Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 46:7
Who [is] this [that] cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
7, 8. Who is this Egypt riseth up like the Nile ] The mg. is to be preferred. Egypt’s boast that she will spread herself in conquest over the earth is illustrated by the annual rise of the Nile, flooding the adjacent country. Cp. in Isa 8:7 f. the illustration of Assyrian conquest of Judaea taken from the swelling waters of the Euphrates.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In Jer 46:3-6 we saw only a mighty army marshalling for battle, and its hasty flight. In Jer 46:7-12 the prophet tells us at whose defeat we have been present.
A flood – the Nile. The metaphor describing the advance of the Egyptian army is naturally drawn from the annual overflow of their own sacred stream.
Whose waters are moved … – literally, his waters toss to and fro as the rivers, the natural branches of the Nile in Lower Egypt.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. Who is this that cometh up as a flood] The vast concourse of people is here represented as a river: for instance, the Jordan, suddenly swollen with the rains in harvest, rolling its waters along, and overflowing the whole country. A fine image to represent the incursions of vast armies carrying all before them. Such was the army of Pharaoh-necho in its march to Carchemish.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The next verse expoundeth this.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. as a flood (Jer 47:2;Isa 8:7; Isa 8:8;Dan 11:22). The figure isappropriate in addressing Egyptians, as the Nile, their great river,yearly overspreads their lands with a turbid, muddy flood. So theirarmy, swelling with arrogance, shall overspread the region south ofEuphrates; but it, like the Nile, shall retreat as fast as itadvanced.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Who [is] this [that] cometh up as a flood,…. These are either the words of the prophet, who having a vision in prophecy of the march of the Egyptian army from the south to the north, which he compares to a flood; in allusion to the river Nile, which used to overflow its banks, and spread itself over the land; because of the vast numbers of which it consisted; because of the noise it made, and, because of its rapidity and force, threatening to bear all down before it; as wondering, asks, who it was, whose army it was, and to whom it belonged? or they are the words of God, who puts this question, in order to, give an answer to it, and thereby upbraid the Egyptians with their arrogance, pride, and vanity; which would all come to nothing:
whose waters are moved as the rivers? whose numerous armies came with a great noise and force, like the openings of the Nile, the seven gates of it; which were very boisterous, especially in hard gales of wind: it is no unusual thing for large armies to be compared to floods and rivers, which move forcibly and swiftly, and make a large spread; see Isa 8:7. The Targum is,
“who is this that comes up with his army as a cloud, and covers the earth, and as a fountain of water, whose waters are moved?”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet again meets those doubts which might have possessed the minds of the godly, so as to prevent them to receive this prophecy in faith and with due reverence: for we have said, that when our thoughts are occupied with external things, the power of God is disregarded. When, therefore, we speak of some impregnable kingdom, it does not come into our minds, that all strongholds are of no account with God. It was therefore necessary highly to extol the power of God, when the Prophets spoke of his judgments: otherwise the flesh, as we have stated, would have said, “They who are well fortified must be free from evils, and as it were beyond the reach of weapons, and hence there is nothing for them to fear.” And it is with this false imagination that the proud deceive themselves, for they set up their forces, their auxiliaries, and all the things which they deem, according to the judgment of the flesh, as sufficient to protect their safety. Titus it happens, that they heedlessly disregard all threatenings, even because they think that the subsidies which they have are so many fortresses against all attacks.
It is for this purpose that the Prophet now says, Who is this that as a lake rises, or swells, as rivers are moved, or, whose waters are agitated ? But he speaks according to the common judgment of men, for the very sight could not but fill men with fear; and so the Jews could never have thought that possible which the Prophet here asserts. He then, as it were, introduces them all as anxiously inquiring according to their own judgment, Who is this? as though Pharaoh was not a mortal, but something above human. For the drift of the question is this, that Pharaoh was as it were exempted from the common condition of men, because his power increased like a river rising or swelling; and its waters, he says, make a noise
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
B. The Second Picture of Egyptian Defeat Jer. 46:7-12
TRANSLATION
(7) Who is this that goes up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the river? (8) Egypt goes up like the Nile and his waters toss themselves like the rivers. And he says, I will go up, I will cover the land, I will destroy a city and its inhabitants. (9) Go up, O horses! Rage O chariots! Let the mighty men go out, Cush and Put who handle the shield, the Ludim who handle the bow. (10) For that day belongs to the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance to take vengeance upon His adversaries; and the sword shall devour and be satisfied and drink its fill of blood; for the LORD of hosts has a sacrifice in the land of the north at the river Euphrates. (11) Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt. For naught you have multiplied medicines. You shall not recover. (12) Nations have heard of your shame; your cry fills the earth; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty man; together the two of them shall fall.
