Jeremiah 46:23

They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable. THEY SHALL CUT DOWN HER FOREST - (, "He shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one"). THOUGH IT CANNOT BE SEARCHED - they cut down her forest, dense and unsearchable (; ; ,) as it my seem: referring to the thickly-set cities of Egypt, which were at that time a thousand and twenty. The Hebrew particle is properly for, because. BECAUSE - the reason why the Chaldeans shall be able to cut do...

He goes on here with the same subject. He indeed uses the past tense, but we know that this was commonly done by the Prophets. He compares the people of Egypt to a forest, as he had said that individual men would be like trees: _They have _then _cut down, _that is, _they _shall cut down _its forest, saith Jehovah _For the sake of confirmation he ascribes the words to God; as though he had said, that he predicted nothing but what God had determined to do. His object then was to remove every doubt; because the Jews might on the one hand have refused to believe this prophecy on considering the power of Egypt; and the Egyptians on the other might have disregarded these threatenings, confiding in their own strength. Hence the Prophet introduces God as the speaker, as though he had said, “This decree cannot be revoked, because God hath spoken.” And he says, that they had _multiplied more than...

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 46:23. _THEY SHALL CUT DOWN HER FOREST_] Supposed to mean her cities, of which Egypt had no fewer than _one thousand_ and _twenty_....

Or, “They have cut down her forest, saith Yahweh, for it is impenetrable,” i. e., just as a pathless forest must be cleared to assist agriculture and the passage to and fro of men, so must the false worship and the material prosperity of Egypt be overthrown. GRASSHOPPERS - The invading host advances as multitudinous as the locusts which consume the whole vegetation of the land on which they alight....

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

THEY SHALL CUT DOWN HER FOREST, SAITH THE LORD,.... The land of Egypt, compared to a forest, for the multitude of its cities and towns, and the inhabitants of them; which should be destroyed by the Chaldeans, as a forest is cut down by hewers of wood; the metaphor is here continued. The Targum interprets this of the princes of Egypt, and the destruction of them; THOUGH IT CANNOT BE SEARCHED; either the forest of Egypt, which was so thick of trees; that is, the land was so full of towns and cities, that they could not be searched and numbered; and though the way through it seemed impassable, yet was made passable by the hewers of wood: or its destruction would be so general, "that it cannot be searched" o; or found out, where this forest was, where those trees grew, not one of them standing: or else this is to be understood of the Chaldean army, which was so great, that it could not be n...

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

SEARCHED. reconnoitred. GRASSHOPPERS. locusts....