Jeremiah 47:8

Though then the calamity of his people was apparently a sort of repudiation, as though God designed to have nothing more to do with them, yet he says that they were his own heritage; and thus he shows, that God would give a specimen of his favor towards the Jews, by thus severely chastising the Chaldeans. This then is the reason why he says, Ye have rejoiced in plundering my heritage, but your mother is ashamed. He expresses here more than if he had said, "Ye shall at length lie down confounded with shame;" but he names their mother, that he might intimate the destruction of the whole of that monarchy, which had been so terrible to all the neighboring nations. [58] Several copies have dsh, threshing. Being allowed to eat at pleasure, the threshing heifer became fat and frisky. It is so taken by Blayney and Henderson, though not countenanced by the Versions or the Targ. — Ed. Jeremiah having twice before (Jeremiah 8:16; Jeremiah 47:3) used the word for steeds or horses, we may conclude that he means the same here. — Ed. The connection of these two verses will be more evident, if we render ky when, as proposed by Gataker, and not surely, as by Calvin, nor because, as in our version, — 11. When ye shall rejoice, when ye shall exult, Ye plunderers of mine heritage, When ye shall skip as a fed heifer, And neigh like steeds, 12. Ashamed greatly shall be your mother, Confounded shall she be who bare you; Behold, the last of the nations shall she be, A desert, a dry land, and a wilderness.

The language of astonishment, that an army so well equipped should be driven back in "dismay." The prophet sees this in prophetic vision. fled apace —literally, "fled a flight," that is, flee precipitately. look not back —They do not even dare to look back at their pursuers. 6. Let not —equivalent to the strongest negation. Let not any of the Egyptian warriors think to escape by swiftness or by might. toward the north —that is, in respect to Egypt or Judea. In the northward region, by the Euphrates (see Jeremiah 46:2). 7. as a flood —(Jeremiah 47:2; Isaiah 8:7, 8; Daniel 11:22). The figure is appropriate in addressing Egyptians, as the Nile, their great river, yearly overspreads their lands with a turbid, muddy flood. So their army, swelling with arrogance, shall overspread the region south of Euphrates; but it, like the Nile, shall retreat as fast as it advanced. 8. Answer to the question in Jeremiah 46:7. ## waters … moved like the rivers —The rise of the Nile is gentle; but at the mouth it, unlike most rivers, is much agitated, owing to the sandbanks impeding its course, and so it rushes into the sea like a cataract. 9. Ironical exhortation, as in Jeremiah 46:3. The Egyptians, owing to the heat of their climate and abstinence from animal food, were physically weak, and therefore employed mercenary soldiers. Ethiopians — Hebrew, Cush: Abyssinia and Nubia. Libyans — Phut, Mauritania, west of Egypt (compare Genesis 10:6).

There are occasional coincidences with former prophets (compare Zephaniah 2:14, with Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:15, with Isaiah 47:8; Zephaniah 3:10, with Isaiah 18:1; Zephaniah 2:8, with Isaiah 16:6; also Zephaniah 1:5, with Jeremiah 8:2; Zephaniah 1:12, with Jeremiah 48:11). Such coincidences in part arise from the phraseology of Hebrew prophetic poetry being the common language of the inspired brotherhood. The New Testament, at Romans 15:6, seems to refer to Zephaniah 3:9. ## CHAPTER 1 Zephaniah 1:1-18. G OD ' S S EVERE J UDGMENT ON J UDAH FOR I TS I DOLATRY AND N EGLECT OF H IM : T HE R APID A PPROACH OF THE J UDGMENT , AND THE I MPOSSIBILITY OF E SCAPE. 1. days of Josiah —Had their idolatries been under former kings, they might have said, Our kings have forced us to this and that. But under Josiah, who did all in his power to reform them, they have no such excuse. son of Amon —the idolater, whose bad practices the Jews clung to, rather than the good example of Josiah, his son; so incorrigible were they in sin. Judah —Israel's ten tribes had gone into captivity before this. 2. utterly consume —from a root to "sweep away," or "scrape off utterly." See Jeremiah 8:13, Margin, and here. from off the land —of Judah. 3. Enumeration in detail of the "all things" (Zephaniah 1:2; compare Jeremiah 9:10; Hosea 4:3). the stumbling-blocks —idols which cause Judah to offend or stumble (Ezekiel 14:3, 4, 7). with the wicked —The idols and their worshippers shall be involved in a common destruction. ## 4.

