Jeremiah 4:16

4:5-18 The fierce conqueror of the neighbouring nations was to make Judah desolate. The prophet was afflicted to see the people lulled into security by false prophets. The approach of the enemy is described. Some attention was paid in Jerusalem to outward reformation; but it was necessary that their hearts should be washed, in the exercise of true repentance and faith, from the love and pollution of sin. When lesser calamities do not rouse sinners and reform nations, sentence will be given against them. The Lord's voice declares that misery is approaching, especially against wicked professors of the gospel; when it overtakes them, it will be plainly seen that the fruit of wickedness is bitter, and the end is fatal.

Make ye mention to the nations,.... This, according to Kimchi, is the sum and substance of the voice from Dan. It seems to be a summons to the nations to gather together to join the king of Babylon in his enterprise against Jerusalem; see 2 Kings 24:2 , publish against Jerusalem; what follows: that watchers come from afar country; from Babylon, which is said to be a far country, Isaiah 39:3, these are the soldiers of the king of Babylon; they are called Notzerim; which word agrees with the latter part of Nebuchadnezzar's name; to which some (b) think there is some reference, showing that his army is meant. It should be rendered "besiegers", as it is by some (c); for these were not Nebuchadnezzar's bodyguard, but his whole army, who were come up to besiege Jerusalem; and they are compared to watchers and keepers of a field in the next verse, where another word is used. The Targum is, "the army of a rapacious people, like the grape gatherers, come from a far country:'' and give out their voice against the cities of Judah; threaten the ruin of them; blow the trumpet, the alarm of war; give the orders to besiege; and, being sure of victory, triumph before the attack is made. (b) R. Joseph Kimchi, R. Jonah, and Ben Melech, but disapproved of by Abarbinel. (c) "obsessores", Calvin, Buxtorf; a vel "obsedit"; so Jarchi.

Jeremiah 4:16-17 . Make ye mention to the nations — Tell the nations that now inhabit the cities of the ten tribes, that the Chaldean army is approaching, that they may provide for their own safety. Behold, publish against Jerusalem — Let her be made acquainted with what is coming upon her. Let her have notice beforehand, that she may be warned. That watchers come from a far country — That is soldiers from Chaldea, that will watch all opportunities to do mischief. By watchers, some think, are meant those scouts who usually precede an army, and announce its approach, whom Cesar, in his Commentaries, calls antecessores, or antecursores. But Blaney and others are of opinion that besiegers are intended, placing sentinels round the city to prevent any from coming in or going out, and keeping the place in continual alarm by shouts of war. As keepers of the field, &c. — Those couriers or spies of the Chaldean army will be as diligent in their observation of Judah and Jerusalem, or those besiegers will as strictly watch her on all sides, as the keepers of a field watch the cattle, or the vineyards and fruits thereof, under their care. “As in the East,” says Sir John Chardin, in a MS. note on this place, quoted by Harmer, “pulse, roots, &c., grow in open and unenclosed fields, when they begin to be fit to be gathered, they place guards; if near a great road, more; if distant, fewer, who place themselves in and round about these grounds, as is practised in Arabia,” chap. 5. obser. 15.

Verse 16. - Make ye mention , etc. This verse contains a call to the neighboring nations to take notice of an event which nearly concerns them all. True, it is only the investment of Jerusalem which can as yet be reported, but there can hardly be a doubt of the issue, and the capture of the principal fortress will at once be followed by that of the other fortified "cities of Judah." Against in the second clause should rather be concerning . (For the use of "behold" before an imperative, comp. Psalm 134:1 .) Watchers ; i . e . besiegers (comp. ver. 17), who like the panther lie in wait for every one who comes out of the city, to kill him ( Jeremiah 5:6 ; comp. Jeremiah 6:25 ). Jeremiah 4:16

16 . make ye mention to the nations ] They are bidden to witness the impending judgement. Cp. Micah 1:2 , and the appeal to heaven and earth in Isaiah 1:2 , Micah 6:1 f. watchers ] besiegers, the Chaldaeans. But to obtain this sense we must omit the first consonant of the Hebrew word. By a change of one consonant we get the Hebrew for leopards ( nĕmêrim ). Cp. Jeremiah 5:6 ; Habakkuk 1:8 .

