Jeremiah 37:5

Then Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem. PHARAOH'S ARMY WAS COME FORTH OUT OF EGYPT, AND ... THE CHALDEANS THAT BESIEGED JERUSALEM ... DEPARTED. After this temporary diversion caused by Pharaoh in favour of Jerusalem, the Egyptians returned no more to its help (), having been themselves crippled, and deprived of all the territory they had acquired from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, the Nile. Judea had the misfortune to lie between the two great contending powers, Babylon and Egypt, and so was exposed to the alternate inroads of the one or the other. Josiah, taking side with Assyria, fell in battle with Pharaoh-necho at Megiddo (). Zedekiah, having sought the Egyptian a...

1-10 Numbers witness the fatal effects of other men's sins, yet heedlessly step into their places, and follow the same destructive course. When in distress, we ought to desire the prayers of ministers and Christian friends. And it is common for those to desire to be prayed for, who will not be advised; yet sinners are often hardened by a pause in judgments. But if God help us not, no creature can. Whatever instruments God has determined to use, they shall do the work, though they seem unlikely....

Verse Jeremiah 37:5. _THEN PHARAOH'S ARMY_] This was _Pharao-hophra_ or _Apries_, who then reigned in Egypt in place of his father _Necho_. See Ezekiel 29:6, c. Nebuchadnezzar, hearing that the Egyptian army, on which the Jews so much depended, was on their march to relieve the city, suddenly raised the siege, and went to meet them. In the interim Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord to know whether they might consider themselves in safety....

THEN - And. Pharaoh-Hophra Jeremiah 44:30, the Apries of Herodotus, probably withdrew without giving Nebuchadnezzar battle. After a reign of 25 years, he was dethroned by Amasis, but allowed to inhabit his palace at Sais, where finally he was strangled....

EXPOSITION Nothing worthy of relation appears to have happened to Jeremiah till the latter period of the reign of Zedekiah. The first two verses of this chapter form the transition. The embassy to Jeremiah mentioned in verse 3 took place after the temporary withdrawal of the Chaldeans from Jerusalem. JEREMIAH 37:1 CONIAH; _i.e._ Jehoiachin (see on Jeremiah 22:24). WHOM NEBUCHADREZZAR … MADE KING. Zedekiah, not Jehoiachin, is referred to (see 2 Kings 24:17). JEREMIAH 37:3 AND ZEDEKIAH THE KING SENT. Th

THEN PHARAOH'S ARMY WAS COME FORTH OUT OF EGYPT,.... At the time the above message was sent to Jeremiah. Zedekiah, though he had took an oath of homage to the king of Babylon, rebelled against him, and entered into a league with the king of Egypt, to whom he sent for succours in his distress; and who, according to agreement, sent his army out of Egypt to break up the siege of Jerusalem; for though the king of Egypt came no more in person out of his land, after his defeat at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 46:2; yet he sent his army to the relief of Jerusalem: AND WHEN THE CHALDEANS THAT BESIEGED JERUSALEM; which was in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign that they first besieged it, and is the time here referred to, Jeremiah 39:1;...

JEREMIAH AND ZEDEKIAH AND THE FALL OF JERUSALEM (37-39) CHAPTER 37 _ 1. Jeremiah's warning (Jeremiah 37:1) _ 2. Jeremiah's arrest (Jeremiah 37:11) Jeremiah 37:1. To understand more fully these Chapter s it must be remembered that the besieging army before the gates of Jerusalem was temporarily withdrawn, because an Egyptian army had appeared against it. This was no doubt an occasion for the false prophets to preach their false hope, so that the people were deceived. Once more Zedekiah sent to the prophet a deputation (Jeremiah 21:1) after Nebuchadnezzar had made him king. The occasion was on

JEREMIAH 37, 38. FORTUNES OF JEREMIAH DURING THE SIEGE (588- 586). JEREMIAH 37:1. Zedekiah, made vassal-king in place of his nephew, Jehoiachin (in 597) sends Jehucal (Jeremiah 38:1) and Zephaniah (Jeremiah 21:1, where a similar inquiry earlier in the siege is recorded) to ask for Jeremiah's intercession with Yahweh (_cf._ Isaiah 37:4), at a time when the siege has been raised through the Egyptian expedition of Pharaoh (Hophra, 589- 564; _cf._ Jeremiah 44:30). Jeremiah sends back to say that the Babylonians will return, and

PHARAOH'S: i.e. Pharaoh Hophra's. Compare Jeremiah 44:30. The Apries of Herodotus, and fourth successor of Psammeticus on the throne of Egypt. He came to help Zedekiah (Ezekiel 17:15), but was defeated by the Chaldeans, and Egypt subdued. Compare 2 Kings 24:7; Ezekiel 29:1 and chs. 30-33. Also Jeremiah 43:9....

_when the Chaldeans … heard tidings of them, they brake up_ We do not know whether the retreat on the part of the Egyptians which followed was due to a defeat from the Chaldaeans, or not. The former is at least suggested by Ezekiel 30:21. Pharaoh Hophra (called Apries by Herodotus) reigned b.c. 590 571. For his overthrow see ch. Jeremiah 44:30....