Jeremiah 46
Introduction to the Oracles Against Egypt 1–2
The Defeat at Carchemish 3–12
Prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar's Invasion of Egypt 13–26
Assurance for Israel 27–28
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Study Notes for Jeremiah 46
Verse 1
against the Gentiles — ‘Gentiles’ is goyim, the nations, the same word as in Jeremiah’s call, ‘a prophet unto the nations’ (1:5), and in the cup of fury he was sent to give ‘all the nations’ (25:15–17). Egypt heads the list of nations in 25:19, and chapters 46–51 carry these oracles out, beginning here.
Verse 2
Carchemish — The city on the Euphrates to which Necho went up (2 Chr 35:20), the journey on which Josiah was slain at Megiddo (2 Kgs 23:29). Nebuchadrezzar smote his army there in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the year of 25:1 and 36:1; afterward ‘the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land’ (2 Kgs 24:7).
Verse 7
cometh up as a flood — ‘Flood’ is ye’or, the word for the Nile (Gen 41:1), and ‘cometh up’ is the verb used of the kine that ‘came up out of the river’ (Gen 41:2). The question is answered in v.8, ‘Egypt riseth up like a flood’. The same figure is turned against Philistia in 47:2, ‘waters rise up out of the north’.
Verse 9
the Ethiopians and the Libyans… the Lydians — Cush and Phut are named with Mizraim, that is Egypt, among the sons of Ham (Gen 10:6), and the Ludim are Mizraim’s own sons (Gen 10:13). Egypt’s allies are her kin. Ethiopia, Libya and Lydia are named again as falling with her (Ezek 30:5).
Verse 10
the day of the Lord GOD of hosts — The day is the Lord GOD’s own, ‘a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries’. The slain are ‘a sacrifice’, as in Isa 34:6, ‘the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah’, and the sword ‘made drunk with their blood’ recalls Deut 32:42. The place is ‘by the river Euphrates’, Carchemish.
Verse 11
take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt — Gilead’s balm went down to Egypt in Ishmaelite caravans (Gen 37:25); Israel’s own cry was ‘Is there no balm in Gilead?’ (8:22). ‘Medicines’ is rephuah, found only here, in 30:13 of Judah, and in Ezek 30:21, where Pharaoh’s arm ‘shall not be bound up to be healed’.
Verse 13
how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt — A new word begins, about the invasion of Egypt itself, not the battle on the Euphrates. It is repeated to Jeremiah in Egypt (43:10–13; 44:30), and Ezek 29:19 gives the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar as ‘the wages for his army’.
Verse 14
Migdol… Noph… Tahpanhes — Three Egyptian cities, all named in 44:1 as places where Jews were living. Noph is the Memphis of Hos 9:6. At Tahpanhes the remnant of Judah arrived, having ‘obeyed not the voice of the LORD’ (43:7), and Jeremiah hid great stones at the entry of Pharaoh’s house for Nebuchadrezzar’s throne (43:9–10).
Verse 15
the LORD did drive them — The word of Egypt’s overthrow is the LORD’s own doing, as at the sea, where ‘the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians’ (Ex 14:25). ‘Valiant men’ is the singular abbir, ‘strong one’, and ‘swept away’ is sachaph, a verb found elsewhere only in Prov 28:3, of a ‘sweeping rain’.
Verse 17
Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise — ‘Noise’ is sha’on, a roar or tumult, the word for the ‘noise of their waves’ (Ps 65:7) and the ‘rushing of nations’ (Isa 17:12). Pharaoh is all sound. ‘The time appointed’ is mo’ed, a set season; the one that was his to act in has gone by.
Verse 18
the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts — The oath ‘As I live’ is the LORD’s own, and this exact title for him is found only here and in the oracles against Moab (48:15) and Babylon (51:57). Tabor and Carmel (Judg 4:6; 1 Kgs 18:19) are the two mountains named, so surely will the enemy come.
Verse 19
furnish thyself to go into captivity — Literally ‘make for thyself vessels of exile’, keli and golah: the baggage of those carried off, with golah the word for those ‘carried away captives’ in Jeremiah’s letter (29:1). ‘Noph shall be waste’, as Ezek 30:13 says, ‘I will cause their images to cease out of Noph’.
Verse 21
her hired men… like fatted bullocks — ‘Fatted’ is marbeq, ‘of the stall’, as in ‘calves of the stall’ (Mal 4:2; Amos 6:4); the hired soldiers are well kept and fit for slaughter. ‘The time of their visitation’ returns against Babylon, ‘their day is come, the time of their visitation’ (50:27).
Verse 22
like a serpent — Nachash, a snake, named from its hiss: the voice of Egypt goes low as the enemy ‘march with an army’. The ‘axes’ are qardom, the tool Abimelech took to cut a bough (Judg 9:48) and the ‘axes upon the thick trees’ (Ps 74:5); the army comes ‘as hewers of wood’.
Verse 25
the multitude of No… with their gods — No is the ‘populous No’ of Nah 3:8, whose end Nah 3:10 describes: ‘she went into captivity’. The LORD’s judgment reaches Egypt’s gods too (43:12–13), as at the Exodus: ‘against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment’ (Ex 12:12). ‘All them that trust in him’ recalls the ‘staff of reed’ (Ezek 29:6–7).
Verse 26
afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old — Egypt is given into Nebuchadrezzar’s hand (43:10–11), yet is promised return, as are Moab (48:47), Ammon (49:6) and Elam (49:39). Ezek 29:13–14 says how: after forty years the Egyptians are gathered again to Pathros, ‘a base kingdom’, not to rule over the nations.
Verse 27
Fear not thou, O my servant Jacob — The words of 30:10 are repeated here, set after the oracle on Egypt: Israel’s return is promised beside the fall of the nations. ‘Servant’ (’ebed) is Israel’s standing title (Isa 41:8, ‘thou, Israel, art my servant’), and the return is ‘from afar off’ and ‘from the land of their captivity’.
Verse 28
I will not make a full end of thee — Almost word for word 30:11. Kalah, ‘full end’, is what falls on the nations ‘whither I have driven thee’, while Israel is corrected ‘in measure’ (mishpat, judgment), as Jeremiah prayed, ‘correct me, but with judgment’ (10:24). Christ’s ‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten’ (Rev 3:19) states the same principle.