Jeremiah 19:9

9 And I shall feed them with the fleshes of their sons, and with the fleshes of their daughters; and each man shall eat the fleshes of his friend in the besieging and anguish, in which the enemies of them, and they that seek the lives of them, shall close them together. (And I shall feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters; and each person shall eat the flesh of his friend in the besieging and in the anguish, in which their enemies, and those who seek their lives, shall altogether enclose them.)

Jeremiah 19:9 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 19:9

And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the
flesh of their daughters
For want of food; the famine should be so great and pressing. Jeremiah, that foretells this, was a witness of it, and has left it on record, ( Lamentations 4:10 ) ; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend.
The Targum interprets it, the goods or substance of his neighbour; which is sometimes the sense of eating the flesh of another; but as it is to be taken in a literal sense, in the preceding clause, so in this: so it should be, in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that
seek their lives, shall straiten them;
the siege of Jerusalem should be so close, that no provision could be got in to the relief of the inhabitants; which obliged them to take the shocking methods before mentioned. Jerom observes, that though this was fulfilled at the Babylonish captivity, yet more fully when Jerusalem was besieged by Vespasian and Titus, and in the times of Hadrian. Josephus ^F17 gives us a most shocking relation of a woman eating her own son.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 4.

Jeremiah 19:9 In-Context

7 And I shall destroy the counsel of Judah and of Jerusalem in this place, and I shall destroy them by sword, in the sight of their enemies, and in the hand of men seeking the lives of them; and I shall give their dead bodies to be meat to the birds of the air, and to [the] beasts of (the) earth. (And I shall destroy the plans of Judah and of Jerusalem in this place, and I shall destroy them by the sword, before their enemies, and by the hands, or the power, of those who seek their lives; and I shall give their dead bodies to be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth.)

8 And I shall set this city into wondering, and into hissing; each that passeth by it, shall wonder, and hiss on all the vengeance thereof (each person who passeth by it, shall wonder and shall hiss at all the vengeance there).

9 And I shall feed them with the fleshes of their sons, and with the fleshes of their daughters; and each man shall eat the fleshes of his friend in the besieging and anguish, in which the enemies of them, and they that seek the lives of them, shall close them together. (And I shall feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters; and each person shall eat the flesh of his friend in the besieging and in the anguish, in which their enemies, and those who seek their lives, shall altogether enclose them.)

10 And thou shalt all-break the pottle before the eyes of the men, that shall go with thee. (And thou shalt break the jar in pieces, before those who shall go with thee.)

11 And thou shalt say to them, The Lord of hosts saith these things, So I shall all-break this people, and this city, as the vessel of a potter is all-broken, which may no more be restored; and they shall be buried in Tophet, for none other place is to bury. (And thou shalt say to them, The Lord of hosts saith these things, So I shall break this people all in pieces, and this city, like this potter's vessel is broken all in pieces, which cannot be restored; and they shall be buried in Tophet, for there is no other place left for burying them.)