Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,
saith the Lord
The Targum is, the kingdoms of the north, the same with those in ( Jeremiah 1:15 ) ; even all those kingdoms which were subject to the king of Babylon, and lay north of Judea: and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant:
though a great king, he was a servant of the Lord of hosts; his servant, both as a creature of his make, and as a king that ruled under him; and as he was an instrument in his hand to chastise his people the Jews; though it was not knowingly and with intention that he served the Lord: and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants
thereof;
the land of Judea, and its inhabitants; this was the Lord's doing; it was he that stirred, up the king of Babylon, and by his secret instinct and powerful providence brought him and his armies into Judea to spoil it, and the inhabitants of it Jehovah as it were marched at the head of them, and led them on, and brought them against the Jews, and delivered them into their hands: and against all these nations round about;
Egypt and others; so that the Jews could have no help from them; nor would application to them, and alliance with them, signify anything: and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an
hissing, and perpetual desolations;
both the Jews and their neighbours; who should be an astonishment to some, and a hissing to others, and remain desolate for a long time; even till the seventy years were ended after mentioned.
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.