Yirmeyah 46:21

21 Also her mercenaries are in the midst of her like young calves of the stall; 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 pekuddat.

Yirmeyah 46:21 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 46:21

All her hired men [are] in the midst of her like fatted
bullocks
Or, "bullocks of the stall" F11; soldiers of other countries, that were hired into the service of Egypt, and lived so deliciously there, that they were unfit for war, and were like fatted beasts prepared for the slaughter. The Targum and Jarchi interpret it, her princes F12; who had the care of this heifer, and of the feeding of it; these themselves were like that, nourished for the day of slaughter: for they also are turned back, [and] are fled away together;
they turned their backs upon the enemy in battle, and fled in great confusion and precipitancy; see ( Jeremiah 46:15 Jeremiah 46:16 ) ; they did not stand;
and face the enemy, and light him, but fell or fled before him: because the day of their calamity was come upon them, [and] the time of
their visitation;
the time appointed by the Lord to visit and punish them, and bring destruction on them for their sins.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 (qbrm ylgek) "velut vituli saginae", Montanus, Cocceius,
F12 So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 2.

Yirmeyah 46:21 In-Context

19 O thou Bat dwelling in Mitzrayim, prepare thyself to go into Golus; for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.
20 Mitzrayim is like a very fair eglah, but a gadfly comes; it comes out of the tzafon.
21 Also her mercenaries are in the midst of her like young calves of the stall; 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 pekuddat.
22 The noise thereof [the sound of Egypt fleeing] shall go like a nachash; for they [her enemies] shall march in force, and come against her with axes, as choppers of wood.
23 They shall cut down her forest, saith Hashem, though it cannot be searched out; because they are more in number than the arbeh (locust), innumerable.
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