Jeremiah 5:17

17 And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread, Which your sons and daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; They shall destroy your fortified cities, In which you trust, with the sword.

Jeremiah 5:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 5:17

And they shall eat up thine harvest
The standing corn in the fields, cut it down, and give it as fodder to their horses, which is usually done by armies; or the increase of the earth, when gathered into the barn, which so great an army would consume: and thy bread;
which includes all kind of provisions: which thy sons and thy daughters should eat;
which is an aggravation of the calamity and misery, that that should become the prey of their enemies, which they with so much labour and pains had provided for their children, who would now be deprived of it, and suffer want, The Targum renders it,

``shall kill thy sons and thy daughters;''

that is, with the sword; and so Kimchi interprets it; and so other versions read, "they shall eat up, or devour, thy sons and thy daughters" ^F26; the sword ate them up, or devoured them; and they who besieged them were the cause or occasion of their being eaten literally, even by their own parents; see ( Lamentations 2:20 ) ( 4:10 ) : they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds;
their sheep and oxen, as the Targum interprets it: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees:
that is, the fruit of them, as the same paraphrase explains it: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with
the sword;
that is, such strong and fortified cities as Jerusalem, and others, in which the Jews trusted they should be safe from their enemies; these the Chaldeans would enter into, kill with the sword those they found in garrisons, demolish the fortifications, take away what wealth and riches were laid up there, and so impoverish them, and render them weak and defenceless. The Targum of this clause is,

``shall destroy the fortified cities of thy land, in which thou trustedst thou shouldest be safe from those that kill with the sword.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (Kytwnbw Kynb wlkay) "vorabunt filios tuos et filias tuas", Calvin; "devorabunt", Vatablus; "comedent filios tuos et filias tuas", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius.

Jeremiah 5:17 In-Context

15 Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel," says the Lord. "It is a mighty nation, It is an ancient nation, A nation whose language you do not know, Nor can you understand what they say.

16 Their quiver is like an open tomb; They are all mighty men.

17 And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread, Which your sons and daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; They shall destroy your fortified cities, In which you trust, with the sword.

18 "Nevertheless in those days," says the Lord, "I will not make a complete end of you.

19 And it will be when you say, 'Why does the Lord our God do all these things to us?' then you shall answer them, 'Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.'