Jeremiah 21:6

6 And I have smitten the inhabitants of this city, Both man and beast, By a great pestilence do they die.

Jeremiah 21:6 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 21:6

And I will smite the inhabitants of this city
With one or other of his arrows after mentioned: or, "them that abide in this city" {o}; that do not go out of it, and surrender themselves to the king of Babylon; see ( Jeremiah 21:9 ) ; both man and beast;
the latter for the sin of the former; particularly such beasts as were fit for food are meant, whereby the famine would be increased, and so the greater destruction of men: they shall die of a great pestilence;
both man and beast; a disease which comes immediately from the hand of God; hence Hippocrates used to call it (to yeion) , "the divine disease": here it denotes a very uncommon one, which should sweep away large numbers; called great, both for quality, or the nature of it, and for the quantity of persons that died of it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (ryeh ybvwy ta) "manentes in hac urbe", Gataker.

Jeremiah 21:6 In-Context

4 Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel: Lo, I am turning round the weapons of battle That [are] in your hand, With which ye do fight the king of Babylon, And the Chaldeans, who are laying siege against you, At the outside of the wall, And I have gathered them into the midst of this city,

5 And I -- I have fought against you, With a stretched-out hand, and with a strong arm, And in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath,

6 And I have smitten the inhabitants of this city, Both man and beast, By a great pestilence do they die.

7 And after this -- an affirmation of Jehovah, I give Zedekiah king of Judah, And his servants, and the people, And those left in this city, From the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, Into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, And into the hand of their enemies, And into the hand of those seeking their life, And he hath smitten them by the mouth of the sword, He hath no pity on them, Nor doth he spare, nor hath he mercy.

8 And unto this people thou dost say, Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am setting before you the way of life, And the way of death!