Jeremiah 2:18

2:14-19 Is Israel a servant? No, they are the seed of Abraham. We may apply this spiritually: Is the soul of man a slave? No, it is not; but has sold its own liberty, and enslaved itself to divers lusts and passions. The Assyrian princes, like lions, prevailed against Israel. People from Egypt destroyed their glory and strength. They brought these calamities on themselves by departing from the Lord. The use and application of this is, Repent of thy sin, that thy correction may not be thy ruin. What has a Christian to do in the ways of forbidden pleasure or vain sinful mirth, or with the pursuits of covetousness and ambition?

Jeremiah 2:18 . And now what hast thou to do, &c. — “The kings of Egypt and Assyria were the most potent monarchs in the neighbourhood of Judea; and according as either of these was the stronger, the Jews made their court to him, and desired his assistance. This is expressed by drinking the waters of Sihor, an Egyptian river, which some suppose, and Dr. Waterland renders, the Nile; (see note on Isaiah 42; Isaiah 3;) and of the Euphrates, called here the river, by way of eminence. The expressions allude to Jeremiah 2:13 , where human assistances are styled broken cisterns, and opposed to God, who, by reason of his all-sufficiency, is called the fountain of living waters. To drink of the waters of these rivers might possibly allude, further, both to the strong propensity which the Israelites had to return to Egypt, and that which they showed for adopting the idolatrous worship of these countries. For the Egyptians worshipped the water, and particularly that of the Nile.” See Div. Leg., vol. 3., and Calmet.

Verse 18. - What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt? rather, with the way to Egypt . Isaiah ( Isaiah 30:2-5 ; Isaiah 31:1 ) and Hosea ( Hosea 7:11, 16 ) had already inveighed against an Egyptian alliance. The name given by Manasseh to his sen and successor (Amen) suggests that at one period in his reign an Egyptian policy was in the ascendant, which coincides with the tradition preserved in 2 Chronicles 33:11 , of an Assyrian captivity of Manasseh. Jehoiakim at a later period was a vassal of Egypt ( 2 Kings 23:31, 35 ). To drink the waters ; taking up the idea of the second clause of ver. 13. Sihor , or Shihor, occurs again in Isaiah 23:3 , as a name of the Nile. It properly means, not so much "the black" as "the dark grey" (connected with shakhar , the morning grey), from the color of the water. Rosenmüller's contrast between the muddy waters of foreign streams and the "fountain of living waters" is uncalled for; besides, the Nile water has always been held in high esteem. The Septuagint has Γηών , i . e . Gihon, also a name of-the Nile according to Ecclus. 24:27. The way of - rather, to - Assyria . It is true that Assyria was, to say the least, powerless to interfere for good or for evil, when these words were written. But in ver. 5 the prophet has already warned us that his complaints are partly retrospective. It would seem that the Assyrian party from time to time gained the upper hand over the Egyptian in the councils of the State.

Or perhaps the prophet may refer to the Quixotic fidelity to Assyria of Josiah (see below on ver. 36). The river ; i . e . the Euphrates, "the great river" ( Genesis 15:18 ). Babylonia it should be remembered, was in nominal subjection to Assyria; the Euphrates was the boundary between Syria and Palestine on the one hand, and Assyria - here the Assyrio-Babylonian region - on the other. Jeremiah 2:18

18 . what hast thou to do in the way to Egypt ] The thought is the same as that expressed in Isaiah 30:1-3 . Ever since the time when Psammetichus I (b.c. 663–610), king of Egypt, reduced under his own sway the twelve separate kingdoms into which that country had been formed, there was a party of statesmen at Jerusalem who favoured an Egyptian alliance. This party Jeremiah constantly opposed. to drink the waters of Shihor ] to hold communication with Egypt, and espouse its cause. The figure has been already suggested by the mention of fountains and cisterns ( Jeremiah 2:13 ). Shihor ] The word, which properly means turbid, is shewn by the context to be equivalent to the Nile, a word which itself denotes blue, or dark; so probably in Isaiah 23:3 . Sometimes (as in Joshua 13:3 ; 1 Chronicles 13:5 ) the name is confined to the easternmost branch of the Nile. what hast thou to do in the way to Assyria ] Both Israel and Judah had vacillated for many reigns between Egypt and Assyria. Menahem king of Israel bribed Pul king of Assyria to support him, and to him also his successors Pekahiah and Pekah seem to have looked. Hoshea sought the aid of Egypt to enable him to throw off the Assyrian yoke, while Josiah met his death in fighting against it and on behalf of the Eastern empire, Assyria’s successor. Thus subservience now to one now to the other quarter was familiar to those whom Jeremiah addressed.

