Jeremiah 15:8

Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas,.... Their husbands being slain; not in the times of Ahaz, when a hundred and twenty thousand men were slain in one day in Judah, by Pekah

Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.

The prophet speaking in the name of that God who calleth things that are not as if they were, still continueth his style, speaking of things to come as if present. In Jehoiakim’ s time we read of no such plenty of widows; they were multiplied when the city was besieged and taken in Zedekiah’ s time to a great number, hyperbolically compared to the sands of the sea. I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noon-day: there is a great variety amongst interpreters as to their sense of this phrase, about which those that are curious may consult the English Annotations upon this verse. By the spoiler at noon-day is meant Nebuchadnezzar, in the sense of the best interpreters, who came not like a thief, who cometh by night to rob and to spoil, but with an army in the day time: the question only is about those words against the mother of the young men. The Hebrew word, which our translation renders young men, is dxb which properly signifieth a choice man, or a person chosen, from the Hebrew verb which signifieth to choose; so as it may as well be translated the mother of the chosen, as the mother of the young men. Because young men are looked upon as the choice men, whether for beauty, or strength and ability for any thing, the word often signifies a young man, , and in many other texts. Some will have the sense, (as in our margin,) against the mother a young man, meaning by the young man Nebuchadnezzar, and by the mother Jerusalem. The Jews are in the Canticles called the daughters of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem which is above is by the apostle called the mother of us all. The Hebrew word is in the singular number; how we translate it young men I understand not. Pagnine translates it electi, the mother of the chosen. I do think that by the mother is meant Jerusalem, and that populi may be understood to electi. Jerusalem was the mother of the Jewish people, or Judea at least, against whom Nebuchadnezzar the spoiler at noon-day was sent; and we know that the Jews were God’ s chosen people. I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city: this last clause is yet more obscure than the other; word for word, as it is in the Hebrew, it is, I have caused to fall upon it suddenly, the city and terrors. The word here used dyu commonly signifies a city in Scripture, and is very rarely translated otherwise. Were it not for the adverb suddenly coming between it and city, the sense were plain, and thus, I will cause to fall upon that city terrors; others read it, I will cause him to fall upon it, terrors upon the city. The word sometimes in Scripture signifies enemies, and is so translated, .

Jeremiah 15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused [him] to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.Ver. 8. The widows are increased to me.] Or, Before me; or, In my sight. Above the sands of the seas.] Hyperbole. A spoiler at noon day.] Nebuchadnezzar, that choice young man; for so some render the text. And so he was, when he came against Jerusalem and burned it, viz., in the eighteenth year of his reign. And terrors upon the city.] Or, Terrors, even the city; that is, say the Septuagint and Chaldee, the army of the Chaldees, which for their numbers and order of pitching their tents, seemed to be a city.

(8) I have brought . . .—Better, I have brought upon them, even upon the mother of the young warrior (i.e., upon the woman who rejoices most in her son’s heroism), a spoiler at noon-day, i.e., coming, when least expected, at the hour when most armies rested. (See Note on Jeremiah 6:4.) I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly . . .—Better, I have brought suddenly upon her (the “mother” of the previous sentence) travail-pangs (as in Isaiah 13:8) and dismay. The Aramaic word for the anguish of childbirth is also the Hebrew word for “city,” and this has misled translators. The LXX. gives the true meaning.

Verse 8. The mother of the young men] The metropolis or mother city, Jerusalem.

2–9. See introd. summary to section.

Translate, “I have brought upon them, even upon the mother of the young man, a spoiler etc.” The word rendered “young man” means a picked warrior.

8, 9. This destruction is so sweeping that widows are increased… above the sand of the seas… mother of the young men — Literally, the young man, the word which is so rendered meaning young warrior.