Jeremiah 42:14

42:7-22 If we would know the mind of the Lord in doubtful cases, we must wait as well as pray. God is ever ready to return in mercy to those he has afflicted; and he never rejects any who rely on his promises. He has declared enough to silence even the causeless fears of his people, which discourge them in the way of duty. Whatever loss or suffering we may fear from obedience, is provided against in God's word; and he will protect and deliver all who trust in him and serve him. It is folly to quit our place, especially to quit a holy land, because we meet with trouble in it. And the evils we think to escape by sin, we certainly bring upon ourselves. We may apply this to the common troubles of life; and those who think to avoid them by changing their place, will find that the grievances common to men will meet them wherever they go. Sinners who dissemble with God in solemn professions especially should be rebuked with sharpness; for their actions speak more plainly than words. We know not what is good for ourselves; and what we are most fond of, and have our hearts most set upon, often proves hurtful, and sometimes fatal.

Saying, no, but we will go into the land of Egypt,.... It was all one as if they had said, no, we will not obey the voice of the Lord to continue in our own land; we are determined to go into Egypt, induced by the following reasons: where we shall see no war; either internal, or with a foreign enemy; as both of late in their own land, and which they feared would be again; but promised themselves exemption from both in the land of Egypt, and therefore coveted to dwell there: nor hear the sound of the trumpet; neither hear of wars nor rumours of wars; not the sound of the trumpet in the armies of the enemy, or among themselves, to gather together and prepare for battle; or, as Jarchi thinks, the sound of the trumpet blown by the watchman, giving notice to the people of the approach of an enemy: nor have hunger of bread; as they had had while Judea was invaded and Jerusalem besieged, and a foreign army in the land; and though they had no reason to fear this now, yet they thought they should be more out of the danger of it in Egypt, a fruitful country, overflowed by the Nile: and there will we dwell; in peace, prosperity, and safety: this was their resolution, to go and abide there; and this their confidence, that such would be their happy state.

(14) No; but we will go into the land of Egypt. —The thoughts that were in the hearts of the applicants are stated with dramatic vividness. Egypt, then under Apries (the Pharaoh-hophra of Jeremiah 44:30 ), seemed to them so safe and peaceful. As of old, it was still the granary of the East, and its plenteous harvests formed a bright contrast to the famine which they had experienced during the invasion of the Chaldæans. Jeremiah, however, has simply to reject the plan, as from first to last he had resisted altogether the thought of an Egyptian alliance ( Jeremiah 2:36 ; Jeremiah 37:7 ): there would be no safety nor peace nor plenty found in acting on it. Ezekiel’s prophecies as to Egypt and her king were in this respect in harmony with Jeremiah’s ( Ezekiel 17:11-18 ; Ezekiel 29-32), and were, as nearly as possible, contemporary with them.

The sense of the words is obvious, they thought that their life in the land of Judah would be at best an uneasy life, where they should be continually alarmed with the noise of war; and though they could not fear the want of bread in a land that flowed with milk and honey, yet they also considered that Egypt was a very fruitful country, by the overflowing of Nilus; and the prospect of this made them quit that usual fondness which people have of their native country. From whence appears that their great sin was unbelief; they would not take the promise of God for a security to them for a quiet and peaceable abode in Judah, but would fancy noises of drums and trumpets, and fear where no fear was. The prophet saw they were resolved into Egypt they would go, to live a more certain easy life (as they fancied); he therefore tells them, that if after their sending him to God to inquire for them, and promising a compliance with his will, and hearing now what that will was, this were their resolution, he had another word from God to them.

The threatening if, in spite of warning and against God's will, they should still persist in going to Egypt. The protasis of the conditional sentence begun in Jeremiah 42:13 , "If ye say," etc., extends onwards through Jeremiah 42:14 ; the apodosis is introduced co-ordinately with the commencement of Jeremiah 42:15 , "Now therefore," etc. קול שׁופר, "the sound of war-trumpet," as in Jeremiah 4:19 . On "hungering after bread," cf. Amos 8:11 . הלחם (with the article) is the bread necessary for life. "The remnant of Judah" is to be understood of those who still remained in the land, as is shown by Jeremiah 42:2 ; see also Jeremiah 42:19 , Jeremiah 43:5 ; Jeremiah 44:12 , Jeremiah 44:14 . The warning given in Jeremiah 42:16 contains the idea that the very evil which they feared would come on them in Judah will befall them in Egypt. There they shall perish by sword, famine, and plague, since Nebuchadnezzar will conquer Egypt; cf. Jeremiah 43:8-13 .

