Jeremias 19:9

9 And they shall eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every one the flesh of his neighbour in the blockade, and in the siege wherewith their enemies shall besiege them.

Jeremias 19:9 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 19:9

And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the
flesh of their daughters
For want of food; the famine should be so great and pressing. Jeremiah, that foretells this, was a witness of it, and has left it on record, ( Lamentations 4:10 ) ; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend.
The Targum interprets it, the goods or substance of his neighbour; which is sometimes the sense of eating the flesh of another; but as it is to be taken in a literal sense, in the preceding clause, so in this: so it should be, in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that
seek their lives, shall straiten them;
the siege of Jerusalem should be so close, that no provision could be got in to the relief of the inhabitants; which obliged them to take the shocking methods before mentioned. Jerom observes, that though this was fulfilled at the Babylonish captivity, yet more fully when Jerusalem was besieged by Vespasian and Titus, and in the times of Hadrian. Josephus ^F17 gives us a most shocking relation of a woman eating her own son.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 4.

Jeremias 19:9 In-Context

7 And I will destroy the counsel of Juda and the counsel of Jerusalem in this place; and I will cast them down with the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the sky and to the wild beasts of the earth.

8 And I will bring this city to desolation and a hissing; every one that passes by it shall scowl, and hiss because of all her plague.

9 And they shall eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every one the flesh of his neighbour in the blockade, and in the siege wherewith their enemies shall besiege them.

10 And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that go forth with thee,

11 and thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord, Thus will I break in pieces this people, and this city, even as an earthen vessel is broken in pieces which cannot be mended again.