The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza. Jump to: Barnes • Benson • BI • Calvin • Cambridge • Clarke • Darby • Ellicott • Expositor's • Exp Dct • Gaebelein • GSB • Gill • Gray • Haydock • Hastings • Homiletics • JFB • KD • Kelly • KJT • Lange • MacLaren • MHC • MHCW • Parker • Poole • Pulpit • Sermon • SCO • TTB • WES • TSK EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE) XLVII.(1) Against the Philistines.—Here also we have, as in the preceding chapter, a message connected with Jeremiah 25:20. The Gaza of this verse is the Azzah of that, and the date is fixed at a time prior to Necho’s attack on that city. Writers who, like Hitzig, identify the Oadytis of Herod. ii. 159, 3:5, with Gaza, suppose his attack to have been made on his return from his victory at Carchemish. The date of the prophecy is thus fixed in the interval between the two events. Ezekiel 25:15 should be compared as a contemporary and parallel prediction. Jeremiah 47:1. The word of the Lord — against the Philistines — “Among the other nations, who were doomed to suffer by the hostilities of Nebuchadnezzar, the Philistines are enumerated, Jeremiah 25:20; and the calamities foretold in this present chapter most probably befell them during the long siege of Tyre, when that prince ravaged their country, in order, as it is said, Jeremiah 47:4, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon all chance of assistance from that quarter. But as no history, sacred or profane, has mentioned the taking of Gaza by the king of Egypt, there is no means of ascertaining the precise date of the delivery of this prophecy.” Before that Pharaoh smote Gaza — “Some have supposed the Pharaoh here spoken of to be Pharaoh-necho, and that he subdued Gaza after the battle of Megiddo, (2 Kings 23:29,) when the whole country round submitted to his victorious arms. Others have thought that it was Pharaoh-hophra, who, having marched out of Egypt to the relief of Jerusalem, when besieged by the Chaldeans, in the ninth or tenth year of Zedekiah, thought proper to retire again on the approach of the enemy toward him, (Jeremiah 37:5; Jeremiah 37:7,) but, on his return, fell upon Gaza, and pillaged it. All this, however, is no better than mere conjecture.” — Blaney.47:1-7 The calamities of the Philistines. - The Philistines had always been enemies to Israel; but the Chaldean army shall overflow their land like a deluge. Those whom God will spoil, must be spoiled. For when the Lord intends to destroy the wicked, he will cut off every helper. So deplorable are the desolations of war, that the blessings of peace are most desirable. But we must submit to His appointments who ordains all in perfect wisdom and justice.that Pharaoh - Pharaoh-Necho though defeated at Carchemish, was probably able to seize Gaza upon his retreat, when obviously the possession of so strong a fortress would be most useful to him to prevent the entrance of the victorious Chaldaeans into Egypt. CHAPTER 47Jer 47:1-7. Prophecy against the Philistines. 1. Pharaoh-necho probably smote Gaza on his return after defeating Josiah at Megiddo (2Ch 35:20) [Grotius]. Or, Pharaoh-hophra (Jer 37:5, 7) is intended: probably on his return from his fruitless attempt to save Jerusalem from the Chaldeans, he smote Gaza in order that his expedition might not be thought altogether in vain [Calvin] (Am 1:6, 7).The destruction of the Philistines, Tyrians, Zidonians, and others by the sea-side. before Pharaoh smote Gaza; one of the five cities of the Philistines, a very strong and fortified place, as its name signifies; See Gill on Acts 8:26. The Jews, in their chronicle, say (t) this was fulfilled in the eighth year of Zedekiah, when Pharaoh came out of Egypt, while the Chaldeans were besieging Jerusalem; which they hearing of, broke up the siege, and went forth to meet him; upon which he went to Gaza, and destroyed that, and returned to Egypt again. Both Jarchi and Kimchi make mention of this, but say it was in the tenth year of Zedekiah; and which, no doubt, is the truest reading, since the Chaldean army did not come up against Jerusalem until the ninth year of his reign. But it is more likely that this Pharaoh was Pharaohnecho, and that he fell upon Gaza, and smote it, either when he came to Carchemish, or when he returned from thence, after he had slain Josiah. Now this prophecy was delivered out before anything of this kind happened, and when the Philistines were in the utmost peace, and in no fear or expectation of destruction; and the smiting of this single city by the king of Egypt is foretold, as the forerunner and pledge of a greater destruction of the land by the king of Babylon, next mentioned. (t) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 26. p. 75. The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote {a} Gaza.