The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah
Jeremiah 46
Chapter XLVI · Vol. III, pp. 1288–1290
1 Jeremiah prophesieth the overthrow of Pharaoh's army at Euphrates, 13 and the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadrezzar. 27 He comforteth Jacob in his captivity.
1 The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against athe 1Gentiles,2
a Zec.2.13. ch.25.9,15,19-26.
1 This is a general title to the five following chapters; but the prophecies were delivered at various times, and are here collected as instruction to the Gentiles—the nations as distinct from Israel.—C.
2 See note * below.
* In the ancient Septuagint version ch. xlvi.-li. follow ch. xxv.13. The order here, and in other parts of this book, is not, and was not intended to be, chronological. Jeremiah uttered by divine inspiration a number of independent prophecies relating to different nations, periods, and circumstances, having no relation to each other, and no strictly logical connection. These have been combined in one book, and the order may perhaps have been different in different copies; but this does not in any way affect the integrity and inspiration of each prophecy, or of the whole collectively. The dates of the several prophecies are not known, nor are they of any consequence.—P.
2 Againstb Egypt, against the army of cPharaoh-necho 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.
b ch.25.9,19. See ver.14.
c 2 Ch.35.20. 2 Ki.23.29.
3 Order3 ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
3 ver.14; ch.51.11,12. Na.2.1; 3.14. Joel 3.9,12. 2 Ki.10.3. i.e. make all the preparation you can for battle, but it will be to no purpose.
4 Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.4
4 Coats of mail.
5 Wherefore5 have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down,6 and are fled apace,7 and look not back: for dfear was round about, saith the LORD.
6 Lete not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall gstumble, and fall htoward the north by the river Euphrates.
7 Who8 is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
8 ch.47.2. Is.8.7. Da.9.26; 11.22. Am.8.8. Ex.15.9,10. The great army shall be almost wholly slain.
8 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.
9 Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians9 and the Libyans,1 that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and ibend the bow.
A.M. cir. 3398. B.C. cir. 606.
9 Heb. Cush.
1 Heb. Put. The Ethiopians dwelt southward, and the Libyans and Lydians westward of Egypt.
i Is.66.19.
10 For this is jthe day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and kthe sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice2 in the north country by the river Euphrates.
11 Gol up into Gilead, and take balm, O nvirgin,3 the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.4
l ch.8.22; 51.8. Eze.30.21-25. Na.3.19.
n ch.14.17; ver.19. Is.47.1.
3 Virgin. Hitherto unconquered.—C.
4 Heb. no cure shall be unto thee.
12 The nations have heard of thy oshame, and pthy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man qhath stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.
13 The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, rhow Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.5
B.C. cir. 607.
r ch.43.10-13; 44.30. Is.xix.; 27.1; 31.3. Eze.xxix.-xxxii. Joel 3.19.
5 This prophecy is quite distinct from that contained in the preceding verses of this chapter. The one relates to the overthrow of the Egyptian army on the banks of the Euphrates; the other to the conquest of Egypt itself by the king of Babylon, which took place at a later period, sixteen years after the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. The Jews had thus but a short time of rest in Egypt. The judgments predicted by Jeremiah soon came upon them.—P.
14 Declares ye in Egypt, and publish tin Migdol, and publish in Noph,6 and in Tahpanhes:7 say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for uthe sword shall devour round about thee.
s Joel 3.9,12. ch.4.5,6,15,20,21; 6.1-5.
t ch.44.1, with ver.3,4.
6 Memphis, ver.19.
7 See ch.43.7; 44.1.—C.
u Is.34.6. ver.10,21.
15 Whyv are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, xbecause the LORD did drive them.
v ver.5,21. Ju.5.21. Is.66.15,16. Re.6.17.
x Ps.18.14,39.
16 He made many to fall,8 yea, yone fell upon another; and they9 said, Arise,1 and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.2
8 Heb. multiplied the faller, ver.12.
9 The hired troops, ver.9,21.
1 These are the words either of the foreign auxiliaries or mercenaries of the Egyptian armies. See ver.21.—C.
2 From the oppressing sword. 'From the sword of the dove'—the ensign of the Chaldeans (Gill).—C.
y Le.26.37.
17 They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise;3 he hath passed the time appointed.
3 Ex.15.9. ch.8.20, i.e. mere blusterer.
18 As I live, saith the zKing, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as aTabor4 is among the mountains, and as bCarmel by the sea, so shallc he come.
z Ps.103.19. Mal.1.14. Mat.11:25. 1 Ti.1.17.
A.M. cir. 3397. B.C. cir. 607.
a Jos.19.12,22. Ju.4.6,8.
4 Tabor is not among the mountains in respect of neighbourhood, for it stands isolated near the eastern extremity of the great plain of Esdraelon; but it is among them in respect of name, rank, and celebrity. Van Egmont pronounces it the most beautiful mountain in the world, and Maundrel declares it is impossible for man's eye to behold any prospect more delightful than what is afforded from its summit.—C.
19 O thou ddaughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish5 thyself to go einto captivity: for Noph6 shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.