COMMENTS
In this stanza of the poem Jeremiah sees the armies of Pharaoh Necho rolling toward Carchemish like the mighty Nile in flood time. The rivers mentioned in Jer. 46:7-8 are the arms and canals of the Nile in the Delta region. In these vivid lines one can almost hear the roaring, moving and churning of the rampaging river. The pride and confidence of Pharaoh is revealed in his boast I will go up and cover the earth;; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof (Jer. 46:8). By means of a sarcastic imperative Jeremiah urges the hosts of Egypt to hasten onward to their destination (Jer. 46:9).[369] Cush, Put and Lud[370] (Ethiopians, Libyans and Lydians in KJV) refer to the countries of Pharaohs mercenary troops. From the days of Pharaoh Psammetichus (663610) these African mercenaries formed the major part of the Egyptian army. Who could withstand such a vast and heavily armed host? No wonder Pharaoh makes his boast. But God alone decrees what nation will rule His world, and God has chosen Nebuchadnezzar. Pharaoh will meet his doom at Carchemish!
[369] Actually it is impossible to determine here whether the command to the troops is given by Pharaoh or mockingly by the prophet. The KJV by translating the verbs come up suggests that it is the prophet who is summoning the troops of Egypt. The ASV translation go up is preferable.
[370] Exact locations of Put and Lud are not known. It is thought that Put is on the east coast of Africa near Egypt and that Lud was west of Egypt. Cf. John Bright op. cit., p. 306.
Jer. 46:10 presents a glaring contrast to what has preceded in this stanza.[371] Jer. 46:7-9 pictured the might and confident expectation of the Egyptian forces as they set out for Carchemish. Jer. 46:10-12 picture the results of that battle. Instead of victory for Egypt or for Babylon, Carchemish will be a day of victory for the Lord. By describing the defeat at Carchemish as a sacrifice Jeremiah indicates the religious significance of the battle. The phrase the day of the Lord of hosts designates a day which God has reserved for the punishment of His adversaries and the deliverance of His people. Every day of the Lord throughout history is a preview of that great and notable day of the Lord which will be the final decisive and conclusive battle in the age-long struggle between righteousness and evil.
[371] Laetsch proposes that the conjunction Which introduces Jer. 46:10 should be rendered but or yet in English instead of for as in KJV and ASV.
At Carchemish God will take vengeance on His adversaries. The Egyptians are not Gods adversaries because of the unmerciful oppression to which they had subjected the Israelites centuries earlier. That debt had long since been settled when God brought the terrific plague-judgments upon the land of Egypt. But the Egyptians had continued to show their hostility toward the people of God in more recent days. Pharaoh had harbored the enemies of Gods anointed king of Israel (1Ki. 11:14 ff); he had warred against Jerusalem (1Ki. 14:25 f.); he had come to the aid of the tottering Assyrian Empire which had for so many years afflicted the people of God; he had slain righteous king Josiah at the pass of Megiddo and deported young Jehoahaz. Even after Carchemish Pharaoh would goad tiny Judah into those suicidal rebellions against Babylon which finally brought about the doom of that country. Thus there is good reason to call Egypt the adversary of God.
Jer. 46:11 describes the Egyptian defeat at Carchemish as a wound for which there is no known cure. Medical sciences advanced further in Egypt than in any other country of antiquity. But search as they may they would not be able to find any medicine which would heal Egypt of the mortal wound received at Carchemish. Even the famed balm of Gilead would avail nothing.[372] The delicate virgin daughter of Egypt is doomed to death as a nation. What a sad day that will be for Pharaoh. Defeat and confusion follow the battle. The cry of the retreating soldiers can be heard throughout the land. In their haste to escape from the battlefield the mighty men of the Egyptian army stumble over one another.
[372] Gilead lies east of the Jordan between the Arnon and Yarmuk rivers.
Jeremiahs prediction of what would take place at Carchemish was marvelously fulfilled. The official Babylonian account of the battle reveals how accurately Jeremiah had foreseen what would transpire there. Concerning Nebuchadnezzar the great prince of Babylon the scribes wrote:
He crossed the river (to go) against the Egyptian army which was situated in Carchemish and . they fought with each other and the Egyptian army withdrew before him. He defeated them in the district of Hamath, so that not a single man escaped to his own country.[373]
[373] Documents from Old Testament Times, op. cit., p. 78.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(7, 8) Who is this that cometh up as a flood? . . .The Hebrew word for flood is used as a proper name almost exclusively (Dan. 12:5-6 being the only exception) for the Nile (e.g., Gen. 41:1-3; Exo. 2:3; Exo. 4:9; Amo. 8:8; Amo. 9:5), and thus the very form of the question points to the answer that follows. The prophet goes back, as an English poet might have done after the destruction of the Spanish Armada, to the time when all the strength of Egypt had been poured forth in the exultation of anticipated victory, as the great river of Egypt poured its waters. The word for rivers, though more general, has a like allusive reference, being used in Exo. 7:19; Exo. 8:5 and Eze. 32:2; Eze. 32:14 for the arms or canals of the Nile.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7, 8. In the preceding verses we have a picture of the army and its defeat, in those which follow the same story is told, but with grander imagery a mighty rising of the whole land of Egypt, even as the floods of their own Nile overspread the land, and then God visits upon that people his overwhelming judgments.
