give them any chronological arrangement. Dahler’s mode of ascertaining the times of their delivery may be seen in the table in the introduction.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 46:1
“Commentary on Chapter XLVI 1. The word - This verse contains the title of all the ensuing discourses; for, tho' there be some verses in these chapters that relate to the Jews, yet they are all concerning their restoration. The prophecies of judgments from the beginning of this chapter to the fifty-second, are all against foreign nations, which are called Gentiles.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 46:2
“Pharaoh-necho - This was the person who defeated the army of Josiah, in which engagement Josiah received a mortal wound, of which he died, greatly regretted, soon after at Megiddo. After this victory, he defeated the Babylonians, and took Carchemish; and, having fortified it, returned to his own country. Nabopolassar sent his son Nebuchadnezzar with an army against him, defeated him with immense slaughter near the river Euphrates, retook Carchemish, and subdued all the revolted provinces, according to the following prophecies.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:2
“It is not known whether or not the design was to alleviate the sorrow of the people by this prophecy; and yet I am disposed to receive what the greater part of interpreters have held, that as at that time the people were in the greatest trouble, this prophecy was given in order that the faithful might know that God had not ceased to care for his people.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Jeremiah 46:3
“Order ye the buckler and shield,.... Both signify one and the same sort of armour, only of a different form, the one being lesser and lighter than the other. Jarchi makes the difference to be, that the former was made of skin, the latter of wood; they were both used to defend the body in war. To order them is not only to prepare them, and get them ready; but to fit them to the body, and to put them on, that they might be in a readiness to engage in battle.”
Jeremiah 46:4
“Furbish the spears - Cleanse, brighten, and sharpen them; from the Franco-Gallic fourbir, to polish, brighten. Brigandines - A coat of mail, especially that which was made scale fashion; one plate overlapping the other, like the scales of fish.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 46:5
“Literally, “Why have I seen? They are terror-stricken! they are giving way back!” The Egyptian host feels that the battle is lost, and overborne by the enemy loses heart, and in despair, yet not without a struggle, gives way. It is remarkable, that while Jeremiah in his warning addressed to Jerusalem uses the most simple and unadorned prose, his language concerning the Gentile nations is, on the contrary, full of brilliant poetry. Look not back - turn not back. They make no halt, and no attempt to rally. Fear was round about - The prophets watch-word, Magor-missabib (see Jer 6:25).”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:5
“The language of astonishment, that an army so well equipped should be driven back in "dismay." The prophet sees this in prophetic vision. fled apace--literally, "fled a flight," that is, flee precipitately. look not back--They do not even dare to look back at their pursuers.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 46:6
“Let not the swift flee away - Even the swiftest shall not be able to escape. They shall - fall toward the north - By the Euphrates, which was northward of Judea. Here the Egyptian army was routed with great slaughter.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:6
“Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty men escape,.... Those that were swift of foot, like Asahel, or carried but light armour, let not such trust to their swiftness or light carriage; nor let the mighty man think to escape by reason of his great strength, to make his way through the enemy, and get out of his hands.”
Who is this, rising like the Nile: Egypt pictures itself “rising like the Nile,” boasting, “I will rise and cover the earth.” The oracle turns the flood into “a sacrifice in the land of the north by the River Euphrates.” Verse 11 sends Egypt “to Gilead for balm,” echoing 8:22, but “for you there is no healing.”
Jeremiah 46:7
“In Jer 46:3-6 we saw only a mighty army marshalling for battle, and its hasty flight. In Jer 46:7-12 the prophet tells us at whose defeat we have been present. A flood - the Nile. The metaphor describing the advance of the Egyptian army is naturally drawn from the annual overflow of their own sacred stream. Whose waters are moved ... - literally, his waters toss to and fro as the rivers, the natural branches of the Nile in Lower Egypt.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:7
“The figure is appropriate in addressing Egyptians, as the Nile, their great river, yearly overspreads their lands with a turbid, muddy flood. So their army, swelling with arrogance, shall overspread the region south of Euphrates; but it, like the Nile, shall retreat as fast as it advanced.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 46:8
“Answer to the question in Jer 46:7. waters . . . moved like the rivers--The rise of the Nile is gentle; but at the mouth it, unlike most rivers, is much agitated, owing to the sandbanks impeding its course, and so it rushes into the sea like a cataract.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 46:9
“Rather, Go up, advance, ye horses; and drive furiously, ye chariots; and let the mighty men go forth. They march out of Egypt, arranged in three divisions, cavalry, chariots, and infantry, to begin the campaign. The armies of Egypt were composed chiefly of mercenaries. Cush (see the margin), the Nubian negro, and Phut, the Libyans of Mauritania, supplied the heavy-armed soldiers Jer 46:3; and Ludim, the Hamite Lydians of North Africa (see Gen 10:13 note), a weaker race, served as light-armed troops.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:9
“Ironical exhortation, as in Jer 46:3. The Egyptians, owing to the heat of their climate and abstinence from animal food, were physically weak, and therefore employed mercenary soldiers. Ethiopians--Hebrew, Cush: Abyssinia and Nubia.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 46:10
“They meant one thing, but God meant another; they designed it for the advancement of their dignity and the enlargement of their dominion, but God designed it for the great abasement and weakening of their kingdom. It is a day of vengeance for Josiah's death; it is a day of sacrifice to divine justice, to which multitudes of the sinners of Egypt shall fall as victims.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 46:12
“The land - The earth; the world rings with the cry of grief. Against the mighty - Against the mighty man, i. e., one mighty man against another. The champions hired to fight Egypt’s battle get in one another’s way, and so are slaughtered together.”
