Jeremiah 46:17

They cried there … a noise Read, Call ye the name of Pharaoh(so far accord Syr. and Vulg., and so the LXX, who add Neco) a Crash. Thus Dr., who compares for a name symbolical of a great disaster Jeremiah 20:3, and for the Hebrew word used here Jeremiah 25:31 ("a noise"); Hosea 10:14; Amos 2:2 ("tumult"). Cp. Psalms 40:2 R.V. mg., "tumultor destruction."

he hath let the appointed time pass by the time for effectual preparation to resist. The period of grace is over. The Hebrew verb in this clause (he-ĕbir) is thought to be a play on the name Hophra (cp. Isaiah 30:7 with note in C.B. for a contemptuous play on a name for Egypt). If this be so, the v. can hardly be a gloss (Du.) or otherwise non-Jeremianic (Gi.), and it will help to authenticate the whole passage (Jeremiah 46:14 ff.). A later writer would probably have known that it was as a matter of fact not Hophra but his successor Amasis who was ruler of Egypt at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion (See on Jeremiah 43:13).