Jeremiah 6:23

23 It shall take arrow and shield; it is cruel, and shall not have mercy; the voice thereof shall sound as the sea, and they made ready as a man to battle shall ascend on horses against thee, thou daughter of Zion. (They shall take up arrows and shields; they be cruel, and shall not have mercy; their thunder shall sound like the sea, and like a man prepared for battle, they shall go upon horses against thee, O daughter of Zion.)

Jeremiah 6:23 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 6:23

They shall lay hold on bow and spear
That is, everyone of them should be furnished with both these pieces of armour, that they might be able to fight near and afar off; they had bows to shoot arrows at a distance, and spears to strike with when near. The Targum renders it bows and shields. "They are cruel, and have no mercy"; this is said, to strike terror into the hearts of the hardened Jews: their voice roareth like the sea;
the waves of it, which is terrible, ( Luke 21:25 Luke 21:26 ) : and they ride upon horses;
which still made them more formidable, as well as suggests that their march would be quick and speedy, and they would soon be with them: set in array as men for war;
prepared with all sorts of armour for battle: or, "as a man" ^F1; as one man, denoting their conjunction, ardour, and unanimity; being not only well armed without, but inwardly, resolutely bent, as one man, to engage in battle, and conquer or die; see ( Judges 20:8 ) , against thee, O daughter of Zion;
the design being against her, and all the preparation made on her account; which had a very dreadful appearance, and threatened with ruin, and therefore filled her with terror and distress, as follows.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (vyak) "tanquam vir", Pagninus; "ut vir", Schmidt; "quam unus vir", Grotius.

Jeremiah 6:23 In-Context

21 Therefore the Lord God saith these things, Lo! I shall give (causes of) fallings into this people, and fathers and sons together, (and) a neighbour and (a) kinsman, shall fall in them, and shall perish.

22 The Lord God saith these things, Lo! a people cometh from the land of the north, and a great folk shall rise together from the ends of [the] earth (and a great nation shall altogether rise from the ends of the earth).

23 It shall take arrow and shield; it is cruel, and shall not have mercy; the voice thereof shall sound as the sea, and they made ready as a man to battle shall ascend on horses against thee, thou daughter of Zion. (They shall take up arrows and shields; they be cruel, and shall not have mercy; their thunder shall sound like the sea, and like a man prepared for battle, they shall go upon horses against thee, O daughter of Zion.)

24 We [have] heard the fame thereof, our hands be aclumsid; tribulation hath taken us, sorrows have taken us as a woman travailing of child. (And ye shall say, We have heard of their reputation, and our hands be benumbed; tribulation hath taken hold of us, yea, sorrows have taken hold of us like a woman in labour.)

25 Do not ye go out to the fields, and go ye not in the way, for the sword of the enemy, dread in compass (Do not ye go out to the fields, and go ye not on the way, for the sword of the enemy, and fear all around.)