Jeremiah 40:19

13 . lift up thine head ] i.e. “will lift it up with favour,” as in 2 Kings 25:27 ; Jeremiah 52:31 . The “countenance,” which is sad, or in trouble, hangs down and needs to be lifted up: see note on Genesis 4:6-7 . As the phrase is also used of “the chief baker” in an unfavourable sense ( Genesis 40:19-20 ), it might conceivably be employed for the official notice of release to a prisoner, either for pardon or for punishment. But this is not probable; see note on Genesis 40:19 . Genesis 40:13

11 . The earthquake. This, the most terrible visitation, is reserved for the last. The earthquake is not only the most unfamiliar and the most mysterious of all the judgements enumerated; it is also the most sudden and startling, as well as the most formidable: it is as instantaneous in its operation as it is irresistible: the destruction which it works can never be guarded against, and seldom escaped. as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah ] See Genesis 19:24-25 ; Genesis 19:28 . The same stereotyped expression recurs Deuteronomy 29:23 , Isaiah 13:19 , Jeremiah 49:18 ; Jeremiah 50:40 , to describe a disaster ending in a state of ruin and barren desolation. The word mahpçkhâh , ‘overturning,’ ‘overthrowing,’ is always used with reference to the Cities of the Plain, either directly, as here and in the passages quoted, or allusively ( Isaiah 1:7 ): cf. hăphçkhâh , Genesis 19:29 . The verb rendered ‘overthrow’ ( hâphakh ) is cognate: see Genesis 19:21 ; Genesis 19:25 ; Genesis 19:29 ; and cf. Jeremiah 20:16 , Lamentations 4:6 .

2 . a riddle ] As requiring interpretation; the passage is also called a “parable,” as containing a similitude or comparison. The eagle is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Conquerors are often compared to the eagle, Deuteronomy 28:49 ; Isaiah 46:11 ; Jeremiah 4:13 ; Jeremiah 48:40 ; Hosea 8:1 ; Lamentations 4:19 .

32 . The prophet regards the worship on the high-places as Canaanitish heathenism; but probably many of the exiles to whom he spoke were drifting into complete conformity with the nations among whom they were. Their minds were losing hold of their distinctiveness as the people of Jehovah. This practical assimilation to the heathen the prophet represents as a deliberate one, which in many cases it may have been—cf. the answer of the exiles in Egypt to Jeremiah 44:15-19 , also Jeremiah 2:25 . to serve wood and stone ] The service of the heathen is a service of wood and stone, Deuteronomy 4:28 ; Deuteronomy 28:36 ; Isaiah 37:19 . The images were often of wood, plated with some precious metal ( Isaiah 40:20 ; Jeremiah 10:3 ; Isaiah 30:22 ), or of stone; often, however, of baser metal overlaid with gold or silver. It is the dead matter in opposition to Jehovah, the living God, that gives point to the antithesis. On “cometh into your mind” cf. Ezekiel 11:5 ; Jeremiah 7:31 ; Jeremiah 19:5 ; Isaiah 10:7 .

M AURER , "I will recompense their former iniquities (those long ago committed by their fathers) and their (own) repeated sins" (Jeremiah 16:11, 12). English Version gives a good sense, " First (before 'I bring them again into their land'), I will doubly (that is, fully and amply, Jeremiah 17:18; Isaiah 40:2) recompense." carcasses —not sweet-smelling sacrifices acceptable to God, but "carcasses" offered to idols, an offensive odor to God: human victims (Jeremiah 19:5; Ezekiel 16:20), and unclean animals (Isaiah 65:4; 66:17). M AURER explains it, "the carcasses" of the idols: their images void of sense and life. Compare Jeremiah 16:19, 20. Leviticus 26:30 favors this. 19, 20. The result of God's judgments on the Jews will be that both the Jews when restored, and the Gentiles who have witnessed those judgments, shall renounce idolatry for the worship of Jehovah. Fulfilled partly at the return from Babylon, after which the Jews entirely renounced idols, and many proselytes were gathered in from the Gentiles, but not to be realized in its fulness till the final restoration of Israel (Isaiah 2:1-17). 20. indignant protest of Jeremiah against idols. and they (are) no gods —(Jeremiah 2:11; Isaiah 37:19; Galatians 4:8). "They" refers to the idols. A man (a creature himself) making God is a contradiction in terms. Vulgate takes "they" thus: "Shall man make gods, though men themselves are not gods?" 21.

(12) And the king commanded . . . —Comp. the similar embassy to Isaiah ( 2Kings 19:2 ). As to Ahikam see Jeremiah 26:24; Jeremiah 40:5; and for Achbor, Jeremiah 26:22; Jeremiah 36:12. Asahiah a servant of the king’s.—Probably the same officer as “the knight” or aide-de-camp who attended on the king (2Kings 7:2; 2Kings 9:25.)

(22) On high — i.e., towards heaven ( Isaiah 40:26 ). (Comp. Isaiah 14:13-14 .) The Holy One of Israel.—A favourite expression of Isaiah’s, in whose book it occurs twenty-seven times, and only five times elsewhere in the Old Testameut (Psalm 71:22; Psalm 78:41; Psalm 89:19; Jeremiah 50:29; Jeremiah 51:5).Benson Commentary2 Kings 19:22. And lifted up thieve eyes on high — As those do who have haughty thoughts, and look down on others with contempt and scorn. Even against the Holy One of Israel — Whose honour is dear to him, and who has power to vindicate it, which the gods of the heathen have not.Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary19:20-34 All Sennacherib's motions were under the Divine cognizance. God himself undertakes to defend the city; and that person, that place, cannot but be safe, which he undertakes to protect. The invasion of the Assyrians probably had prevented the land from being sown that year. The next is supposed to have been the sabbatical year, but the Lord engaged that the produce of the land should be sufficient for their support during those two years. As the performance of this promise was to be after the destruction of Sennacherib's army, it was a sign to Hezekiah's faith, assuring him of that present deliverance, as an earnest of the Lord's future care of the kingdom of Judah. This the Lord would perform, not for their righteousness, but his own glory.

The posterity of Ham were disposed into the parts south from Babel, both in Asia and Africa. See 1 Chronicles 4:40 Psalm 105:27 . Cush was father both of the Ethiopians and the Arabians; who, as it seems, sent forth a colony from themselves more eastward, even near to India. See Genesis 2:13 2 Kings 19:9 Job 28:19 Jeremiah 13:23, Jeremiah 46:9 . Mizraim was father of the Egyptians, who are generally known in Scripture by that name. Of Phut sprung the Libyans, among whom is the river Put, and the Moors. See Jeremiah 46:9 Ezekiel 27:10, Ezekiel 30:5, Nahum 3:9 . Canaan was the cursed parent of that accursed race of the Canaanites, well known in Scripture, Genesis 10:15 .

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