Jeremiah 46
CHAPTER 46
Jeremiah 46:1-28 . THE PROPHECIES, FORTY-SIXTH THROUGH FIFTY-SECOND CHAPTERS, REFER TO FOREIGN PEOPLES.
He begins with Egypt, being the country to which he had been removed. The forty-sixth chapter contains two prophecies concerning it: the discomfiture of Pharaoh-necho at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar, and the long subsequent conquest of Egypt by the same king; also the preservation of the Jews ( Jeremiah 46:27 Jeremiah 46:28 ).
1. General heading of the next six chapters of prophecies concerning the Gentiles; the prophecies are arranged according to nations, not by the dates.
2. Inscription of the first prophecy.
Pharaoh-necho--He, when going against Carchemish (Cercusium, near the Euphrates), encountered Josiah, king of Judah (the ally of Assyria), at Megiddo, and slew him there ( 2 Kings 23:29 2 Chronicles 35:20-24 ); but he was four years subsequently overcome at Carchemish, by Nebuchadnezzar, as is foretold here; and lost all the territory which had been subject to the Pharaohs west of the Euphrates, and between it and the Nile. The prediction would mitigate the Jews' grief for Josiah, and show his death was not to be unavenged ( 2 Kings 24:7 ). He is famed as having fitted out a fleet of discovery from the Red Sea, which doubled the Cape of Good Hope and returned to Egypt by the Mediterranean.
3. Derisive summons to battle. With all your mighty preparation for the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, when ye come to the encounter, ye shall be "dismayed" ( Jeremiah 46:5 ). Your mighty threats shall end in nothing.
buckler--smaller, and carried by the light-armed cavalry.
shield--of larger size, and carried by the heavily armed infantry.
4. Harness the horses--namely, to the war chariots, for which Egypt was famed ( Exodus 14:7 , 15:4 ).
get up, ye horsemen--get up into the chariots. MAURER, because of the parallel "horses," translates, "Mount the steeds." But it is rather describing the successive steps in equipping the war chariots; first harness the horses to them, then let the horsemen mount them.
brigandines--cuirasses, or coats of mail.
fled apace--literally, "fled a flight," that is, flee precipitately.
look not back--They do not even dare to look back at their pursuers.
6. Let not--equivalent to the strongest negation. Let not any of the Egyptian warriors think to escape by swiftness or by might.
toward the north--that is, in respect to Egypt or Judea. In the northward region, by the Euphrates (see Jeremiah 46:2 ).
7. as a flood--( Jeremiah 47:2 , Isaiah 8:7 Isaiah 8:8 , Daniel 11:22 ). The figure is appropriate in addressing Egyptians, as the Nile, their great river, yearly overspreads their lands with a turbid, muddy flood. So their army, swelling with arrogance, shall overspread the region south of Euphrates; but it, like the Nile, shall retreat as fast as it advanced.
8. Answer to the question in Jeremiah 46:7 .
waters . . . moved like the rivers--The rise of the Nile is gentle; but at the mouth it, unlike most rivers, is much agitated, owing to the sandbanks impeding its course, and so it rushes into the sea like a cataract.