Jeremiah 43:9

43:8-13 God can find his people wherever they are. The Spirit of prophecy was not confined to the land of Israel. It is foretold that Nebuchadnezzar should destroy and carry into captivity many of the Egyptians. Thus God makes one wicked man, or wicked nation, a scourge and plague to another. He will punish those who deceive his professing people, or tempt them to rebellion.

Take great stones in thine hand,.... In both his hands, as big as he could carry: and hide them in the clay in the brick kiln; there was much clay in Egypt, through the overflowing of the Nile, and particularly at this place Tahpanhes, which had its name of Pelusiae from hence; and here was a brick kiln; not a place where bricks were burnt, but where they were foraged; and so here was the clay of which they were made, and in which these stones were to be hid: which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes; this brick kiln stood not directly at the entrance into the king's palace, but at the door of a wall of a park or garden, which belonged to the palace, from whence there was an open way to it; here the stones were to be laid. Since a brick kiln so near a king's palace seems not agreeable, Gussetius (h) thinks signifies a poplar walk, from a poplar tree, whose shade is very grateful, Hosea 4:13; to which the courtiers betook themselves at certain times, and walked in for pleasure; in the sight of the men of Judah; not in the sight of the Egyptians, who would not understand the design of it, nor were they to be instructed by it; but in the sight of the Jews, who would at once imagine that something was intended, being used to such symbols, and would inquire the meaning of it; and which is explained in Jeremiah 43:10. (h) Ebr. Comment. p. 470.

Verse 9. - Take great stones, etc. A strange symbolic act of Jeremiah's is here described. "We must not suppose, arguing from our Western and precise notions, that he would be at all necessarily interfered with. In fact, he would have a twofold security, as a prophet of God to those who acknowledged him as such, and in the opinion of others as insane, and, according to Eastern ideas, thus especially under Divine promptings in his acts" (Streane). He is directed to take great stones and embed them in the mortar (not "clay") in the brick pavement at the entry of the palace. When the events predicted came to pass, these stones would testify that Jeremiah had predicted them. The word rendered "brick pavement" is of doubtful meaning. In Nahum 3:14 it signifies "brick kiln." Jeremiah 43:9

9 . hide them in mortar in the brickwork ] mg. lay them with mortar in the pavement (or square ). The MT. is questionable here. The words for “in the mortar” and “in the brickwork” resemble each other, the first occurring nowhere else. The LXX read simply “in the fore-court,” which is not justified by the Hebrew as we have it. Aq. Symm. Theod. have “in secret,” omitting one of the consonants of the Hebrew word for “in mortar,” and this probably gives us the true meaning, viz. secretly, in the brickwork . The incident (so Erbt and Co.) perhaps occurred at night. This is not inconsistent with the words “in the sight of the men of Judah,” for cp. Ezekiel 12:7 . in the brickwork ] If we keep the text as it stands, the word, which elsewhere means a brick-mould, may here mean something quadrangular (see mg.). It is perhaps “the large oblong brick pavement close to the palace fort built by Psammetichus I (b.c. 664–610), which was excavated by Prof. Petrie at Tell Defneh in 1886.” Dr., p. 258, who adds references to Petrie and Maspero.

Take great stones in thy hand, and {i} hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entrance of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; (i) Which signified that Nebuchadnezzar would come even to the gates of Pharaoh, where his brick kilns for his buildings were.

(9) Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln. —Better, in the mortar on the platform. There seems something incongruous in the idea of a brickkiln, or a place for baking bricks, at the entrance of a royal palace; nor is it easy to see why Nebuchadrezzar should have chosen it as a place for his throne. It seems better, with Hitzig, Furst, and others, to take the Hebrew word, which occurs only here and in 2Samuel 12:31 and Nahum 3:14 , as meaning a structure of brick, a dais or raised pavement, like the Gabbatha or Pavement on which Pilate sat ( John 19:13 ), in front of the entrance of the palace, on which the king naturally placed his throne when he sat in judgment or received petitions. Assyrian and Babylonian monuments present many instances of kings thus seated. As making his prediction more vivid, the prophet places stones in the mortar or cement (not “clay”) with which the mass was covered, and conceals them apparently with a fresh coat of mortar. There they were to remain till his prediction should be fulfilled. The symbolic act was of the same type as the breaking of the potter’s vessel in Jeremiah 19:10 , and the yoke worn on the prophet’s shoulders ( Jeremiah 27:2 ), and Ezekiel’s digging through the wall ( Ezekiel 12:7 ).