(a) Or Azzah, a city of the Philistines. EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES) 1. This v. in LXX consists simply of the words “Concerning the Philistines.” At any rate we shall probably be right in considering “before that … Gaza” as a gloss added by a scribe who had regard to Jeremiah 47:5, but failing to see that the disaster there spoken of was to come on Gaza from the north, not from Egypt, identified it with Pharaoh-neco’s capture of “Kadytis,” probably Gaza (Herod. II. 159), after the battle of Megiddo (b.c. 608).Verse 1. - Against the Philistines; rather, concerning (as usual in similar cases). Before that Pharaoh, etc. (see introduction to chapter). In Jeremiah 46:22, Jeremiah 46:23, the annihilation of the power of Egypt is portrayed under another figure. A difficult expression is קולהּ כּנּחשׁ ילך, "her (viz., that of the daughter of Egypt) voice is like (the voice of) the serpent (which) goes." ילך must be taken as part of a relative sentence, since this verb is nowhere used of a voice or sound; hence it cannot be so joined here. Ewald, following the συρίζοντος of the lxx, would read שׁרק, "hissing," instead of ילך, and translates, "it makes a noise like the hissing serpent." He more fully defines the meaning thus: "Even though Egypt were hidden like a serpent in a thicket, yet it would be heard in its flight, like a nasty serpent hissing fiercely, while it hurries away from the axe of the wood-cutter." But, apart from the arbitrary change of ילך into שׁרק (the former word is used in Genesis 3:14 of the going, i.e., crawling, of a serpent), Ewald puts into the words an idea altogether foreign to them. The nasty, fierce hissing of the serpent that is forced to flee, is quite unsuitable; for there is no further mention made of the flight of the Egyptians, but Egypt is hewn down like a forest by woodcutters. Moreover, as Graf has already well remarked, Egypt is not compared to a serpent, but only its voice to the voice or hiss of a serpent. For קול signifies, not merely the voice, but any sound, even the rustling and rattling of leaves (cf. Genesis 3:8; Leviticus 26:36; 2 Samuel 5:24); hence it may denote the noise caused by a serpent crawling on its belly in the thicket. The comparison, as Graf has correctly observed, is like that in Isaiah 29:4. There it is the daughter of Zion, but here it is the daughter of Egypt that lies on the ground, deeply humbled; weeping softly and moaning, making a sound like that of a serpent in a moss among fallen leaves, fleeing before the woodcutters.(Note: The old translators have quite misunderstood these words, and attempted to apply them, each one according to his own fancy, to the enemy. Thus the lxx translate: Φωνὴ αὐτῶνקולם( ) ὡς ὄφεοως συρίζοντος, ὅτι ἐν ἄμμῳבּחול( for בּחיל) πορεύσονται, κ.τ.λ. Chald.: vox collisionis armorum eorum est sicut vox serpentum repentium; and similarly the Syriac. The Vulgate is: vox ejus quasi aerisנחשׁת( for נחשׁ) sonabit, quoniam cum exercitu properabunt et cum securibus venient. The translator of the Vulgate has thus read קולהּ, and referred the suffix to קרץ, which he renders stimulator. Luther follows the Vulgate: "Sie faren daher, das der Harnisch brasselt, und kommen mit Heeres Krafft." Hitzig also seeks to change the text, after the lxx, turning קולהּ into קולם, and בּחיל into בּחול. But this alteration disturbs the order of the sentence. Not only in Jeremiah 46:20 and Jeremiah 46:21, but also in Jeremiah 46:23, Jeremiah 46:24, the first clause always treats of Egypt, and what befalls her is only stated in the clauses which follow: so is it in Jeremiah 46:22. Thus the alteration made affords a very trivial result, viz., that the enemy advancing on Egypt march through the very sandy desert between Gaza and Egypt, and make slow progress, like serpents, because they wade through the sand; so that they make their appearance suddenly and unexpectedly.) Thus she lies on the ground, for the enemy comes in force, with axes like woodcutters, to hew down the forest of men in Egypt. The mention of the axes is occasioned by the comparison of the foe to woodcutters; we are not to think of battle-axes as weapons of the Massagetae, Scythians, Persians, and other nations (Herodotus, i. 215, iv. 70, vii. 64; Xenophon, Cyroped. i. 2, 9). Axes here form the type of murderous weapons generally. On the comparison of a multitude of people to a forest, cf. Jeremiah 21:14; Isaiah 10:18., Isaiah 10:33. The clause כּי לא יחקר is referred by L. de Dieu, J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, Ngelsbach, etc., to the wood, "for it cannot be explored or penetrated;" thus a road must be made in order to get through it. However, the question is not about the enemy going or marching through Egypt, but about the destruction of Egypt and her powers. Rosenmller and Graf, with Raschi, are more correct in referring the clause to the hostile army, "for it cannot be investigated," i.e., it is impossible to learn the number of them. It is no great objection to this interpretation that the verb occurs in the singular: this must be retained as it is, since it is not the individual enemies that cannot be searched out, but it is the number of the whole army that cannot be reckoned. On the employment of חקר in the Niphal in connection with the impossibility of counting a multitude, cf. 1 Kings 7:47, and the expression לא in Job 5:9; Job 9:10; Job 36:36. The clauses which follow, and conclude Jeremiah 46:23, explain the thought further: "more numerous than grasshoppers," i.e., innumerable. Links Jeremiah 47:1 InterlinearJeremiah 47:1 Parallel Texts Jeremiah 47:1 NIV Jeremiah 47:1 NLT Jeremiah 47:1 ESV Jeremiah 47:1 NASB Jeremiah 47:1 KJV Jeremiah 47:1 Bible Apps Jeremiah 47:1 Parallel Jeremiah 47:1 Biblia Paralela Jeremiah 47:1 Chinese Bible Jeremiah 47:1 French Bible Jeremiah 47:1 German Bible Bible Hub |
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