Jeremiah 46:18

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

saith: Jeremiah 10:10, Jeremiah 44:26, Jeremiah 48:15, Jeremiah 51:17, Isaiah 47:4, Isaiah 48:2, Malachi 1:14, Matthew 5:35, 1 Timothy 1:17

Tabor: Joshua 19:22, Judges 4:6, Psalms 89:12

Carmel: 1 Kings 18:42, 1 Kings 18:43

Reciprocal: Joshua 19:26 - Carmel Judges 4:12 - mount Tabor 1 Kings 18:19 - mount Carmel Psalms 95:3 - a great Jeremiah 31:35 - The Lord Jeremiah 48:18 - daughter Jeremiah 51:57 - the king Ezekiel 33:11 - As I live Hosea 5:1 - Tabor Zephaniah 2:9 - as I Zechariah 14:16 - the King 1 Timothy 6:15 - who

Cross-References

Genesis 29:24
And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.

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 46:9
The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

Genesis 46:13
The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Job, and Shimron.

Exodus 1:4
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[As] I live, saith the King, whose name [is] the Lord of hosts,.... A greater King than either Nebuchadnezzar or Pharaoh; the Lord of the armies of heaven and earth; and who has them all at his command and service; swears by his life, by himself, because he can swear by no greater, to the truth of what follows; for this is the form of an oath:

surely, as Tabor [is] among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea,

[so] shall he come. Tabor is commonly said to be the mountain on which our Lord was transfigured; but that there is any just foundation for it is not certain. It was a mountain in Galilee, situated on the borders of the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun, Joshua 19:12; it was two leagues from Nazareth eastward n; three miles from the lake of Gennesaret; ten miles from Diocaesarea to the east; and two days' journey from Jerusalem o. Adrichomius p says it was a most beautiful mountain, situated in the midst of the plain of Galilee, remarkable for its roundness, and was about four miles or thirty furlongs high, abounding with vines, olives, and fruit trees, with which it was set all over; and gave to those at sea a most delightful sight at a considerable distance. Our countryman, Mr. Maundrell q, who travelled up it, gives this account of it; that it

"stands by itself in the plain of Esdraelon (the same the Scripture calls the valley of Jezreel); after a very laborious ascent (says he), which took up near an hour, we reached the highest part of the mountain: it has a plain area at top, most fertile and delicious; of an oval figure, extended about one furlong in breadth, and two in length: this area is enclosed with trees on all parts, except towards the south.''

It is called by the Septuagint, Josephus, and other writers, Itabyrium. Carmel is with great propriety called "Carmel by the sea"; it was situated on the border of the tribe of Asher; and near to it was the river Kishon, Joshua 19:26. So Mr. Maundrell r says,

"we arrived in two hours at that ancient river, the river Kishon, which cuts his way down the middle of the plain of Esdraelon; and then, continuing his course close by the side of Mount Carmel, falls into the sea at a place called Caypha;''

by which it appears that the mount was near the sea; and Pliny s calls it a promontory, and places it on the Phoenician shore; on which he says were the promontory Carmel, and a town upon the mountain of the same name, formerly called Ecbatana. Adrichomius t gives it the name of "Carmel of the sea"; and says it was a very high mountain, and woody, abounding with most noble vines, olives, fruit trees, and odoriferous herbs. So Josephus u makes mention of Carmel and the sea together; he says, the Zebulonites obtained land as far as the lake of Genezareth, contiguous to Carmel and the sea; and their being near to each other appears from a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud w; says

"R. Samuel Bar Chain Bar Judah, in the name of R. Chanina, when the orb of the sun begins to set, a man standing on Mount Carmel, and goes down and dips in the great sea (the Mediterranean sea), and goes up again, and eats his "teruma" (or offering), it is a presumption that he dipped in the daytime;''

and which is also evident from the passage in 1 Kings 18:42; where Elijah and his servant are said to be on the top of Mount Carmel, and from thence he bid his servant look towards the sea: now these mountains so situated are taken notice of, either to show the manner of the king of Babylon's coming against Egypt; that as Tabor and Carmel were high mountains in the land of Israel, so should Nebuchadnezzar lift up his head on high, and come with great pride and haughtiness of spirit against the Egyptians; or rather the certainty of his coming, that he should come as sure as those mountains were in the places they were; or, best of all, the certainty of the destruction of the Egyptians, and the truth of this prophecy concerning it; though the Egyptians were as firm, and might think themselves as secure and as immovable, as the above mountains, yet should certainly come to ruin, and the word of God concerning it should stand as firm as they. To this sense agrees the Targum,

"as this word stands firm, that Tabor is among the mountains, and Carmel in the sea, so shall his destruction come.''

The words, according to the accents, may be better rendered, "as Tabor among the mountains, [and Carmel also], he shall come into the sea" x; that is, Pharaoh, though he lift up his head as high as Tabor and Carmel, he shall be brought low into the depths of the sea; into a most forlorn and deplorable condition, into a very low estate; and perhaps there may be an allusion to the ancient Pharaoh being drowned in the sea; and with this agrees the Syriac version, "Pharaoh shall fall as the fragment of a mountain, and as Carmel, into the midst of the sea"; compare with this Matthew 11:23.

n Borchard, Breidenbach, &c. in Lightfoot, Chorograph. on John, vol. 2. p. 495. o Vid. Reland. Palestina Illustrata, l. 1, c, 51, 331, 383. p Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, Zabulon, No. 95. p. 143. q Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 113, 114. Ed. 7. r Ib. p. 57. s Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 19. t Ut supra (Theatrum Terrae Sanctae), Issachar, No. 19. p. 35. u Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22. w T. Bab. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 2. 2. x כי כתבוד בהרים וככרמל בים יבוא "quia sicut Tabor in montibus, et sicut Carmel (scil. in montibus est) ita in mare veniet", Schmidt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As Tabor is - Omit “is.” “He shall come like a Tabor among the mountains, and like a Carmel by the sea.” Tabor rises in the form of a truncated cone to the height of about 1,350 feet above the plain of Esdraelon, its total height above the sea level being 1,805 feet. Its shape and the wide extent of the plain around it make it a far more conspicuous object than other mountains in sight of equal elevation. Similarly, Carmel is a most commanding mountain, because it rises from the edge of the wide expanse of the Mediterranean.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 46:18. As Tabor is among the mountains — This mountain is situated in the plain of Esdraelon in Galilee, on the confines of the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar, Joshua 19:22. It stood by itself, separated from all the other mountains by deep valleys, and is the highest of the whole.

And as Carmel by the sea — Carmel is a mountain on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, on the southern frontier of the tribe of Asher. Were the Egyptians as distinguished for valour and strength as the mountains Tabor and Carmel are for height among the other mountains in their vicinity, they should not be able to stand the shock of the Chaldean army.