Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 19:9
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
9. The v. is taken from Deu 28:53. Cp. Lev 26:29. For the fulfilment see Lam 4:10.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 9. I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons] This was literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans. This also the prophet might have had in view.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These were the miserable effects or consequents of the famine with which God had often before threatened them, the just fulfilling of Gods word threatened Lev 26:29; Deu 28:53, and the accomplishment of which our prophet hath recorded, Lam 4:10.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. (Deu 28:53;Lam 4:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters,…. For want of food; the famine should be so great and pressing. Jeremiah, that foretells this, was a witness of it, and has left it on record, La 4:10;
and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend. The Targum interprets it, the goods or substance of his neighbour; which is sometimes the sense of eating the flesh of another; but as it is to be taken in a literal sense, in the preceding clause, so in this: so it should be,
in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them; the siege of Jerusalem should be so close, that no provision could be got in to the relief of the inhabitants; which obliged them to take the shocking methods before mentioned. Jerom observes, that though this was fulfilled at the Babylonish captivity, yet more fully when Jerusalem was besieged by Vespasian and Titus, and in the times of Hadrian. Josephus q gives us a most shocking relation of a woman eating her own son.
q De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Here the Prophet goes farther — that so atrocious would be the calamity, that even fathers and mothers would not abstain from their children, but would devour their flesh. This was indeed monstrous. It has sometimes happened that husbands, in a state of extreme despondency, have killed their wives and children, (anxious to exempt them from the lust of enemies,) or have kindled a fire in the midst of the forum, to cast their children and wives on the pile, and afterwards to die themselves; but it was more barbarous and brutal for a father to eat the flesh of his son. The Prophet then describes an unusual vengeance of God, which could not be classed among the calamities which usually happen to mankind.
We know that this was also done in the last siege of that city; for Josephus shews at large that mothers in a brutal manner slew their children, and that they so lay in wait for one another that they snatched at anything to eat. This was also an evidence of God’s dreadful vengeance.
But it was no wonder that God visited in such an awful manner the sins of those who had in such various ways, and for so long a time, provoked him; for if we compare the Jews with other nations, we shall find that their impiety, and ingratitude, and perverseness, exceeded the crimes of all nations. Then justly did God inflict such a punishment, which even at this day cannot be referred to without horror. The whole indeed is to be ascribed to his judgment; for it was he who fed (218) the fathers with the flesh of their children; for as they had sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, as before stated, so it was necessary that the vengeance of God should be openly pointed out as by the finger. This was done when God imprinted marks on the bodies of children, which even the blind could not but perceive.
He adds, In the tribulation, (219) and straightness with which their enemies shall straiten them. We have said that those who had been long besieged, and were not able to resist, have been often reduced to the necessity to freeing their wives, or their children, or themselves, from dishonor; but to protract life in the manner here mentioned was altogether brutal. It follows —
(218) The expression, according to the Hebrew, is, “I will cause them to eat.” What a punishment! Those who sacrificed their children to their idols were judicially brought to such straits as to be driven to eat their own children! God often punishes men in a way that corresponds with their sin. Through superstitious madness the Jews willingly offered their children in sacrifice to demons; and through the extreme cravings of hunger they were constrained to eat their own children! — Ed.
(219) The word is מצור, which means a siege, as well as tribulation or distress; and the former is the most suitable word here; and so it is rendered by the Targum and the early versions, except the Syriac. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) I will cause them to eat . . .Once again an echo, almost a quotation, from Deuteronomy (Deu. 28:53). The woes of that memorable chapter had obviously furnished the prophet both with imagery and language. In Lam. 2:20; Lam. 4:10 we find proof of the fulfilment of the prediction. Thus, by the dread law of retribution, were the people to pay the penalty of their sin in the Melech sacrifices, in which they, sinning at once against natural affection and against the faith of their fathers, had slain their sons and daughters.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Eat the flesh, etc. Mainly from Deu 28:53, and Lev 26:29. Famine is added to complete the terrible picture. For the fulfilment, see Lam 2:20; Lam 4:10.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 19:9. I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons See 2Ki 6:29.
REFLECTIONS.1st, To awaken conviction in the hearts of a stupid people, every method is tried, that they may be left at last utterly inexcusable.
1. Jeremiah is ordered down to the valley of the son of Hinnom, the place where their most shocking idolatries were committed, and the destined spot of their terrible execution. He is commanded to take an earthen pitcher, and, as witnesses of what he was about to do and say, to bring with him some of the ancients of the priests and people; for when God speaks by the meanest of his prophets, the greatest should not think themselves above attending their ministry.