Nebuchadnezzar Comes; Egypt a Fair Heifer Stung from the Northvv. 13-19
about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt: This second oracle foretells Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Egypt. It names Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes, the towns where the Jews of 44:1 had settled, so the judgment reaches the refuge they chose. The invader comes “like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea,” landmarks seen from far off.
Jeremiah 46:13
A new prophecy, foretelling the successful invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, has been appended to the hymn of triumph, because they both relate to the same kingdom. This prophecy was probably spoken in Egypt to warn the Jews there, that the country which they were so obstinately determined to make their refuge would share the fate of their native land. How ... should come - Or, concerning the coming “of Nebuchadrezzar.”
Jeremiah 46:14
“Migdol - Magdolum, a city of Lower Egypt. Noph, Memphis. Tahpanhes, Daphne. See before, Jer 44:1 (note). Round about thee - The Phoenicians, Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, all prostrated by the arms of the Chaldeans.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:14
“He mentions the three other quarters, but omits the west, because the Chaldeans did not advance thither. These cities, too, were the best known to the Jews, as being in their direction. sword shall devour round about thee--namely, the Syrians, Jews, Moabites, and Ammonites (see on Jer 48:1). The exhortation is ironical, as in Jer 46:4, 9.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 46:15
“Translate it: “Why is thy mighty one cast down? He stood not, because Yahweh thrust him down.” The “mighty one” is explained by the Septuagint to be the bull Apis. Thus: (1) the chief deity of Egypt Jer 46:15; (2) the army of mercenaries Jer 46:16; (3) the king, Pharaoh Jer 46:17, are the three upon whom the Egyptians trusted.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:15
“Why are thy valiant men swept away?.... As with a mighty torrent, or a sweeping rain; so the word is used in Pro 28:3; to which the Chaldean army may be compared; which came with such irresistible force as to drive the Egyptians from their posts, so that they could not stand their ground.”
Jeremiah 46:16
“He made many to fall,.... That is, the Lord, by the hand of the Chaldeans, by whose sword multitudes fell in battle: yea, one fell upon another; they fell in heaps, denoting the multitude of the slain; or rather they fell in flight one upon another; one fell, and then another upon him, as usually they do, when men are frightened and flee precipitantly, as in Jer 46:12; and they said, arise: not those that fell, which may seem at first sight; but either the strangers in the land of Egypt, as Kimchi, such as the Jews were; who, perceiving…”
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 46:16
“Literally, as in the margin, i. e., Yahweh hath made many to stumble. Arise ... - The Egyptian army being composed of mercenaries, has no patriotic feeling and immediately that the battle is lost, they propose to abandon the country which has hired them, and return each to his native land.”
Jeremiah 46:16
“One fell upon another - In their terror and confusion ranks fell on ranks, and overturned each other. Let us go again to our own people - Let us flee to our own country with all possible speed. These were the auxiliaries.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 46:16
“Her hired men, the troops Egypt has in he service, are indeed in the midst of her like fatted bullocks, lusty men, able bodied and high spirited, who were likely for action and promised to make their part good against the enemy; but they are turned back; their hearts failed them, and, instead of fighting, they have fled away together.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 46:17
“Translate it with the versions: “They have called (or, Call ye) the name of Pharaoh king of Egypt - A noise: he hath overstepped the appointed time.” For this custom of giving prophetic names see Jer 20:3; Isa 8:3, ... The words mean that Pharaoh is a mere empty sound, and that he has allowed the years of prosperity, which he enjoyed at the beginning of his reign, to pass by; having misused them, nothing now remains but his ruin.”
Jeremiah 46:18
“As I live, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts,.... A greater King than either Nebuchadnezzar or Pharaoh; the Lord of the armies of heaven and earth; and who has them all at his command and service; swears by his life, by himself, because he can swear by no greater, to the truth of what follows; for this is the form of an oath: surely, as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 46:18
“As the mountains Tabor and Carmel tower high above the other hills of Palestine, so Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 46:26) when he comes shall prove himself superior to all his foes. Carmel forms a bold promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean. Tabor is the higher of the two; therefore it is said to be "among the mountains"; and Carmel "by the sea." the King . . .”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 46:18
“As Tabor is among the mountains - This mountain is situated in the plain of Esdraelon in Galilee, on the confines of the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar, Jos 19:22. It stood by itself, separated from all the other mountains by deep valleys, and is the highest of the whole. And as Carmel by the sea - Carmel is a mountain on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, on the southern frontier of the tribe of Asher.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 46:19
“Literally, “O thou inhabitant daughter of Egypt,” an equivalent here for Egypt and its whole population. Furnish thyself ... - literally, make for thee vessels of banishment, not merely the packages necessary, but their outfit generally.”
