Jeremiah 46:16

He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword. HE-YAHWEH-MADE MANY TO FALL - literally, multiplied the faller, i:e., fallers. ONE FELL UPON ANOTHER - (; ) even before the enemy strikes them (). LET US GO AGAIN TO OUR OWN PEOPLE - the language of the confederates and mercenaries, exhorting one another to desert the Egyptian standard and return to their respective homes (; )....

Brevity of expression renders this sentence obscure or ambiguous. The verb הרבה _, erebe, _is put without a nominative case; but it is to be applied to God. God, then, has _multiplied. _And then there is a change of number, for the singular is to be taken as a plural when he says, _he falls, _ כושל _, cushil_: the meaning is, that many would stumble, because God would drive them, as it was said in the last verse. Hence comes what immediately follows, _Even fall shall every one on his friend, _that is, before the enemy smote them; by crowding together they would of themselves dash one against another, so that _each _would fall by the pushing of his associate. He afterwards adds, _And they shall say, Rise _Here he speaks not of natives. Some think that the reference is to foreigners, who had come into Egypt on account of the fruitfulness of the land; for a dwelling in Egypt, w

13-28 Those who encroached on others, shall now be themselves encroached on. Egypt is now like a very fair heifer, not accustomed to the yoke of subjection; but destruction comes out of the north: the Chaldeans shall come. Comfort and peace are spoken to the Israel of God, designed to encourage them when the judgments of God were abroad among the nations. He will be with them, and only correct them in measure; and will not punish them with everlasting destruction from his presence....

Verse Jeremiah 46:16. _ONE FELL UPON ANOTHER_] In their terror and confusion ranks fell on ranks, and overturned each other. _LET US GO AGAIN TO OUR OWN PEOPLE_] Let us flee to our own country with all possible speed. These were the auxiliaries....

Literally, as in the margin, i. e., Yahweh hath made many to stumble. ARISE ... - The Egyptian army being composed of mercenaries, has no patriotic feeling and immediately that the battle is lost, they propose to abandon the country which has hired them, and return each to his native land....

EXPOSITION This chapter, the first of a series, consists of two prophecies united, though it is probable enough that the latter was intended to supplement the former, for Jeremiah 46:2 are clearly incomplete (from the point of view of this group of prophecies) without a distinct and unmistakable prediction of the conquest of Egypt. The earlier prophecy is, in fact, not itself a prediction, but a triumphal ode, analogous to such as we find in the Becks of Isaiah and Ezekiel. It falls into three stanzas: (1) verses 3-6; (2) verses 7-9; (3) verses 10-12. In the first two the great event is described with poetical imagery; in the third, its cause is declared, and the irremediable completeness of its effects. The point of time assumed is immediately before the battle of Carehemish. The Egyptian army h

HE MADE MANY TO FALL,.... That is, the Lord, by the hand of the Chaldeans, by whose sword multitudes fell in battle: YEA, ONE FELL UPON ANOTHER; they fell in heaps, denoting the multitude of the slain; or rather they fell in flight one upon another; one fell, and then another upon him, as usually they do, when men are frightened and flee precipitantly, as in Jeremiah 46:12; AND THEY SAID, ARISE: not those that fell, which may seem at first sight; but either the strangers in the land of Egypt, as Kimchi, such as the Jews were; who, perceiving the destruction that was coming on Egypt, exhort one another to arise, and get out of it; or rather the auxiliaries of the Egyptians, as the Ethiopians, Lybians, and Lydians, Jeremiah 46:9; who finding the enemy

IV. THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE GENTILE NATIONS CHAPTER 46 Concerning Egypt _ 1. Prophecy about Pharaoh-Necho (Jeremiah 46:1) _ 2. Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Egypt (Jeremiah 46:13) 3. A message of comfort (Jeremiah 46:27) Jeremiah 46:1. This Pharaoh made an attempt to invade the territory of the king of Babylon, but was defeated by Nebuchadrezzar in a battle on the river Euphrates at Carchemish. This prophecy was given about eighteen years before the fall of Jerusalem. All was literally fulfilled....

JEREMIAH 46-51. THE FOREIGN PROPHECIES. These form the third principal division of the Book of Jeremiah. As already seen (Jeremiah 1:5; Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 25:15), Jeremiah's prophetic horizon naturally included the surrounding nations; how far the prophecies that follow are his can be decided only by detailed criticism in each case. They refer, though in somewhat different order, to the several nations enumerated in Jeremiah 25:19 (which may be regarded as an introduction to them), except that an oracle on Damascus here replaces the reference to Tyre, Sidon, and the Mediterranean. (The LXX, which places this group of prophe

FALL. be stumbling. ONE... UPON ANOTHER. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:37)....