Jeremiah 46:17

17 There they will exclaim, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is only a loud noise; he has missed his opportunity.’

Jeremiah 46:17 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
17 They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.
English Standard Version (ESV)
17 Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, 'Noisy one who lets the hour go by.'
New Living Translation (NLT)
17 There they will say, ‘Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is a loudmouth who missed his opportunity!’
The Message Bible (MSG)
17 When they get home they'll nickname Pharaoh 'Big-Talk-Bad-Luck.'
American Standard Version (ASV)
17 They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath let the appointed time pass by.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
17 There they will cry, 'Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is a big windbag. He has missed his chance.'
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
17 There they will cry out: Pharaoh king of Egypt was all noise; he let the opportune moment pass.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
17 The Egyptian soldiers will cry out, 'Pharaoh is our king. But he's only a loud noise. He has missed his chance to win the battle.'

Jeremiah 46:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 46:17

They did cry there
Not the Chaldeans, deriding Pharaoh and his army, and mocking them, saying the following words, as some; nor the Egyptians in Egypt, as Kimchi, complaining of their king; much less in Carchemish, as others; since this prophecy refers to another event, time, and place; but the auxiliaries of Egypt in the field of battle; these did cry out aloud, as follows: Pharaoh king of Egypt [is but] a noise;
he boasted and bragged of great things he would do, and does nothing; he promised to bring a large army into the field, and talked big of attacking the enemy with great ardour and fury, and hectored and blustered as if he feared him not, and was sure of victory; but when it came to the push, his courage failed him; and it may be said of him what the man said of his nightingale, "vox et praeterea nihil", a voice, and nothing else. This was not Pharaohnecho, as the Septuagint have wrongly inserted, but Pharaohhophra, ( Jeremiah 44:30 ) ; or it may be supplied thus, "Pharaoh king of Egypt [is a king of] noise" {l}; a noisy, big, and blusterous king in words, but in deeds nothing: he hath passed the time appointed;
to join his auxiliaries, in order to give the enemy battle; and so left them in the lurch, of which they complain; or through his dilatoriness lost the proper opportunity of attacking him. Some indeed understand it, not of the king of Egypt, but of the king of Babylon; as if the sense was this, the Egyptians cried aloud, and encouraged themselves and their allies against the king of Babylon; saying, what Jeremiah the prophet said concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt and his destruction is all mere noise; there is nothing in it; for the time set by him for that event is passed and over: others, because the word has sometimes the signification of a solemn meeting or festival, take the meaning to be, that Pharaoh king of Egypt being brought to utter destruction, as the word for noise may signify, or being a noisy tumultuous prince, who brought ruin on himself and others, has thereby caused the solemn feasts to pass away F13, or the festivals to cease; whether in a civil or a religious way; but the first sense seems best.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 (Nwav Myrum Klm) "rex Aegypti, [rex] tumultus", Munster, Vatablus; "rex perturbationis", Calvin; so Ben Melech; "rex Aegypti, [vir] strepertus est", Piscator, Junius & Tremellius.
F13 (dewmh rybeh) "transire fecit solennitatem", De Dieu.

Jeremiah 46:17 In-Context

15 Why will your warriors be laid low? They cannot stand, for the LORD will push them down.
16 They will stumble repeatedly; they will fall over each other. They will say, ‘Get up, let us go back to our own people and our native lands, away from the sword of the oppressor.’
17 There they will exclaim, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is only a loud noise; he has missed his opportunity.’
18 “As surely as I live,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty, “one will come who is like Tabor among the mountains, like Carmel by the sea.
19 Pack your belongings for exile, you who live in Egypt, for Memphis will be laid waste and lie in ruins without inhabitant.

Cross References 2

  • 1. 1 Kings 20:10-11
  • 2. Isaiah 19:11-16
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