= Jeremiah 46 * Please see [[nsv:license|License]] for Copyright notice and Licensing information. * [ [[Jeremiah_45|Previous]] | [[Jeremiah_47|Next]] ] == Jeremiah 46 1 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles; 2 Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho 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. 3 Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle. 4 Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines. 5 Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, saith the Lord. 6 Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates. 7 Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers? 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 Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow. 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 satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates. 11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured. 12 The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together. 13 The word that the Lord spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt. 14 Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee. 15 Why are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the Lord did drive them. 16 He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword. 17 They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed. 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 he come. 19 O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant. 20 Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north. 21 Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation. 22 The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood. 23 They shall cut down her forest, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable. 24 The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she 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 multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; 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 afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord. 27 But 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 I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished. == Notes == Cross Reference == Commentary == Rashi ==== Verse 3 shield Heb. מגן. It is made of leather, and it is boiled, and when he goes forth to battle, he anoints it with oil. and buckler Heb. וצנה, [made] of wood, in the likeness of our shields. ==== Verse 4 polish the spears Heb. מרקו. Cf. “It shall be scoured (וּמֹרַק) and rinsed” (Lev. 6:21), (forbir in O.F., to furbish). ==== Verse 5 them breaking The Egyptians. and were not freed? [They were] no longer freed to stand in battle; they had no free time. ==== Verse 7 Who...would come up like the Nile Who was wont to bring up troops around him like the waters of a river, to flood its environs. ==== Verse 8 would come up like the Nile Was accustomed to coming up. I will destroy Heb. אֹבִידָה, like אֲאַבֵּד. ==== Verse 9 and rush madly Heb. והתהללו, an expression of folly. ==== Verse 10 and its thirst shall be quenched Heb. ורותה, an expression of satiety. [Another interpretation: It] is an expression of drunkenness; cf. שֵּׁכַר, strong drink, which we translate מְרַוֵי. in the north land For Pharaoh marched on Nebuchadnezzar in Carchemish, and there he fell and his mighty men were slain, and he fled from the battle. ==== Verse 12 a mighty man has stumbled upon a mighty man When they were fleeing they would stumble over each other. ==== Verse 13 concerning the coming of Nebuchadnezzar This was a second blow, [viz.] that Nebuchadnezzar laid Egypt waste in the twenty-seventh year of his reign (Ezek. 29:17), as we learned in Seder Olam (ch. 26). ==== Verse 14 “Stand fast and prepare yourself” for the war. והכן means “and prepare.” ==== Verse 15 been swept away? Heb. נסחף. Your mighty men have been swept away and have slid. Cf. “sweeping (סֹחֵף) rain” (Prov. 28:3); “His field has been inundated (נסתחפה)” (Kethuboth 1:6). Menahem (Machbereth p. 126) classified it as an expression of complete destruction, and so did he classify מטר סחף. Dunash, however, interprets מטר סחף like מטר סועף, cutting rain. Cf. “Lops off (מְסָעֵף) the branches with a saw” (Isa. 10:33). ==== Verse 16 He made many stumbling blocks The Holy One, blessed be He, Who pushed him down, made many stumbling blocks for him. yea, they joined Heb. נפל [lit. fell]. They joined one another, saying, Arise and let us go back to our own people, whence we came to wage war. the oppressing sword Heb. חרב. Jonathan renders: The sword of the enemy, which is like intoxicating wine. היונה. An expression of wine (יין). Another interpretation: It is an expression of oppression (אונאה). ==== Verse 17 There they called out In the battle, they proclaimed publicly a reproachful byword. “Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made a lot of noise” Who would raise the sound of his noise, the noises to boast with his armies. has allowed the appointed time to pass by For he had appointed a set time to go forth and wage war, and he did not go forth, and the day of the appointed time passed by. ==== Verse 18 that as sure as Tabor is among the mountains Just as it is a true fact that Tabor is fast among the mountains and Mount Carmel is by the sea, so is it true that this thing shall come upon Egypt. ==== Verse 19 equipment for exile When a person embarks on a journey, he prepares for himself a flask and an earthenware cup with which to drink. desolate Heb. ונצחה, an expression of desolation (ציה). ==== Verse 20 a fair heifer A beautiful kingdom. destruction peoples that kill [acc. to Jonathan]. קֶרֶץ is an expression of cutting. Cf. “I...was cut (קֹרצתי) out of clay” (Job 33:6). from the north From Babylon. ==== Verse 21 Also her princes Heb. שְׂכִרֶיהָ, her princes. Cf. “with the great razor (הַשְׂכִירָה)” (Isa. 7:20). fattened (kopla in O.F., couple in modern French). turn around Turned their back to seek to flee. ==== Verse 22 Its voice shall go like [that of] the snake The “snake” comes to teach us about Egypt but ends by learning. For we learn from here that when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to the serpent, “You shall walk on your belly” (Gen. 3:14), He severed his feet, and his voice went to the end of the world. So we learned in the ‘Thirty-two Methods of Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Jose the Galilean’ (Method 12). for they will march with an army against her. ==== Verse 23 They will cut down her forest They have power to cut down her forest. for they are innumerable [lit. it shall not be fathomed, i.e.,] the number of their host. ==== Verse 25 upon Amon Heb. אל אמון, [lit. to Amon,] upon Amon, upon the prince Amon. There are some that are an expression of greatness. Cf. “Are you greater than the greatness of No (מִנֹא אָמוֹן)?” (Nahum 3: 8). of No The great Alexandria (les seigneurs d’Alexandria in O.F.). ==== Verse 26 and after that At the end of forty years, as Ezekiel stated (29:1 3ff.). ==== Verse 27 You fear not The righteous men who were in Egypt, who were exiled there against their will. ==== Verse 28 justly With sparing justice, little by little. completely destroy Heb. ונקה [lit. clean,] an expression of sweeping and destroying, and Jonathan too rendered it an expression of destroying.