Jeremiah 46:16

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹²The nations have heard of your shame, and your outcry fills the earth, because warrior stumbles over warrior and both of them have fallen together." ¹³This is the word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt: ¹⁴"Announce it in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol; proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes: 'Take your positions and prepare yourself, for the sword devours those around you.' ¹⁵Why have your warriors been laid low? They cannot stand, for the LORD has thrust them down. ¹⁶They continue to stumble. Indeed, they have fallen over one another. They say, 'Get up! Let us return to our people and to the land of our birth, away from the sword of the oppressor.'¹⁷There they will proclaim, 'Pharaoh king of Egypt was all noise; he has let the appointed time pass him by.' ¹⁸As surely as I live, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts, will come one like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea. ¹⁹Pack your bags for exile, O daughter dwelling in Egypt! For Memphis will be laid waste, destroyed and uninhabited. ²⁰Egypt is a beautiful heifer, but a gadfly from the north is coming against her. ²¹Even the mercenaries among her are like fattened calves. They too will turn back; together they will flee; they will not stand their ground, for the day of their calamity is coming upon them-the time of their punishment.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

made many to fall: Heb. multiplied the faller

one: Leviticus 26:36, Leviticus 26:37

they said: Jeremiah 46:21, Jeremiah 51:9

Reciprocal: 1 Chronicles 19:14 - they fled Isaiah 19:1 - the heart Jeremiah 50:16 - they shall turn every one

Cross-References

Genesis 30:11
Then Leah said, "How fortunate!" So she named him Gad.

Genesis 35:26
And the sons of Leah's maidservant Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

Genesis 46:11
The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Genesis 46:15
These are the sons of Leah born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of sons and daughters was thirty-three.

Genesis 46:16
The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

Genesis 46:17
The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

Genesis 46:20
Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.

Genesis 46:21
The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

Genesis 46:24
The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

Genesis 46:25
These are the sons of Jacob born to Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel-seven in all.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 too strong for them, and they themselves deserted or unsupported by Pharaoh's army, advise one another to quit his service, and provide for their own safety:

and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity; their own country, where they were born, and their friends and relations lived; that so they might be safe

from the oppressing sword; the sword of the Chaldeans. The Septuagint version is a very bad one, followed by the Arabic, which renders it, "from the Grecian sword"; and so is the Vulgate Latin version, "from the face of the dove"; to countenance which it is said, that the Chaldeans and Assyrians had a dove in their ensigns;

Jeremiah 46:9- :; and so a most ancient Saxon translation in the library of Christ's Church in Oxford, "from the face of the sword of the culver" k, or "dove"; that is, from their sword, who display their banners in the field with the ensign of a dove; meaning the Chaldeans. The Targum is,

"from the sword of the enemy, which is as wine inebriating;''

which sense is followed by Jarchi.

k Apud Gregory's Posthuma, p. 236.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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.