Jeremiah 46:21

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

her hired: Jeremiah 46:9, Jeremiah 46:16, 2 Samuel 10:6, 2 Kings 7:6, Ezekiel 27:10, Ezekiel 27:11, Ezekiel 30:4-6

like: Jeremiah 50:11, Jeremiah 50:27, Isaiah 34:7

fatted bullocks: Heb. bullocks of the stall, Proverbs 15:17, Amos 6:4

they did: Jeremiah 46:5, Jeremiah 46:15, Jeremiah 46:16

the day: Jeremiah 18:17, Deuteronomy 32:15, Psalms 37:13, Isaiah 10:3, Ezekiel 35:5, Hosea 9:7, Obadiah 1:13, Micah 7:4

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 11:23 - the year Jeremiah 38:22 - they are Jeremiah 48:44 - the year Jeremiah 49:8 - for Jeremiah 51:9 - forsake Ezekiel 30:22 - I will

Cross-References

Genesis 46:1
So Israel set out with all that he had, and when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

Genesis 46:6
They also took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt.

Genesis 46:7
He took with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons, and his daughters and granddaughters-all his offspring.

Genesis 46:12
The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.

Genesis 49:27
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder."

Numbers 1:11
from Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni;

Deuteronomy 33:12
Concerning Benjamin he said: "May the beloved of the LORD rest secure in Him; God shields him all day long, and upon His shoulders he rests."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

All her hired men [are] in the midst of her like fatted bullocks,.... Or, "bullocks of the stall" k; soldiers of other countries, that were hired into the service of Egypt, and lived so deliciously there, that they were unfit for war, and were like fatted beasts prepared for the slaughter. The Targum and Jarchi interpret it, her princes l; who had the care of this heifer, and of the feeding of it; these themselves were like that, nourished for the day of slaughter:

for they also are turned back, [and] are fled away together; they turned their backs upon the enemy in battle, and fled in great confusion and precipitancy; see Jeremiah 46:15;

they did not stand; and face the enemy, and light him, but fell or fled before him:

because the day of their calamity was come upon them, [and] the time of their visitation; the time appointed by the Lord to visit and punish them, and bring destruction on them for their sins.

k כעגלי מרבק "velut vituli saginae", Montanus, Cocceius, l So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Rather, “Also her hirelings in the midst of her are like calves of the stall.” The mercenaries of Egypt - Nubians, Moors, and Lydians Jeremiah 46:9 - were destroyed at the battle of Carchemish, and their place was taken by hirelings from Asia Minor, Carians, and Ionians, whom Hophra took into his pay to the number of 30,000 men. These he settled in the midst of Egypt, in the fertile lands above Bubastis, in the Delta, where, well paid and fed and with great privileges, they became as calves of the stall. Their mutiny cost Hophra his crown.

For they also are turned back ... - literally, “for they also have lurched the back, they flee together, they stand not: for the day of their destruction is come upon them, the time of their visitations.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 46:21. Are fled away together — Perhaps there is a reference here to the case of a cow stung with gnats. She runs hither and thither not knowing where to go; so shall it be with this scattered people.