Jeremiah 15:3

And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. APPOINT - alluding to , "I will even appoint over you terror, consumption," etc. KINDS - of punishments....

Jeremiah proceeds with the same subject. He said yesterday that the people were no longer cared for by God, and so that nothing remained for them but in various ways to perish, and that the last punishment would be exile. He now confirms the same thing, and says, that God would prepare against them ravenous birds as well as wild beasts, the sword and dogs (129) as though he had said, that all animals would be hostile to them, and be the executioners of God’s vengeance. Some render the verb פקד,_pekod, _to visit, but improperly, as I think; for they must give this version, “I will visit four families upon them;” but there is no sense in this, nor can any sense be elicited from it. The meaning most suitable here is to set over, (130) “I will set over them four kinds;” which he calls “four families.” And there is to be understood here a contrast: as they thought it hard t

1-9 The Lord declares that even Moses and Samuel must have pleaded in vain. The putting of this as a case, though they should stand before him, shows that they do not, and that saints in heaven do not pray for saints on earth. The Jews were condemned to different kinds of misery by the righteous judgment of God, and the remnant would be driven away, like the chaff, into captivity. Then was the populous city made desolate. Bad examples and misused authority often produce fatal effects, even after men are dead, or have repented of their crimes: this should make all greatly dread being the occasion of sin in others....

Verse Jeremiah 15:3. _I WILL APPOINT OVER THEM FOUR KINDS_] There shall appear _four_ instruments of my justice. 1. The _sword_ to slay. 2. The _dogs_ to tear what is slain. 3. The _fowls_ of the heaven to feed on the dead carcasses. And, 4. The wild _beasts_ to destroy all that the fowls have left....

KINDS - literally, as the margin, i. e., classes of things. The first is to destroy the living, the other three to mutilate and consume the dead. TO TEAR - literally, “to drag along the ground.” It forcibly expresses the contumely to which the bodies of the slain will be exposed....

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 15:1 Second rejection of Jeremiah's intercession; awfulness of the impending judgment. JEREMIAH 15:1 THOUGH MOSES AND SAMUEL, etc. It is a mere supposition which is here made; there is no allusion to any popular view of the intercession of saints (see my note on Isaiah 63:16). If even a Moses or a Samuel would intercede in vain, the ease of the Judahites must indeed be desperate. For these were the nearest of all the prophets to Jehovah, and repeatedly prayed their people out of grievous calamity (comp. Psalms 99:6). Jeremiah had alr

AND I WILL APPOINT OVER THEM FOUR KINDS, SAITH THE LORD,.... Or four families x, and these very devouring ones; that is, four sorts of punishment; and so the Targum, "four evil punishments;'' which are after mentioned. These are represented as under God, and at his beck and command; servants of his, that go and come at his pleasure, and do his will; and as being over men, and having power and authority to kill and to destroy by a divine commission: THE SWORD TO SLAY: the first and chief of the four families or punishments, which had a commission from the Lord to sheath itself in his people, the Jews; even the sword of the enemy, the Chaldeans, drawn against them by a divine order and appointment: AND THE DOGS TO TEAR; the carcasses of those that are slain with the sword: or "to draw" y; as the word signifies; it being the usual way of dogs to draw and drag the flesh about they are fe...

CHAPTER 15 The Prophet's Deep Soul-Exercise _ 1. The answer (Jeremiah 15:1) _ 2. The prophet's grief and sorrow and Jehovah's answer (Jeremiah 15:10) Jeremiah 15:1. The preceding prayer is now answered and the Lord tells Jeremiah that if Moses and Samuel, these two great men of intercessory prayer, were pleading, judgment would not be averted. What is in store for those who are appointed to death, for the sword, for the famine, for captivity, will be accomplished. There is no escape. They will be removed among all kingdoms on account of Manasseh's great sin 2 Kings 21:11. The terrors of jud

JEREMIAH 14:1 TO JEREMIAH 15:9. THE DROUGHT IN JUDAH, AND JEREMIAH'S CONSEQUENT INTERCESSION. The date of this disaster is unknown, but some year in the latter half of Jehoiakim's reign is most probable. The effects of the drought are graphically described in Jeremiah 14:2. The personified gates represent the people who gather at them in mourning attire and attitude (sit in black upon the ground; _cf._ Jeremiah 8:21; Jeremiah 13:18). The empty pits are dried-up storage cisterns (_cf._...

I WILL APPOINT, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:16)....