Jeremías 46:16

16 Tropiezan una y otra vez,se caen uno sobre otro.Se dicen: “¡Levántate,volvamos a nuestra gente,a la tierra donde nacimos,lejos de la espada del opresor!”

Jeremías 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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F11 Apud Gregory's Posthuma, p. 236.

Jeremías 46:16 In-Context

14 «Anuncien esto en Egipto,proclámenlo en Migdol, Menfis y Tafnes:“¡A sus puestos! ¡Manténganse alerta!¡La espada devora a su alrededor!”

15 ¿Por qué yacen postrados tus guerreros?¡No pueden mantenerse en pie,porque el SEÑOR los ha derribado!

16 Tropiezan una y otra vez,se caen uno sobre otro.Se dicen: “¡Levántate,volvamos a nuestra gente,a la tierra donde nacimos,lejos de la espada del opresor!”

17 Allí gritan: “¡El faraón es puro ruido!¡el rey de Egipto ya perdió su oportunidad!”

18 »¡Vivo yo! —declara el Rey,cuyo nombre es el SEÑOR Todopoderoso—:Como el Tabor, que sobresale de entre los montes,y como el Carmelo, que se erige sobre el mar,así será el enemigo que viene.