Jeremiah 46:23

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

cut: Isaiah 10:18, Ezekiel 20:46

because: Judges 6:5, Judges 7:12, Joel 2:25, Revelation 9:2-10

Reciprocal: Psalms 74:5 - General Isaiah 10:34 - cut down Jeremiah 51:14 - as with Jeremiah 51:27 - cause

Cross-References

Genesis 30:6
Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; He has heard my plea and given me a son." So she named him Dan.

Genesis 35:25
The sons of Rachel's maidservant Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.

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.

Numbers 1:12
from Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai;

Numbers 10:25
Finally, the divisions of the camp of Dan set out under their banner, serving as the rear guard for all units, with Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai in command.

Deuteronomy 33:22
Concerning Dan he said: "Dan is a lion's cub, leaping out of Bashan."

1 Chronicles 2:2
Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

1 Chronicles 7:12
The Shuppites and Huppites were descendants of Ir, and the Hushites were descendants of Aher.

1 Chronicles 12:35
From the Danites: 28,600 prepared for battle.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 numbered:

because they are more than the grasshoppers, and [are] innumerable; which creatures come in large numbers, and eat up every green tree and herb; and so the Chaldean army, being alike numerous, would easily cut down the trees of this forest, though they were so many.

o כי לא יחקר "ut non investigetur", Calvin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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.