And now what hast thou to do in the way of {c} Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the {d} river? {c} To seek help from man, as though God was not able enough to defend you, which is to drink from the puddles and to leave the fountain, Isa 31:1. (d) That is, Euphrates.

(18) In the way of Egypt . . .? —The rebuke becomes more and more specific. Great rivers were, in the poetry of the prophets, the natural symbols of the kingdoms through which they flowed. Sihor (= the turbid or muddy river) here, and in Isaiah 23:3 the Nile (though in Joshua 13:3 it stands for the border stream between Palestine and Egypt), represented Egypt. The “river,” or “flood,” needing no other name as pre-eminent in its greatness (comp. Joshua 24:14-15 ), the Euphrates, stood for Assyria (comp. Isaiah 8:7 ). The words point to the tendency to court the alliance now of one, now of the other of the great kingdoms of the world. The policy was no new one. Menahem in Israel, Ahaz in Judah, had courted Assyria ( 2Kings 15:19 ; 2Kings 16:7-8 ); Hezekiah, Babylon (Isaiah 39); Hoshea had sought help from Egypt ( 2Kings 17:4 ). The prophet Hosea had rebuked both policies ( Hosea 5:13 ; Hosea 7:11 ; Hosea 8:9 ). Even under Hezekiah there was a party seeking the Egyptian alliance (Isaiah 18, 19, 31. Under Manasseh and Amon that party was in power, and the very name of the latter probably bears witness to its influence. Josiah kept as far as possible the position of a neutral, but, when forced into action, and probably guided by the counsels of Hilkiah, resisted the advance of Pharaoh-nechoh ( 2Kings 23:29 ).

On his death the Egyptian party again gained ground under Jehoiakim, while Jeremiah, opposing its strength, urged the wisdom of accepting the guidance of events, and submitting to the Chaldæans (so far continuing the line of action adopted by Hezekiah), and ultimately was accused of deserting his own people and “falling away” to their oppressors ( Jeremiah 37:13 ).

What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt? what business hast thou there? or what dost thou expect from thence? or what need hast thou to go or send messengers thither, if thou wouldst but keep close to me? Sihor, viz. Nilus; it signifies black, from whence called Melas by the Greeks, either from the blackness of the land it passed through, or of the soil it casteth up. See on Isaiah 23:3 . To drink the waters: here, and by the same words before, is meant, to seek help from either place, noting their strength, Isaiah 8:6 . A metaphorical allegory, wherein God minds them of two of their broken cisterns, and shows them their folly to go so far when they might have been better supplied nearer home; as if God were not able to help them. Compare Jeremiah 2:36 . The river, i.e. Euphrates, often called so by way of eminency; the chief river of Assyria, Isaiah 7:20 .

18. now—used in a reasoning sense, not of time. the way of Egypt—What hast thou to do with the way, that is, with going down to Egypt; or what … with going to Assyria? drink … waters—that is, to seek reinvigorating aid from them; so Jer 2:13, 36; compare "waters," meaning numerous forces (Isa 8:7). Sihor—that is, the black river, in Greek, Melas ("black"), the Nile: so called from the black deposit or soil it leaves after the inundation (Isa 23:3). The Septuagint identifies it with Gihon, one of the rivers of Paradise. the river—Euphrates, called by pre-eminence, the river; figurative for the Assyrian power. In 625 B.C., the seventeenth year of Josiah, and the fourth of Jeremiah's office, the kingdom of Assyria fell before Babylon, therefore Assyria is here put for Babylon its successor: so in 2Ki 23:29; La 5:6. There was doubtless a league between Judea and Assyria (that is, Babylon), which caused Josiah to march against Pharaoh-necho of Egypt when that king went against Babylon: the evil consequences of this league are foretold in this verse and Jer 2:36.