Jeremiah 18:21

21 Enough! Let their children starve; let them die by the sword. Let their wives be barren widows; let their men be slaughtered and their youth struck down in battle.

Jeremiah 18:21 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 18:21

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine
To be starved, and perish by it, as they were in the siege of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans, and the Romans: and pour out their [blood] by the force of the sword:
or, "upon the hands of the sword" ^F6; by means of it; that is, the blood of the parents of the children; let the one perish by famine, and the other by the sword; which, when thrust into a man, blood gushes out, and runs upon the sword to the handle of it: and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and [be] widows;
let them have neither husbands nor children; which latter might be a comfort to them, when they had lost their husbands; but being stripped of these also, the affliction and distress must be the greater: and let their men be put to death;
or "slain with death" ^F7; with the pestilence, as Kimchi rightly interprets it; see ( Revelation 6:8 ) ; Jarchi understands it of the angel of death; see ( Hebrews 2:14 ) ; [let] their young men [be] slain by the sword in battle;
such being commonly employed in military service, as being the most proper persons for it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 (brx ydy le) "super manus gladii", Montanus, Schmidt.
F7 (twm ygrh wyhy) "occisi morte", Pagninus, Montanus, "i.e. peste" Schmidt; "occisi mortis", Cocceius.

Jeremiah 18:21 In-Context

19 Pay attention to me, LORD; listen to what my enemies are saying.

20 Should evil be returned for good? Yet they have set traps for me. Remember that I stood before you, begging you to be merciful and not to punish them.

21 Enough! Let their children starve; let them die by the sword. Let their wives be barren widows; let their men be slaughtered and their youth struck down in battle.

22 Let screams be heard from their homes when you suddenly bring armies against them. They have dug a pit to capture me, set traps for my feet.

23 But you, LORD, you know all their sinister plots to kill me. Don't overlook their wrongdoing; don't cleanse their sin from before you. May they stumble before you; when you become angry, do something about them.