16 . the Cherethims ] the Cherethites. The name was given to the inhabitants of the Philistine coast, Zephaniah 2:5 , “woe to the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites … the land of the Philistines.” Cf. 1 Samuel 30:14 ; 2 Samuel 8:18 ; Jeremiah 47:4 . the remnant ] Cf. Amos 1:8 ; Isaiah 14:30 ; Zephaniah 1:4 .

The symbol here would naturally denote some wild commotion among the nations, as if the winds of heaven should rush together in confusion. Upon the great sea - This expression would properly apply to any great sea or ocean, but it is probable that the one that would occur to Daniel would be the Mediterranean Sea, as that was best known to him and his contemporaries. A heaving ocean - or an ocean tossed with storms - would be a natural emblem to denote a nation, or nations, agitated with internal conflicts, or nations in the midst of revolutions. Among the sacred poets and the prophets, hosts of armies invading a land are compared to overflowing waters, and mighty changes among the nations to the heaving billows of the ocean in a storm. Compare Jeremiah 46:7-8; Jeremiah 47:2; Isaiah 8:7-8; Isaiah 17:12; Isaiah 59:19; Daniel 11:40; Revelation 13:1. The classic reader will be reminded in the description here of the words of Virgil, AEn. I. 82, following: "Ac venti, velut agmine facto Qua data porta ruunt, et terras turbine perflant. Incubuere mari, totumque a sedibus imis Una Eurusque, Notusque ruunt, creberquc procellis. Africus, et vastos volvunt ad littora fluctus." Compare also Ovid, Trist. I. 2, 25, following.

## Every one is given to covetousness; so greedy after their own private gain, that they took no care of equity or justice, in which word is comprised all their fraudulent dealings one among another. Of this and the two next verses, see on Jer_6:13-15. Jeremiah 8:11 No text from Poole on this verse. Jeremiah 8:12 No text from Poole on this verse. ## Jeremiah 8:13 I will surely consume them; or, In gathering I will consume them : q.d. I will so gather them together into their several cities to be besieged, that it shall be no hard matter to destroy them, Jer_8:16, viz. the body of the people; not every one, for there was a remnant that did escape. ## There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree: these fruits, grapes and figs, it is probable, were of greatest ## account and use among them, Isa_36:16, and so may be put for all other things, either for necessity or delight, which God threatens he will deprive them of by reason of the siege, which a famine shall succeed, Jer_5:17 Joe_1:7 Hab_3:17. See the like Zep_1:2 ,3 . Or possibly it may be spoken by way of similitude: q.d. They shall be wasted, as when there is no grapes on the vine, &c.; the land shall be left as bare as when by tempests or other violence there is neither leaf nor fruit left upon the tree, Psa_78:47.

See, for example, with virgin , Jeremiah 18:13 ; Jeremiah 31:4 ; Jeremiah 31:21 ; with virgin daughter , Isaiah 37:22 (“the virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head after thee”), Isaiah 47:1 , Jeremiah 14:17 ; Jeremiah 46:11 ; with daughter (alone) Isaiah 1:8 ; Isaiah 10:30 ; Isaiah 10:32 ; Isaiah 22:4 ; Isaiah 47:5 , Jeremiah 6:26 ; Jeremiah 9:1 , Micah 4:10 ; Micah 4:13 , Zephaniah 3:14 , Zechariah 9:9 (“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem”); and with the feminine indicated (in the Hebrew) by the termination, Isaiah 12:6 (see R.V. marg .), Isaiah 49:17 f., Isaiah 51:17-20 , Jeremiah 10:17 (see R.V. marg .), Jeremiah 22:23 (see ib. ). is fallen ] The tense is the prophetic past, describing the future as the prophet in imagination sees it, already accomplished. Cf. Amos 8:14 . is forsaken ] Rather, is cast down (R.V.), or lieth forsaken (R.V. marg. ), i.e. is abandoned , left to die where she had fallen: cf. Ezekiel 29:5 (R.V. “leave thee (thrown) into the wilderness”), Ezekiel 32:4 (“And I will leave thee forsaken upon the land, I will throw thee forth upon the face of the field”). Such an announcement as this, made in the height of the prosperity secured by Jeroboam II, would naturally be a startling one to those who heard it.