Skip to content
mannafest.faith

Jeremiah 15:3

in Jeremiah 15

I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith Jehovah: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

KJV

And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

This verse in Jeremiah 15

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord,.... Or four families (x), and these very devouring ones; that is, four sorts of punishment; and so the Targum, "four evil punishments;'' which are after mentioned.

This site's exposition

Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me

on Jeremiah 15:1-4

The chapter answers the plea of 14:19-22: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people”. The LORD appoints “four kinds of destroyers” and lays the cause on Manasseh, whose sins recorded in 2 Kings 21 still bear fruit generations later.

This site's exposition

I will appoint over them four kinds

Barnes notes that the sword kills the living, and the dogs, birds and beasts devour and shame the dead. The word for the work of the dogs means to drag along the ground. The Targum, Gill reports, calls these four destroyers four evil punishments.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Jeremiah · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verses 2, 3.) But if they say to you: Where shall we go out? You shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: He who is for death, to death; and he who is for the sword, to the sword; and he who is for famine, to famine; and he who is for captivity, to captivity. And I will visit upon them four kinds, says the Lord: the sword for killing, and dogs for tearing, and birds of the sky and beasts of the earth for devouring and scattering.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

As those that escape the sword shall be cut off by pestilence, famine, or captivity, so those that fall by the sword shall be cut off by divine vengeance, which pursues sinners on the other side death; there shall be dogs to tear in the field to devour.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

Kinds - literally, as the margin, i. e., classes of things. The first is to destroy the living, the other three to mutilate and consume the dead. To tear - literally, “to drag along the ground.” It forcibly expresses the contumely to which the bodies of the slain will be exposed.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

I will appoint over them four kinds - There shall appear four instruments of my justice. 1. The sword to slay. 2. The dogs to tear what is slain. 3. The fowls of the heaven to feed on the dead carcasses. And, 4. The wild beasts to destroy all that the fowls have left.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וּפָקַדְתִּ֨יand I will appoint

    ufakadtiH6485 →303 times

  • עֲלֵיהֶ֜םover them

    ʾaleihemH5921 →5755 times

  • אַרְבַּ֤עfour

    ʾarba'H702 →318 times

  • מִשְׁפָּחוֹת֙kinds

    mishpachotH4940 →303 times

  • נְאֻם־[the] utterance of

    neum-H5002 →376 times

  • יְהוָ֔הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַחֶ֣רֶבthe sword

    hacherevH2719 →413 times

  • לַֽהֲרֹ֔גto kill

    laharogH2026 →167 times

  • וְאֶת־and <obj.>

    veetH853 →10935 times

  • הַכְּלָבִ֖יםthe dogs

    hakelavimH3611 →

  • לִסְחֹ֑בto drag away

    lischoH5498 →5 times

  • וְאֶת־and <obj.>

    veetH853 →10935 times

  • ע֧וֹף[the] bird[s] of

    ofH5775 →71 times

  • הַשָּׁמַ֛יִםthe heavens

    hashamayimH8064 →421 times

  • וְאֶת־and <obj.>

    veetH853 →10935 times

  • בֶּהֱמַ֥ת[the] animal[s] of

    behematH929 →190 times

  • הָאָ֖רֶץthe earth

    haaretzH776 →2504 times

  • לֶאֱכֹ֥לto devour

    leekholH398 →810 times

  • וּלְהַשְׁחִֽית׃and to destroy

    ulehashchitH7843 →146 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 14:21

    For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it…

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 5:17

      I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Ezekiel 33:27

      Tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘As surely as I live, those in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the open field I will give to be…

  • Through

    Leviticus 26:22

    I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 14:15

      Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Deuteronomy 32:24

      They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

  • Through

    Leviticus 26:16

    then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed…

    it leads to

    • Job 31:8

      then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 28:26

    Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away.

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 16:4

      “They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will…

    • Jeremiah 34:20

      I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

    • Jeremiah 7:33

      The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Jeremiah

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Rembrandt, 1630. Public domain.
Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Rembrandt, 1630. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.