Jeremiah 46
Verse 1
The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the 1 Gentiles;
That is, nine nations which are around the land of Egypt.
Verse 2
Against Egypt, against the army of 1 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.
Read Kings 24:7,
Verse 3
1 Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
He warns the Egyptians to prepare themselves for war.
Verse 5
1 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.
The prophet had this vision of the Egyptians who would be put to flight by the Babylonians at Carchemish.
Verse 6
Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the 1 north by the river Euphrates.
The Babylonians will discomfit them at the river Euphrates.
Verse 7
Who is this that cometh up as 1 a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
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.
Verse 9
Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; 1 the Cushites and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.
For these nations took part with the Egyptians.
Verse 10
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 1 a sacrifice in the north country 2 by the river Euphrates.
He calls the slaughter of God's enemies a sacrifice, because it is a thing that pleases him,
That is, at Carchemish.
Verse 11
Go up into Gilead, 1 and take balm, O virgin, the 2 daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many 3 medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.
For at Gilead there grew a most sovereign balm for wounds.
So called, because Egypt had not yet been overcome by the enemy.
He sows that no salve or medicine can prevail where God gives the wound.
Verse 16
He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our 1 own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
As they who would repent that they helped the Egyptians.
Verse 17
They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he 1 hath passed the time appointed.
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.
Verse 18
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 1 he come.
That is, that the Egyptians will be destroyed.
Verse 20
Egypt is like a very 1 fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.
They have abundance of all things, and therefore are disobedient and proud.
Verse 21
Also her hired men 1 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.
As in
Verse 22
Its voice shall go like a 1 serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against 2 her with axes, as hewers of wood.
They will be scarcely able to speak for fear of the Chaldeans.
Meaning Egypt.
Verse 23
They shall cut down 1 her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the
grasshoppers, and [are] innumerable.
That is, they will slay the great and mighty men of power.
That is, Nebuchadnezzar's army.
Verse 25
The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the 1 multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:
Some take the Hebrew word Amon for the kings name of No, that is, of Alexandria.
Verse 26
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 1 in the days of old, saith the LORD.
Meaning, that after forty years Egypt would be restored, ,
Verse 27
1 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.
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, ,
Verse 28
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 1 thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.
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)Read Geneva ""