Jeremiah 50:17

17 Israel [is] a sheep scattered, lions drove [them] away. [The] first who devoured it [was] the king of Assyria, and now [at] the end Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, gnawed its bones."

Jeremiah 50:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 50:17

Israel [is] a scattered sheep
Or like a sheep that is frightened and drove from the fold, and is dispersed, and wanders about here and there; Israel includes all the twelve tribes: the lions have driven [him] away;
from his own land, and carried him captive, and scattered him among the nations; these lions are afterwards interpreted of the kings of Assyria and Babylon: so the Targum,

``kings have removed them;''

comparable to lions for their strength, fierceness, and voraciousness: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him;
eaten up his flesh; meaning Shalmaneser king of Assyria, who carried captive the ten tribes, that never returned, and therefore said to be devoured: and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones;
or, "boned him" ^F20; took out his bones, all his strength and substance; or took the flesh off of them, stripped him of all his wealth and riches, reduced him to his bones, made a mere skeleton of him: we, with Kimchi and Ben Melech, and others, read "broke his bones"; to get the very marrow out, that nothing may be left of him: he took Jerusalem, burnt the temple, and carried captive the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the strength of Israel; so, between the one and the other, all Israel were like a scattered sheep, dispersed among the nations. Nebuchadrezzar was the then reigning king in Babylon when this prophecy was delivered, and therefore called "this Nebuchadrezzar".

---

FOOTNOTES:

F20 (wmue) "exossavit eum", Munster, Montanus, Cocceius.

Jeremiah 50:17 In-Context

15 Raise a war cry against her on all sides. {She has surrendered}. Her towers have fallen, her walls are ruined. For this [is] the vengeance of Yahweh. Take revenge on her. As she has done [to others], [so] do to her.

16 Cut off [the] sower from Babylon, and [the] one who uses [the] sickle in [the] time of harvest. {Because of} the sword of the oppressor each one will turn to their people, and each one will flee to their land.

17 Israel [is] a sheep scattered, lions drove [them] away. [The] first who devoured it [was] the king of Assyria, and now [at] the end Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, gnawed its bones."

18 {Therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I [am] going to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

19 And I will restore Israel to its pasture, and it will feed [on] Carmel, and [in] Bashan, and on the hills of Ephraim, and [in] Gilead its hunger will be satisfied.