Fear Not, O Jacob My Servant
Egypt is a beautiful heifer: “Egypt is a beautiful heifer, but a gadfly from the north is coming against her,” and her mercenaries “are like fattened calves” who flee. The LORD will punish “Amon god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh,” yet verse 26 ends, “Egypt will be inhabited as in days of old.”
Jeremiah 46:20
“Egypt is like a very fair heifer - Fruitful and useful; but destruction cometh out of the north, from Chaldea. It may be that there is an allusion here to Isis, worshipped in Egypt under the form of a beautiful cow.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:20
“Egypt is like a very fair heifer,.... Like a heifer that has never been under a yoke, it having never been conquered, and brought under the power of another; and like a beautiful, fat, and well fed one, abounding in wealth and riches, in pleasures and delights, in wantonness and luxury, and fit for slaughter, and ready for it. The Targum is, "Egypt was a beautiful kingdom.'' Some think there is an illusion to the gods of Egypt, Apis and Mnevis, which were heifers or oxen, very beautiful, that had fine spots and marks upon them.”
Jeremiah 46:21
“Rather, “Also her hirelings in the midst of her are like calves of the stall.” The mercenaries of Egypt - Nubians, Moors, and Lydians Jer 46:9 - were destroyed at the battle of Carchemish, and their place was taken by hirelings from Asia Minor, Carians, and Ionians, whom Hophra took into his pay to the number of 30,000 men. These he settled in the midst of Egypt, in the fertile lands above Bubastis, in the Delta, where, well paid and fed and with great privileges, they became as calves of the stall. Their mutiny cost Hophra his crown.”
Jeremiah 46:22
“The voice thereof - Her voice, i. e., the voice of Egypt. The word here probably means the busy sound of life and activity in the towns of Egypt, the tramping of her hosts, and the turmoil of camp and city. All this at the approach of the Chaldaean army shall depart, as the snake flees away when disturbed in its haunts by the wood-cutters. March with an army - Advance with might. With axes - The comparison of the Chaldaean warriors to woodcutters arose from their being armed with axes.”
Jeremiah 46:23
“Or, “They have cut down her forest, saith Yahweh, for it is impenetrable,” i. e., just as a pathless forest must be cleared to assist agriculture and the passage to and fro of men, so must the false worship and the material prosperity of Egypt be overthrown. Grasshoppers - The invading host advances as multitudinous as the locusts which consume the whole vegetation of the land on which they alight.”
Jeremiah 46:24
“The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded,.... Brought to shame before all the nations of the earth, being conquered by the Chaldeans; that is, the kingdom of Egypt, as the Targum; or the inhabitants of it, being subdued and carried captive: she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north; the Chaldeans, who dwelt northward of Egypt, as is manifest from what follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:24
“The hand or the people of the north - The Chaldeans.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 46:25
“The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith,.... These titles are often given to the Lord, and set before prophecies that come from him; and, according to Kimchi, the reason why he is here spoken of as the God of Israel was, because the vengeance threatened to the Egyptians should come upon them, as a punishment for using Israel ill; as Shishak king of Egypt, and Pharaohnecho, who slew Josiah: behold, I will punish the multitude of No; the inhabitants of it, which were many, called "populous No", Nah 3:8; a famous city in Egypt.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:25
“The multitude of No - Rather, Amon of No. Ammon or Jupiter-Ammon was the first of the supreme triad of Thebes. He was the deity invisible and unfathomable, whose name signifies “the concealed.” No-Amon, is the sacred city of Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt. First then Yahweh’s anger falls upon the representatives of the highest divine and human powers, Amon of No and Pharaoh. It next punishes Egypt generally, and her gods and her kings, for each city had its special divinity, and inferior rulers were placed in the several parts of the country.”
Jeremiah 46:26
“Repeated from Jer 30:10, 11. When the Church (and literal Israel) might seem utterly consumed, there still remains hidden hope, because God, as it were, raises His people from the dead (Ro 11:15). Whereas the godless "nations" are consumed even though they survive, as are the Egyptians after their overthrow; because they are radically accursed and doomed [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 46:26
“Ezekiel foretels that this should be at the end of forty years, Ezek. xxix. See what changes the nations of the earth are subject to, how they are emptied and increased again; and let not nations that prosper be secure, nor those that for the present are in thraldom despair.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
But you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid: The oracle closes with comfort for Jacob, “do not be afraid”, words that recur almost exactly in 30:10-11. The difference is stated: “Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have banished you, I will not completely destroy you.” Israel will still be disciplined “justly.”
Jeremiah 46:27
“These two verses are a repetition of Jer 30:10-11, with those slight variations which Jeremiah always makes when quoting himself. Egypt’s fall and restoration have been foretold; but the prophet closes with a word of exhortation to the many erring Jews who dwelt there. Why should they flee from their country, and trust in a pagan power, instead of endeavoring to live in a manner worthy of the noble destiny which was their true glory and ground of confidence?”
Jeremiah 46:28
“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 - The Jews still remain as a distinct people, while the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, etc., are no more!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
Studies5
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.