Jeremiah 5:17

17 They will eat up your crops and your food. They will strike down your sons and daughters. They will kill your sheep and cattle. They will destroy your vines and fig trees. You trust in your cities that have high walls around them. But the people in them will be killed with swords.

Jeremiah 5:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 5:17

And they shall eat up thine harvest
The standing corn in the fields, cut it down, and give it as fodder to their horses, which is usually done by armies; or the increase of the earth, when gathered into the barn, which so great an army would consume: and thy bread;
which includes all kind of provisions: which thy sons and thy daughters should eat;
which is an aggravation of the calamity and misery, that that should become the prey of their enemies, which they with so much labour and pains had provided for their children, who would now be deprived of it, and suffer want, The Targum renders it,

``shall kill thy sons and thy daughters;''

that is, with the sword; and so Kimchi interprets it; and so other versions read, "they shall eat up, or devour, thy sons and thy daughters" ^F26; the sword ate them up, or devoured them; and they who besieged them were the cause or occasion of their being eaten literally, even by their own parents; see ( Lamentations 2:20 ) ( 4:10 ) : they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds;
their sheep and oxen, as the Targum interprets it: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees:
that is, the fruit of them, as the same paraphrase explains it: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with
the sword;
that is, such strong and fortified cities as Jerusalem, and others, in which the Jews trusted they should be safe from their enemies; these the Chaldeans would enter into, kill with the sword those they found in garrisons, demolish the fortifications, take away what wealth and riches were laid up there, and so impoverish them, and render them weak and defenceless. The Targum of this clause is,

``shall destroy the fortified cities of thy land, in which thou trustedst thou shouldest be safe from those that kill with the sword.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (Kytwnbw Kynb wlkay) "vorabunt filios tuos et filias tuas", Calvin; "devorabunt", Vatablus; "comedent filios tuos et filias tuas", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius.

Jeremiah 5:17 In-Context

15 "People of Israel, listen to me," announces the Lord. "I am bringing against you a nation from far away. It is an old nation. And it will last for a long time. Its people speak a language you do not know. You can't understand what they are saying.

16 The bags they carry their arrows in are like an open grave. All of their soldiers are mighty.

17 They will eat up your crops and your food. They will strike down your sons and daughters. They will kill your sheep and cattle. They will destroy your vines and fig trees. You trust in your cities that have high walls around them. But the people in them will be killed with swords.

18 "In spite of that, even in those days I will not destroy you completely," announces the Lord.

19 " 'Jeremiah,' the people will ask, 'Why has the LORD our God done all of this to us?' "Then you will tell them, 'You have deserted the LORD. You have served other gods in your own land. So now you will serve another nation in a land that is not your own.'