Jeremiah 6:23

They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion. LIKE THE SEA - (). AS MEN FOR WAR - not that they were like warriors, for they were warriors; but 'arrayed most perfectly as warriors' (Maurer)....

He adds other particulars, in order more fully to render the Chaldeans objects of dread: _They shall lay hold, _he says, _on the bow and the lance _They who render the last word shield, do not sufficiently attend to the design of the Prophet. For there is no mention here made of defense; but it is the same as though the Prophet had said, that they would come furnished with bows and spears, that they might shoot at a distance. The word כידון, _kidun, _means a spear and a lance; (182) and it means also a shield: but in this place the Prophet, I doubt not, means a spear; as though he had said, “They will strike at a distance, or near at hand.” He afterwards adds, that they would be _cruel, _according to what Isaiah says, when he speaks of the Persians and Medes, “They will covet neither gold nor silver,” (Isaiah 13:17)...

18-30 God rejects their outward services, as worthless to atone for their sins. Sacrifice and incense were to direct them to a Mediator; but when offered to purchase a license to go on in sin, they provoke God. The sins of God's professing people make them an easy prey to their enemies. They dare not show themselves. Saints may rejoice in hope of God's mercies, though they see them only in the promise: sinners must mourn for fear of God's judgments, though they see them only in the threatenings. They are the worst of revolters, and are all corrupters. Sinners soon become tempters. They are compared to ore supposed to have good metal in it, but which proves all dross. Nothing will prevail to part between them and their sins. Reprobate silver shall they be called, useless and worthless. When warnings, corrections, rebukes, and all means of grace, leave men unrenewed, they will be left, as...

Verse Jeremiah 6:23. _THEY SHALL LAY HOLD ON BOW AND SPEAR_] Still pointing out the Chaldeans: or according to _Dahler_, the _Scythians_, who had before their invasion of Palestine overrun many parts of Asia, and had spread consternation wherever their name was heard....

SPEAR - Properly, a javelin for hurling at the enemy (see 1 Samuel 17:6 note): an ordinary weapon of the Babylonians. CRUEL - ruthless, inhuman. In the Assyrian monuments warriors put the vanquished to death; rows of impaled victims hang round the walls of the besieged towns; and men collect in heaps hands cut from the vanquished. HORSES, SET IN ARRAY - A full stop should be put after horses. It - the whole army, and not the cavalry only - is “set in array.” AS MEN FOR WAR AGAINST THEE - Rather, as a warrior for battle “against thee.”...

EXPOSITION A prophecy, in five stanzas or strophes, vividly describing the judgment and its causes, and enforcing the necessity of repentance. JEREMIAH 6:1 Arrival of a hostile army from the north, and summons to flee from the doomed city. JEREMIAH 6:1 O YE CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN. The political rank of Jerusalem, as the capital of the kingdom of Judah, makes it difficult to realize that Jerusalem was not locally a city of Judah at all. It belonged, strictly speaking, to the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe whose insignificance, in comparison with Judah, seems to have led to the adoption of a form of expression not literally accurate (see Psa 128:1-6 :68). The true state of the ease is evident from an examination of the two par

THEY SHALL LAY HOLD ON BOW AND SPEAR,.... That is, everyone of them should be furnished with both these pieces of armour, that they might be able to fight near and afar off; they had bows to shoot arrows at a distance, and spears to strike with when near. The Targum renders it bows and shields. "They are cruel, and have no mercy"; this is said, to strike terror into the hearts of the hardened Jews: THEIR VOICE ROARETH LIKE THE SEA; the waves of it, which is terrible, Luke 21:25: AND THEY RIDE UPON HORSES; which still made them more formidable, as well as suggests that their march would be quick and speedy, and they would soon be with them: SET IN ARRAY AS MEN FOR WAR; prepared with all sorts of armour for battle: or, "as a man" a; as one man, denoting their conjunction, ardour, and unanimity; being not only well armed witho

CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The call to the children of Benjamin (Jeremiah 6:1) _ 2. Corruption and the deserved judgment (Jeremiah 6:9) 3. The prophet addressed (Jeremiah 6:27) Jeremiah 6:1. The children of Benjamin are exhorted to flee for safety on account of the evil from the north. There were probably among the Benjamites God-fearing men. Those who heeded the call fled and escaped. It is a warning message which follows: “Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, let my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.” But they heeded it not....

THE FOE FROM THE NORTH is again described (_cf._ Jeremiah 5:15) in his advance against Jerusalem (Jeremiah 6:22). Its inhabitants utter their dismay (wax feeble, Jeremiah 6:24; Heb. are slack). The prophet warns of the danger without (Jeremiah 6:25), and bids the (individualised) people mourn (Amos 8:10; Zechariah 12:10) for the coming disaster. Jeremiah 6:22

ROARETH. will roar. Compare Isaiah 5:29; Isaiah 5:30. Compare Isaiah 5:29. MEN. Hebrew. _'ish_. App-14...