Jeremiah 18:21

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

Pour out their blood by the force of the sword - literally, upon the hands of the sword. So , margin. Maurer, with Jerome, translates, 'deliver them over to the power of the sword.' (But cf. , margin; . ) In this prayer he does not indulge in personal revenge, as if it were his own cause that was at stake; but he speaks under the dictation of the Spirit, ceasing to intercede, and speaking prophetically, knowing they were doomed to destruction as reprobates; for those not so, he doubtless ceased not to intercede. We are not to draw an example from this, which is a special case.

Let their men be put to death - or, as in , 'perish by the death-plague' (Maurer).

Men ... young men. Horsley distinguishes the former as married men past middle life; the latter, the flower of the unmarried youth.