Brickkiln - Possibly, a pavement of brick. Jeremiah was to take a few large stones, such, nevertheless, as he could carry in his hand, and build with them, in the propylaea before the royal palace, something that would serve to represent the dais upon which the seat of kings was usually placed. By hiding them in the clay is meant plastering them over with mortar.

God commandeth the prophet to take these stones, and to place them in the clay, & c., for a sign of what we shall meet with expounded in the next verse: it is plain from hence that the king of Egypt, called Pharaoh, either resided, or at least had a royal palace, in Tahpanhes; Jeremiah is directed to fix these stones at the entrance into this palace. This hath made interpreters divided about the true sense of the word which is here translated a brick-kiln. That the word so signifies is out of doubt, and is so translated, 2 Samuel 12:31 . All that troubleth some is, that they fancy there should not be a brick-kiln so near the king’s palace; but possibly those learned men do not enough consider the difference of times and places. Great princes’ sons and daughters do not use in our age to keep sheep, which yet we know Jacob’s sons and Laban’s daughters did; the grandeur of princes was not so great but it might admit of as plain a thing as this. Others say the palaces of their princes were very vast, so that the brick-kiln might be at a distance from the entry into the dwelling-house, though it was at the entry of the place called by the name of the palace. Others think it might be a house used not for making, but polishing earthenware. But the greatest offensiveness of such kilns with us is from the smoke, of which they had none, drying their bricks in the sun. But it is a nicety not worth so many guesses.

9. stones—to be laid as the foundation beneath Nebuchadnezzar's throne (Jer 43:10). clay—mortar. brick-kiln—Bricks in that hot country are generally dried in the sun, not burned. The palace of Pharaoh was being built or repaired at this time; hence arose the mortar and brick-kiln at the entry. Of the same materials as that of which Pharaoh's house was built, the substructure of Nebuchadnezzar's throne should be constructed. By a visible symbol implying that the throne of the latter shall be raised on the downfall of the former. Egypt at that time contended with Babylon for the empire of the East.

Prediction regarding Egypt. - Jeremiah 43:8 . "And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, Jeremiah 43:9 . Take in thine hand large stones, and hide them in the clay in the brick-kiln, which is at the entrance to the house of Pharaoh in Taphanhes, in the eyes of the Jews; Jeremiah 43:10 . And say to them: Thus saith Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will place his throne over these stones which I have hidden, and he shall stretch his tapestry over them. Jeremiah 43:11 . And he shall come and smite the land of Egypt, (he who is) for death, to death, - (he who is) for captivity, to captivity, - (he who is) for the sword, to the sword. Jeremiah 43:12 . And I will kindle fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away; and he shall wrap the land of Egypt round him as the shepherd wraps his cloak round him, and thence depart in peace. Jeremiah 43:13 . And he shall destroy the pillars of Beth-shemesh, which is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire." This prophecy is introduced by a symbolical action, on which it is based. But in spite of the fact that the object of the action is stated in the address which follows, the action itself is not quite plain from the occurrence of בּמּלבּן, whose usual meaning, "brick-kiln" (cf. Nahum 3:14), does not seem suitable here.

Eichhorn and Hitzig think it absurd that there should be found before the door of a royal habitation a brick-kiln on which a king was to place his throne. From the Arabic malbin, which also signifies a rectangular figure like tile or brick, and is used of the projecting entablature of doors, - from the employment, also, in the Talmud of the word מלבּן to signify a quadrangular tablet in the form of a tile, - Hitzig would claim for the word the meaning of a stone floor, and accordingly renders, "and insert them with mortar into the stone flooring." But the entablatures over doors, or quadrangular figures like bricks, are nothing like a stone flooring or pavement before a palace. Besides, in the way of attaching to the word the signification of a "brick-kiln," - a meaning which is well established, - or even of a brickwork, the difficulties are not so great as to compel us to accept interpretations that have no foundation. We do not need to think of a brick-kiln or brickwork as being always before the palace; as Neumann has observed, it may have indeed ben there, although only for a short time, during the erecting of some part of the palace; nor need it have been just at the palace gateway, but a considerable distance away from it, and on the opposite side. Alongside of it there was lying mortar, an indispensable building material. טמן, "to hide," perhaps means here not merely to embed, but to embed in such a way that the stones could not very readily be perceived.