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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Jeremiah 46:5 - 46:5
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Thus well arrayed, the host advances to the fight; but suddenly the seer perceives the magnificent army terror-stricken, retreating, and breaking out into a disorderly flight. The question, "Why (wherefore) do I see?" points to the unexpected and incomprehensible turn in the progress of events. הֵמָּה חַתִּים is not an accus. dependent on רָאִיתִי, but an independent clause: "What do I see? They are terror-stricken" (חַתִּים, terrified, broken-spirited through terror). יֻכַּתּוּ, Hoph. from כָּתַת, to be broken, here and in Job 4:20 applied to persons. מָנֹוס is added to the verb instead of the inf. abs., to give emphasis to the idea contained in the word; cf. Ewald, §281, a. מָגֹור מִסָּבִיב .a , "horror, terror around" (cf. Jer 6:25), is taken by Ewald as the reply of Jahveh to the question, "Wherefore is this? On every side there is danger;" and this is appropriately followed by the imperatives in Jer 46:6, "Let no one, then, attempt to flee; not one shall escape to Egypt, but they must fall at the Euphrates." The perfects כָּֽשְׁלוּ וְנָֽפְלוּ are prophetic; the stumbling and falling are as certain as if they had already happened. The second strophe commences at Jer 46:7. The description begins anew, and that with a question of astonishment at the mighty host advancing like the Nile when it bursts its banks and inundates the whole country. יְאֹר is the name of the Nile, taken from the Egyptian into the Hebrew language; cf. Gen. 41ff., Exo 1:22, etc. הִתְגָּעַשׁ, dash about (Jer 5:22), wave backwards and forwards: the Hithpa. is here interchanged with the Hithpo. without any difference of meaning.