Bible Commentaries

The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the ^a Gentiles;

(a) That is, nine nations which are around the land of Egypt.

Against Egypt, against the army of ^b Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, who was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.

(b) Read (2 Kings 23:29) , (2 Kings 24:7) ; (2 Chronicles 35:20).

^c Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.

(c) He warns the Egyptians to prepare themselves for war.

^d Why have I seen them dismayed [and] turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and look not back: [for] fear [was] on all sides, saith the LORD.

(d) The prophet had this vision of the Egyptians who would be put to flight by the Babylonians at Carchemish.

Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the ^e north by the river Euphrates.

(e) The Babylonians will discomfit them at the river Euphrates.

Who [is] this [that] cometh up as ^f a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?

(f) He derides the boastings of the Egyptians, who thought by their riches and power to have overcome all the world, alluding to the Nile river, which at certain times overflows the country of Egypt.

Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; ^g the Cushites and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle [and] bend the bow.

(g) For these nations took part with the Egyptians.

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 satisfied and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath ^h a sacrifice in the north country ⁱ by the river Euphrates.

(h) He calls the slaughter of God's enemies a sacrifice, because it is a thing that pleases him, (Isaiah 34:6).

(i) That is, at Carchemish.

Go up into Gilead, ^k and take balm, O virgin, the ^l daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many ^m medicines; [for] thou shalt not be cured.

(k) For at Gilead there grew a most sovereign balm for wounds.

(l) So called, because Egypt had not yet been overcome by the enemy.

(m) He sows that no salve or medicine can prevail where God gives the wound.

He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our ⁿ own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.

(n) As they who would repent that they helped the Egyptians.

They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt [is but] a noise; he ^o hath passed the time appointed.

(o) He derides them who blame their overthrow on lack of counsel and policy, or to fortune and not observing of time: not considering that it is God's just judgment.

[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 ^p he come.

(p) That is, that the Egyptians will be destroyed.

Egypt [is like] a very ^q fair heifer, [but] destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.

(q) They have abundance of all things, and therefore are disobedient and proud.

Also her hired men ^r [are] in the midst of her like fatted bulls; for they also have turned back, [and] have fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity had come upon them, [and] the time of their judgment.

(r) As in (Jeremiah 46:9).

Its voice shall go like a ^s serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against ^t her with axes, as hewers of wood.

(s) They will be scarcely able to speak for fear of the Chaldeans.

(t) Meaning Egypt.

They shall cut down ^u her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the

(x) grasshoppers, and [are] innumerable.

(u) That is, they will slay the great and mighty men of power.

(x) That is, Nebuchadnezzar's army.

The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the ^y multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and [all] them that trust in him:

(y) Some take the Hebrew word Amon for the kings name of No, that is, of Alexandria.

And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as ^z in the days of old, saith the LORD.

(z) Meaning, that after forty years Egypt would be restored, (Isaiah 19:23) ; (Ezekiel 29:13).

^a But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar, 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.

(a) God comforts all his that were in captivity but especially the small Church of the Jews, of which were Jeremiah and Baruch, who remained among the Egyptians: for the Lord never forsakes his, (Isaiah 44:2) ; (Jeremiah 30:10).

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 where I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct ^b thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.

(b) {See (Jeremiah 20:14) }