Jeremiah 46

The rest of the prophecies in this book are concerned with foreign nations; beginning with Egypt and ending with Babylon. They should be compared with the corresponding predictions of Amos and Isaiah, many of which they repeat; as well as with those of the contemporary prophets, Ezekiel and Obadiah.

1 against the Gentiles. Rather, as R.V., “concerning the nations.” So in the next verse, “Of Egypt; concerning the army,” etc.

2. Pharaoh-necho. The son and successor of Psammetichus, one of the most powerful kings of Egypt. His expedition to the Euphrates, when king Josiah was slain, is mentioned in 2 Kings xxiii. 29-35. The rout of the Egyptian king at Carchemish changed the whole course of Oriental history.

4 the brigandines. The “coats of mail,” as R.V. 5 Wherefore have I seen them dismayed, etc.? More vividly and literally, “Wherefore have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward.”

7. Who is this that cometh up as a flood? The R.V. translates, “Who is this that riseth up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?” It is a metaphor for the advance of the Egyptian army.

8 the city. Put collectively for “the cities.” 9 Come up. Or, as R.V., “Go up.” The prophet’s words.

rage. Rather, “rush wildly.” the Lydians. Rather, “the Ludim”; one of the Egyptian tribes (Gen. x. 13).

12 the land. Rather, “the earth”: see R.V.

13. The word, etc. With this second prophecy concerning Egypt, cp. xliii. 10-13.

15. Why are thy valiant [men], etc.? Another reading gives the singular: see R.V. marg., “Why is thy mighty one swept away? he stood not,” etc. The Septuagint understands this of Apis, the god of Egypt.

16 and they said, Arise, etc. This refers to the mercenaries (21). Payne-Smith points out that there is here one of those minute touches which so often occur in Scripture as evidences of its truth. Herodotus tells us that the strength of Apries (Hophra) consisted in mercenaries, and that his favouritism towards them was finally the cause of his ruin.

17. They did cry there, etc. Or, according to the ancient versions, “They cried, The name of Pharaoh king of Egypt [is] a noise”—an empty sound. The Hebrew words for name (shem) and there (sham) are identical in consonants.

19 daughter. The usual collective term for inhabitants; so ver. 11.

20 destruction. Or, “the gadfly” (R.V. marg.), stinging and maddening the “heifer.”

21 fatted bullocks. Rather, “calves of the stall,” R.V. When the warlike mercenaries of Egypt, Ethiopians, Libyans, and Ludim (9), were destroyed or scattered, their place was taken by the more effeminate inhabitants of Asia Minor, who settled in the fertile land of Lower Egypt, and became too pampered to fight (Herodotus, ii. 163).

22 as hewers of wood. The Chaldean hosts, devastating the numerous and populous cities of Egypt, are compared to woodmen felling the forests and thickets, and thus disturbing the serpents, who show their anger by a furious hiss, while they flee away.

23 though it cannot be searched. Rather, “impenetrable though it be.”

25 the multitude of No. Rather, “Amon of No” (R.V.). Amon was the principal Egyptian deity, here called Amon of No, or Thebes, because that city was the chief seat of his worship. Hence it was called, in Greek, Diospolis—the city of Zeus Ammon.

26 afterward it shall be inhabited. See note on Ezek. xxix. 13.

27,28. Fear thou not, etc. A repetition of xxx. 10, 11.