Jeremiah 21:6

21:1-10 When the siege had begun, Zedekiah sent to ask of Jeremiah respecting the event. In times of distress and danger, men often seek those to counsel and pray for them, whom, at other times, they despise and oppose; but they only seek deliverance from punishment. When professors continue in disobedience, presuming upon outward privileges, let them be told that the Lord will prosper his open enemies against them. As the king and his princes would not surrender, the people are exhorted to do so. No sinner on earth is left without a Refuge, who really desires one; but the way of life is humbling, it requires self-denial, and exposes to difficulties.

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 , "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. (o) "manentes in hac urbe", Gataker.

(6) They shall die of a great pestilence. —This was doubtless, as in other instances (Thuc. ii. 52), the natural consequence of the siege, but it came before the people as another proof that Jehovah had stretched out his arm against them, that they were fighting against that arm as well as against the host of the invaders. The “outstretched hand” may be noted as another Deuteronomic phrase ( Deuteronomy 4:34 ; Deuteronomy 5:15 ; Deuteronomy 26:8 ).

Still God proclaimeth himself this people’s enemy. Pestilences are but the usual consequents of long sieges, through the scantness and unwholesomeness of food; but God is the first cause of such sore judgments, though there be other second causes. The murrain of beasts bears proportion to the pestilence amongst men, and the beasts are threatened as well as men, not because of any sin in them, but because men are punished in them, they being part of their substance; and this is a part of that bondage of corruption from which the creature groaneth to be delivered, of that vanity to which they are subject, which maketh the irrational part of the creation to be brought in by the apostle, Romans 8:20-22 , like as a woman travailing in pain, and desiring the day of judgment.

5. The Jews shall have not merely the Chaldees, but Jehovah Himself in wrath at their provocations, fighting against them. Every word enhances the formidable character of God's opposition, "I myself … outstretched hand … strong arm (no longer as in Ex 6:6, and in the case of Sennacherib, in your behalf, but) in anger … fury … great wrath."

The Lord's reply through Jeremiah consists of three parts: a. The answer to the king's hope that the Lord will save Jerusalem from the Chaldeans ( Jeremiah 21:4-7 ); b. The counsel given to the people and the royal family as to how they may avert ruin ( Jeremiah 21:8-12 ); c. The prediction that Jerusalem will be punished for her sins ( Jeremiah 21:13 and Jeremiah 21:14 ). Jeremiah 21:3-6 The answer. - Jeremiah 21:3. "And Jeremiah said to them: Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: Jeremiah 21:4. Thus hath Jahveh the God of Israel said: Behold, I turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and gather them together into the midst of this city. Jeremiah 21:5. And I fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, and with anger and fury and great wrath, Jeremiah 21:6. And smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; of a great plague they shall die. Jeremiah 21:7.

And afterward, saith Jahveh, I will give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his servants, and the people - namely, such as in this city are left of the plague, of the sword, and of the famine - into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek after their life, that he may smite them according to the sharpness of the sword, not spare them, neither have pity nor mercy." This answer is intended to disabuse the king and his servants of all hope of help from God. So far from saving them from the Chaldeans, God will fight against them, will drive back into the city its defenders that are still holding out without the walls against the enemy; consume the inhabitants by sword, pestilence, famine; deliver the king, with his servants and all that survive inside the lines of the besiegers, into the hand of the latter, and unsparingly cause them to be put to death. "I make the weapons of war turn back" is carried on and explained by "I gather them into the city." The sense is: I will bring it about that ye, who still fight without the walls against the beleaguerers, must turn back with your weapons and retreat into the city. "Without the walls" is not to be joined to מסב, because this is too remote, and מחוּץ is by usage locative, not ablative. It should go with "wherewith ye fight," etc.: wherewith ye fight without the walls against the beleaguering enemies.

[Bible] 20:13. Sing ye to the Lord, praise the Lord: because he hath delivered the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked. 20:14. Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me, be blessed. Cursed be the day, etc... In these, and the following words of the prophet, there is a certain figure of speech to express with more energy the greatness of the evils to which his birth had exposed him. 20:15. Cursed be the man that brought the tidings to my father, saying: A man child is born to thee: and made him greatly rejoice. 20:16. Let that man be as the cities which the Lord hath overthrown, and hath not repented: let him hear a cry in the morning, and howling at noontide: 20:17. Who slew me not from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception. 20:18. Why came I out of the womb, to see labour and sorrow, and that my days should be spent in confusion? Jeremias Chapter 21 The prophet's answer to the messengers of Sedecias, when Jerusalem was besieged. 21:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when king Sedecias sent unto him Phassur, the son of Melchias, and Sophonias, the son of Maasias the priest, saying: 21:2. Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon maketh war against us: if so be the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, that he may depart from us. 21:3. And Jeremias said to them: Thus shall you say to Sedecias: 21:4. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, and with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans, that besiege you round about the walls: and I will gather them together in the midst of this city. 21:5. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand, and with a strong arm, and in fury, and in indignation, and in great wrath. 21:6. And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, men and beasts shall die of a great pestilence.

[Bible] 21:6. And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, men and beasts shall die of a great pestilence. 21:7. And after this, saith the Lord, I will give Sedecias the king of Juda, and his servants, and his people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, and the sword, and the famine, into the hand of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword, and he shall not be moved to pity, nor spare them, nor shew mercy to them. 21:8. And to this people thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. 21:9. He that shall abide in this city, shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that shall go out and flee over to the Chaldeans, that besiege you, shall live, and his life shall be to him as a spoil. 21:10. For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. 21:11. And to the house of the king of Juda: Hear ye the word of the Lord, 21:12. O house of David, thus saith the Lord: Judge ye judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is oppressed by violence out of the hand of the oppressor: lest my indignation go forth like a fire, and be kindled, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your ways. 21:13. Behold I come to thee that dwellest in a valley upon a rock above a plain, saith the Lord: and you say: Who shall strike us and who shall enter into our houses? To thee that dwellest, etc... He speaks to Jerusalem, confiding in the strength of her situation upon rocks, surrounded with a deep valley. 21:14. But I will visit upon you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof: and it shall devour all things round about it. Jeremias Chapter 22