Geremia 46:16

16 Egli ne ha traboccati molti, ed anche l’uno è caduto sopra l’altro; ed han detto: Or su, ritorniamo al nostro popolo, e al nostro natio paese, d’innanzi alla spada di quel disertatore.

Geremia 46:16 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 46:16

He made many to fall
That is, the Lord, by the hand of the Chaldeans, by whose sword multitudes fell in battle: yea, one fell upon another;
they fell in heaps, denoting the multitude of the slain; or rather they fell in flight one upon another; one fell, and then another upon him, as usually they do, when men are frightened and flee precipitantly, as in ( Jeremiah 46:12 ) ; and they said, arise:
not those that fell, which may seem at first sight; but either the strangers in the land of Egypt, as Kimchi, such as the Jews were; who, perceiving the destruction that was coming on Egypt, exhort one another to arise, and get out of it; or rather the auxiliaries of the Egyptians, as the Ethiopians, Lybians, and Lydians, ( Jeremiah 46:9 ) ; who finding the enemy too strong for them, and they themselves deserted or unsupported by Pharaoh's army, advise one another to quit his service, and provide for their own safety: and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our
nativity;
their own country, where they were born, and their friends and relations lived; that so they might be safe from the oppressing sword;
the sword of the Chaldeans. The Septuagint version is a very bad one, followed by the Arabic, which renders it, "from the Grecian sword"; and so is the Vulgate Latin version, "from the face of the dove"; to countenance which it is said, that the Chaldeans and Assyrians had a dove in their ensigns; (See Gill on Jeremiah 25:38); and so a most ancient Saxon translation in the library of Christ's Church in Oxford, "from the face of the sword of the culver" ^F11, or "dove"; that is, from their sword, who display their banners in the field with the ensign of a dove; meaning the Chaldeans. The Targum is,

``from the sword of the enemy, which is as wine inebriating;''

which sense is followed by Jarchi.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Apud Gregory's Posthuma, p. 236.

Geremia 46:16 In-Context

14 Annunziate in Egitto, e bandite in Migdol, e pubblicate in Nof, e in Tafnes; dite: Presentati alla battaglia, e preparati; perciocchè la spada ha già divorati i tuoi luoghi circonvicini.

15 Perchè sono stati atterrati i tuoi possenti? non son potuti star saldi, perciocchè il Signore li ha sospinti.

16 Egli ne ha traboccati molti, ed anche l’uno è caduto sopra l’altro; ed han detto: Or su, ritorniamo al nostro popolo, e al nostro natio paese, d’innanzi alla spada di quel disertatore.

17 Hanno quivi gridato: Faraone, re di Egitto, è ruinato; egli ha lasciata passar la stagione.

18 Come io vivo, dice il Re, il cui nome è: Il Signor degli eserciti, colui verrà, a guisa che Tabor è fra i monti, e Carmel in sul mare.