Egypt riseth up like a flood The word for “flood,” here and in the preceding verse, is , ( yeor,) and is thought by some Keil, for instance to be the name of the Nile River taken from the Egyptian into the Hebrew. On the contrary, Furst maintains the Shemitic origin not only of this, but all the other names of the Nile in the Old Testament. Certain it is, that this name is prevailingly applied to the Nile, as in Genesis 41, etc.; Exo 1:22, etc., etc., and just as little doubt is there that the metaphor of this passage comes from the Nile overflow.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 46:7-8. Who is this, &c. The prophet speaks of Necho, and represents the grand preparations which he made to go to the succour of Carchemish. He flattered himself that nothing was capable of resisting the force of his arms. Jeremiah compares him to the inundations of the Nile, and this figure is very frequent in Scripture: see Isa 8:8; Isa 17:12-13. Jer 47:2. Instead of, are moved, Jer 46:7-8 we may read, Gush out, or overflow; and Jer 46:9. Mount ye the horses, pride yourselves in chariots, and let the mighty ones come forth; Cush and Phut handling the shield, and the Ludim expert in the use of the bow.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 46:7 Who [is] this [that] cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
Ver. 7. Who is this that cometh up like a flood? ] Pharaoh with his forces is here notably described, vivo sermonum colore, and compared to an impetuous river, that threateneth to overflow and swallow up all. See Isa 8:7 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
as a flood = = as the river: i.e. the Nile, in flood.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Who: Son 3:6, Son 8:5, Isa 63:1
as a flood: Jer 47:2, Isa 8:7, Isa 8:8, Dan 9:26, Dan 11:22, Amo 8:8, Rev 12:15
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:5 – the floods Psa 90:5 – Thou Psa 93:3 – The floods Psa 124:4 – the waters Dan 11:10 – overflow
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 46:7. Who is this, etc., is a challenging question to Egypt That country relied on its great River Nile for the life of its people as well it might. But it often filled its kings with an undue sense of importance as to their power.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 46:7-10. Who is this that cometh up as a flood Here the king of Egypt is compared to a mighty river, the Nile, or the Euphrates, when it swells above its banks, and threatens to overwhelm the country with ruin and desolation. And he saith I will go up, and will cover the earth With my numerous armies; I will destroy the city Carchemish or Babylon; and the inhabitants thereof Who shall not be able to withstand the powerful force I bring against them. Thus the prophet represents him as beginning his march with all the ostentation and insolence of presumed success. Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots, &c. Here he is exhibited calling aloud to the nations of which his army is composed, giving them the signal for action, and rousing them to deeds of desperate valour; but all in vain: for the time is come for God to avenge himself of his ancient foes: they are doomed to slaughter, to fall a bloody sacrifice on the plains of the north. For, adds the prophet, Jer 46:10, this is the day of the Lord God of hosts That is, as it follows, the day of his vengeance. Hence, the day of the Lord is used in the New Testament to signify the day of judgment, of which all other days of vengeance are the earnests and forerunners. That he may avenge himself of his adversaries Of the idols of Egypt and their worshippers: the Egyptians were some of the first idolaters, and carried idolatry to its greatest height. And the sword shall devour, it shall be satiate, &c. These metaphorical expressions signify the very great slaughter which would be made at that time in the Egyptian army. For the Lord God hath a sacrifice, &c. The slaughter of men in battle, which is by way of punishment for their sins, is called a sacrifice to God, because it makes some kind of satisfaction and atonement to the divine justice. See the margin.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
46:7 Who [is] this [that] cometh up as {f} a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
(f) He derides the boastings of the Egyptians, who thought by their riches and power to have overcome all the world, alluding to the Nile river, which at certain times overflows the country of Egypt.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jeremiah asked who this was who was trying to imitate the Nile River by overwhelming its enemy. Egyptian soldiers evidently thought of themselves as capable of rising in battle-like the Nile River rose during flooding. Pharaoh’s proud and unrealistic intent was to sweep the enemy away (cf. Isa 8:7-8).