18 . incline … and behold (lit. see )] Almost exactly the words in Hezekiah’s prayer, 2 Kings 19:16 (= Isaiah 37:17 ). desolations ] Daniel 9:26 : cf. Isaiah 49:19 ; Isaiah 61:4 (twice). over which thy name hath been called ] i.e. of which Thou art the Owner. The sense of the expression appears from 2 Samuel 12:28 , ‘lest I take the city, and my name be called over it ,’ in token, viz. of my having conquered it. The expression is often used, especially in Deuteronomic writers, of the people of Israel, Jerusalem, or the Temple, as Daniel 9:19 ; Deuteronomy 28:10 ; Jeremiah 7:10-11 ; Jeremiah 7:14 ; Jeremiah 7:30 ; Jeremiah 14:9 ; Jeremiah 25:29 ; 1 Kings 8:43 ; Isaiah 63:10 . The paraphrase of A.V., R.V., ‘which is called by my name,’ weakens and obscures the real force of the expression. Cf. further on Amos 9:12 . present ] lit. cause to fall : so Daniel 9:20 , Jeremiah 38:26 ; Jeremiah 42:2 ; Jeremiah 42:9 ; cf. Jeremiah 36:7 (lit ‘ their supplication will fall before Jehovah’), Jeremiah 37:20 (here in the sense of being accepted). The expression does not occur elsewhere in the O.T.: Prof. Kirkpatrick compares, however, Bar 2:19 ( οὐ … καταβάλλομεν τὸν ἔλεον we do not cast down our supplication). for … for ] properly on (the ground of). thy great compassions ] Daniel 9:9 . The same expression in Nehemiah 9:19 ; Nehemiah 9:27 ; Nehemiah 9:31 (A.V., R.V., ‘manifold mercies’): cf. 2 Samuel 24:14 (‘for his compassions are great’), Psalm 119:156 .

Verse 18. - At Tehaphnehes ; the Tabu- panes of Jeremiah 2:16 ; Jeremiah 42:7 ; Jeremiah 44:1 ; Jeremiah 46:14 ; (where it appears as having a royal palace); the Taphnae of the LXX.; the Daphne of Herod., 2:30. It was another frontier-fortress in the neighborhood of Pelusium, built by Psammetichus. It may, perhaps, be represented by the modern Tel-ed-Defenne , about twenty-seven miles southwest of Pelusium. The day shall be darkened . The normal image for the departure of the sunshine of prosperity, as in Ver. 3 and Ezekiel 32:7 (comp. Amos 5:20 ; Amos 8:9 ; Isaiah 5:30 ; Jeremiah 13:16 , etc.). The yokes of Egypt . Commonly, as in Ezekiel 34:27 ; Leviticus 26:13 ; Jeremiah 27:2 ; Jeremiah 28:10, 12 , the phrase would imply the deliverance of Egypt from the yoke of oppression suffered at the hand of others. Here that sense is clearly inappropriate. The LXX. and Vulgate give "the scepters" of Egypt, which implies a different reading, and this is adopted in substance by Ewald and Smend, the latter preferring rendering it by "supports" or "props," the "red" being used as a "staff" rather than as a "scepter" (comp. Ezekiel 19:14 ; Jeremiah 43:8 ; Jeremiah 48:17 ). The pomp of her strength . The phrase meets us again in Ezekiel 33:28 , and includes what we speak of as the parade of power, here probably with a view to the foreign forces that garrisoned both Daphne and Pelusium.

The name is used by Ezekiel for the people, as it had already been by Zephaniah (Zephaniah 2:5), for the sake of the paronomasia with הכרתּי. The origin of the name is involved in obscurity, as the current derivation from Creta rests upon a very doubtful combination (cf. Stark, Gaza, pp. 66 and 99ff.). By the "remnant of the sea-coast," i.e., the remnant of the inhabitants of the coast of the Mediterranean, in other words, of the Philistines, the destruction of which had already been predicted by Amos (Amos 1:8), Isaiah (Isaiah 14:30), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 42:4), we are to understand the whole nation to the very last man, all that was still left of the Philistines (see the comm. on Amos 1:8). - The execution of the vengeance threatened by God began in the Chaldean period, in which Gaza was attacked by Pharaoh, and, judging from Jeremiah 47:1-7, the whole of Philistia was laid waste by the Chaldeans (see the fuller comments on this in the exposition of Jeremiah 47:1-7). But the ultimate fulfilment will take place in the case of Philistia also, through the Messianic judgment, in the manner described in the commentary on Zephaniah 2:10.