2. God will there tell him his message, which he must proclaim aloud as a herald; and the purport of it is most tremendous, which all are summoned to attend, from the greatest to the least; and enough it is to make the ears of every one that heareth it to tingle, as thunderstruck with the dreadful sound. The sins charged upon them are most shocking and aggravated; apostacy from God, profanation of his temple, foul idolatry, barbarous cruelty, the inhuman sacrifice of infants to their abominable deities, yea, even the burning their sons with fire, for burnt-offerings unto Baal; sacrifices abhorred of God, and such as he never thought of, nor expected from his worshippers. For these abominations judgment is threatened proportionate to such atrocious guilt: on that very spot the wrath of God should be executed upon them, and the valley acquire a new name: no more called Tophet, from the drums which were to drown the cries of infants burning alive in sacrifice to Moloch, but the valley of Slaughter, from the multitudes who should there be massacred by the Chaldeans. Their counsels then should be made vain, which in that place they had taken to oppose their invaders, or to fly to their idols for relief in the day of their calamity. There they must fall by the sword of their merciless enemies, thirsting for their blood; their carcases ignominiously exposed, and unburied; a prey to the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth. Such plagues, and desolations shall come upon their city and country, that astonishment at the greatness of the calamity shall mix with indignation against their sins in every passer-by: yea, to such straits should they be reduced in the siege, that famine should compel them to feed upon their dearest friends, and even their children, on their dead corpses, or murdered, to satisfy their raging hunger; a scene of wretchedness which makes us shudder but to relate! O sin! sin! what hast thou done!
2nd. The judgment denounced is,
1. Confirmed by a significant sign. The earthen bottle in his hand is dashed in pieces on the ground, and the explication of it given, that so utter and irreparable should be their destruction. The city and people should be broken like this vessel, and the spot whereon they stood be the place of execution, where so many should be slain, that graves should be wanting to bury them; yea, the city of Jerusalem should be as Tophet, and every house defiled with the corpses of the slain, and rendered filthy and abominable as that detested place, because of the idolatries which had been practised therein, and the incense which on their roofs they had offered to the host of heaven.
2. What he now spoke in the presence of the ancients, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, he repeats solemnly in the court of the Lord’s house before all the people, that if they continue impenitent, they may be at least inexcusable. All the denunciations of wrath which God had spoken by Jeremiah were now ready to be executed on Jerusalem and on all her towns, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words; obstinately persisting in their iniquities, and deaf to all admonition. Note; (1.) Ministers must deliver their own souls, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear. (2.) They who harden their hearts against God’s warnings, must perish without remedy. (3.) In the day of judgment the damned will only have themselves to blame, and the sense of their wilfulness, will aggravate their misery.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 19:9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
Ver. 9. And I will cause them to eat the flesh. ] This, as it was threatened, Lev 26:29 Deu 28:23 so accordingly accomplished. Lam 2:20 ; Lam 4:10 Ptolemy Lathurus, king of Egypt, barbarously slew thirty thousand Jews, and forced the rest to feed upon the flesh of those that were slain.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
to eat the flesh, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 26:29. Deu 28:53-57). Compare Lam 2:20; Lam 4:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
eat the: Lev 26:29, Deu 28:53-57, 2Ki 6:26-29, Isa 9:20, Lam 2:20, Lam 4:10, Eze 5:10
Reciprocal: Isa 36:12 – that they may Jer 13:14 – I will dash Jer 52:6 – the famine Lam 1:11 – seek Lam 3:51 – the daughters Lam 4:3 – the daughter Zec 11:9 – and let Jam 5:3 – and shall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 19:9. It is hard to think that even a siege couid produce such a state as predicted here, in which parents actually made food of their childrens bodies. But such a thing had taken place before (2Ki 6:29), and It should be accepted as an inspired prediction that the horrible deed would happen again.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The siege of Jerusalem would be so bad that the residents would eat their own children, and one another, rather than die of starvation (cf. Jer 11:1-8; Lev 26:29; Deu 28:53-57; 2Ki 6:26-29; Lam 2:20; Lam 4:10). This was compensation for their having taken human life to worship pagan idols. Being consumed by cannibals was a typical curse for treaty-breakers in the ancient Near East, as was lack of burial (Jer 19:7). [Note: See D. R. Hillers, Treaty-Curses and the Old Testament Prophets, pp. 62-63, 68-69.]