20 Egypt is like ga very fair heifer,7 but destruction cometh; it cometh hout of the north.
g Ho.10.11. ch.50.11.
7 Like a very fair heifer intended for preservation.—C.
h ver.2,10,13. ch.25.9,19; 1.14; 47.2.
21 Also her hired men8 are in the midst of her ilike 9fatted bullocks;1 for jthey also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because kthe day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation.
22 The voice thereof shall go like2 a serpent;3 for they shall march with an army, land come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
23 They shall cut down her forest,4 saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched;5 because they are more nthan the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.
4 Armies and multitudes of cities, Is.10.18. Eze.20.46,47.
5 Though so extensive that it seems interminable, and so thickly planted with trees, or so interlaced with underwood and parasitical plants, that no one can pass through. Under this emblem the numerous cities of Egypt may be represented.—C.
n Ju.6.5; 7.12. Joel 2.4,5. Re.9.2-10.
24 Theo daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; pshe shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
25 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith, Behold, I will punish the multitude6 of No,7 and Pharaoh, and Egypt, qwith their gods, and their rkings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:
26 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 safterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.8
s Eze.29.11,13. ch.50.39. Mi.7.12. Zec.10.10,11.
8 'Afterwards,' i.e. after all these judgments have been executed upon Egypt, and after the Jews, who, contrary to God's commands, took refuge there, shall have been punished, then the prosperity of Egypt would return once more, at least in some degree. The prediction was fulfilled in the days of Cyrus, when Egypt regained its independence.—P
27 Butt 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.
28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD; for I am with thee: for uI will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee; vbut I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; xyet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.9
u Is.24.3,19. ch.25.9; 50.21,26; 51.3,58.
v ch.4.27; 5.10,18; 10.24; 30.10,11. Hab.3.2. 1 Co.10.13; 11.32. Ps.89.30-37.
x Is.27.7-9. He.12.5-10. Re.3.19.
9 Or, not utterly cut thee off.
Notes
Ver. 1. There are here two prophecies. The first before a battle between the Egyptians and Babylonians near Carchemish, in which the Egyptians suffered a severe defeat. The second begins at ver. 13, and the desolation foretold took place in the 27th year of Jehoiakim's captivity, and the 16th after the destruction of Jerusalem, as may be collected from Eze. 29. 17, where Nebuchadnezzar's army receives a promise of the spoils of Egypt as wages for their fruitless toils and dangers in the siege of Tyre, which promise was fulfilled the same year. See Josephus' Antiq. b. x. c. 9; and Rollin's An. Hist. vol. i. b. i. C.
Ver. 9. The original words are Cush, Phut, and Lud, three nations who were allies of Egypt, Eze. 30. 5. The first, Arabians, near the Red Sea, east of Egypt (see 2 Ch. 21. 16; Is. 20. 3-5), but who seem also to have had settlements in Egypt itself, or in some adjoining district in Africa, situated higher on the Nile; see Is. 18. 1. The second, Libyans, west of Egypt. The third, the descendants of Lud, the son of Misraim, who settled in Egypt, Ge. 10. 13. These Lydians are to be distinguished from the Lydians of Asia Minor, familiar to history on account of the riches of Crœsus, their king, and who are supposed to be the descendants of Lud, the son of Shem, Ge. 10. 22. C.
Ver. 25. Multitude of No. No, or 'Amon No,' generally supposed to be the Egyptian Thebes. It stood on both sides of the Nile, about 300 miles from the sea. In time of war it could furnish 20,000 men and 200 chariots. It was taken and destroyed by the Assyrians, Na. 3. 8-10. It afterwards arose to still greater splendour, and is said to have extended to 52 miles in circumference. It was again reduced to ruins by Cyaxares of Persia, Eze. 30. 15, 16. It was partially rebuilt again, and finally destroyed by C. Gallus. Four villages now rise upon its ruins—perhaps the most magnificent in the world. Ruins that compel the traveller to gaze and wonder how man could become so brutal as to devastate such miracles of architecture and splendour— ruins which the believer points out to the infidel as evidences of divine revelation and abiding monuments of God's judgments upon idolatry. C.
Reflections.—God will reckon with sinners at last. And, alas, at what expense, and with what parade, they rush forward into their own destruction! When they think to magnify themselves by their wicked enterprises, he glorifies himself in blasting their designs and cutting them off. At infinite hazard do kings, in their pride, march multitudes into sudden death and damnation. And the more confident they are, the nearer is their ruin. No numbers, no armour, no courage, no strength, no cunning, no wealth, no flight avails when God is the assailant and pursuer. Mighty armies make but a pitiful figure when he musters the host of their enemies to the battle. And noisy blusterers do least in a time of need. They who disappointed others are at last disappointed themselves. Alas! what desolations sin makes in the most populous and wealthy countries! Quickly is Egypt too hot for the Jews, who fled thither, and all her thousands of cities turned into ruinous heaps. Amidst external preparations it is necessary to prepare chiefly for trouble, captivity, death, and eternity. But great is his grace who seeks the salvation of the church and people in the worst of times, and even grants partial deliverances to the wicked.