(16) Make ye mention. —Better, Proclaim ye to the nations; behold. Call them to gaze on the ruin of Jerusalem, then, Cry aloud as for Jerusalem, that watchers ( i.e., the besieging armies) are coming from a far country, and that they will give out their voice ( i.e. raise the cry of war) against the cities of Judah.

Proclaim ye to the pagan, "Behold!" Cry aloud concerning "Jerusalem, that watchers" are on their way "from a far country: and" will "give out their voice against the cities of Judah." The pagan are summoned to witness the chastisement of Jerusalem, that they may take warning thereby. By "watchers" are meant besiegers, who will surround the city with a line of sentinels.

Make ye mention to the nations: these are either the nations in Judea; or these words are a proclamation, summoning in the nations by the Chaldeans, as it were, in pursuance of a commission from God, to bring great armies together against Jerusalem; or they are the prophets turning away from Judah, as despairing of doing any good upon them, and calling for the nations to execute God’s sentence. Publish; let her be acquainted with what is coming upon her, let her have public notice beforehand, that she may be warned. Watchers; military watchers, i.e. the Chaldean soldiers, that shall so carefully and watchfully encompass Jerusalem, that none shall escape; possibly a metaphor from hunters, that in hunting their prey lay wait at every passage, that the game may not escape. See 2 Kings 25:4,5 . Or possibly there may be an allusion to Nebuchadnezzar’s name; the Hebrew word for watchers being notscrim , which comes from natser , the end of his name, as if they were termed Nebuchadnezzartans, as the keepers or guards of his person; as they were called Caesarcans from Caesar. Come; they are now at hand, you may as it were see them. From a far country; from Chaldea. Give out their voice; they will proclaim war against them; or a shout, either encouraging soldiers to the battle, or triumphing after the victory; or the outcries that they will make, such as the Turks now make in their onsets, Jeremiah 2:15 .

It is high time to cleanse oneself from sin, periculum in mora est; for already calamity is announced from Dan, even from the Mount Ephraim. קול מגּיד, the voice of him who gives the alarm, sc. נשׁמע, is heard; cf. Jeremiah 3:21 ; Jeremiah 31:15 . That of which the herald gives warning is not given till the next clause. און, mischief, i.e., calamity. משׁמיע is still dependent on קול. "From Dan," i.e., the northern boundary of Palestine; see on Judges 20:1 . "From Mount Ephraim," i.e., the northern boundary of the kingdom of Judah, not far distant from Jerusalem. The alarm and the calamity draw ever nearer. "The messenger comes from each successive place towards which the foe approaches" (Hitz.). In Jeremiah 4:16 the substance of the warning message is given, but in so animated a manner, that a charge is given to make the matter known to the peoples and in Jerusalem. Tell to the peoples, behold, cause to be heard. The הנּה in the first clause points forward, calling attention to the message in the second clause. A similar charge is given in Jeremiah 4:5 , only "to the peoples" seems strange here. "The meaning would be simple if we could take 'the peoples' to be the Israelites," says Graf. But since גּוים in this connection can mean only the other nations, the question obtrudes itself: to what end the approach of the besiegers of Jerusalem should be proclaimed to the heathen peoples.

Jerome remarks on this: Vult omnes in circuitu nationes Dei nosse sententiam, et flagelat Jerusalem cunctos recipere disciplinam. In like manner, Chr. B. Mich., following Schmid: Gentibus, ut his quoque innotescat severitatis divinae in Judaeos exemplum. Hitz. and Gr. object, that in what follows there is no word of the taking and destruction of Jerusalem, but only of the siege; that this could form no such exemplum, and that for this the issue must be awaited. But this objection counts for little. After the description given of the enemies (cf. Jeremiah 4:13 ), there can be no doubt as to the issue of the siege, that is, as to the taking of Jerusalem. But if this be so, then the warning of the heathen as to the coming catastrophe, by holding the case of Jerusalem before them, is not so far-fetched a thought as that it should be set aside by Hitz.'s remark: "So friendly an anxiety on behalf of the heathen is utterly unnatural to a Jew, especially seeing that the prophet is doubly absorbed by anxiety for his own people." Jeremiah was not the narrow-minded Jew Hitz. takes him for. Besides, there is no absolute necessity for holding "Tell to the peoples" to be a warning of a similar fate addressed to the heathen. The charge is but a rhetorical form, conveying the idea that there is no doubt about the matter to be published, and that it concerned not Jerusalem alone, but the nations too.