Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 46:18
[As] I live, saith the King, whose name [is] the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor [is] among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, [so] shall he come.
18. The foe (unnamed, but meaning Nebuchadnezzar, unless the passage is late, and Alexander the Great is intended; so Schmidt) shall resemble these mountains as standing out conspicuous. Tabor, as rising in the midst of an extensive plain, is more striking than even loftier hills, which have not its advantages in the way of position. Carmel (about 600 feet above the sea) stretches as a long bold promontory into the Mediterranean.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As Tabor is – Omit is. He shall come like a Tabor among the mountains, and like a Carmel by the sea. Tabor rises in the form of a truncated cone to the height of about 1,350 feet above the plain of Esdraelon, its total height above the sea level being 1,805 feet. Its shape and the wide extent of the plain around it make it a far more conspicuous object than other mountains in sight of equal elevation. Similarly, Carmel is a most commanding mountain, because it rises from the edge of the wide expanse of the Mediterranean.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 46:18
As I live, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
The oaths of Jehovah
I. The Divine oaths recorded in Scripture exhibit and declare the glory of the Divine character.
1. As they show forth the infinite condescension of God. He has addressed us not only in the language of authority and goodness, but also actually condescended to confirm His own true sayings by the most solemn oaths, and this He has done, not only upon some one particular occasion, but in numerous instances, and in every variety of form. Sometimes, Jehovah swears by one or the other of His natural perfections. The Lord hath sworn by His right hand, and by the arm of His strength. At other times He swears by one or the other of His moral perfections, as, Once have I sworn by My holiness. At other times by His great name, but the most expressive, as well as the most usual form is that in the text, As I live, saith the Lord God.
2. The Divine oaths furnish a sublime and awful manifestation of the sincere earnestness of the Divine mind in what He declares unto us in His Word, with such an attestation.
3. The Divine oaths exhibit also the benevolent solicitude of God for the welfare of the unworthy creatures whom He thus addresses; or as the apostle expresses it, the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man.
4. The Divine oaths intimate the unchangeableness of the Divine mind in relation to those arrangements in His natural and moral government which were in that manner established and confirmed.
II. The Divine oaths also serve to illustrate the moral character of man, and to exercise a powerful influence on his moral and spiritual interests.
1. They strongly corroborate the fact that the human heart is corrupt and alienated from God. In speaking to His holy angels, who excel in strength, and are swift to do His will, an oath in confirmation of His Word is altogether unnecessary. They know His character too well ever to entertain the slightest suspicion of His truthfulness; but in dealing with fallen and apostate man, He knew it was necessary to confirm His own faithful words by most solemn oaths, pledging His own eternal existence on their truth.
2. They serve also as fearful warnings of the perilous condition of the impenitent and unbelieving soul. Could not an angel have reasonably supposed that in the face of all the declarations and oaths of Jehovah, recorded in the Bible, unbelief on the part of man would have been a moral impossibility? After all, unbelief is the most common sin in the world, and the sin on account of which men generally feel the least compunction; the sin on account of which the Son of God marvelled and was grieved,–men neither marvel nor grieve. Just as if it was a thing of no moment to treat the eternal God as a liar and a perjurer! Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
3. They afford the strongest encouragement to believers in their onward progress to heaven. Christians, during their earthly pilgrimage, have to contend against many things in themselves and in the world, which are calculated to exert a most depressing influence upon their hearts. But they are, nevertheless, favoured with abundant sources of consolation in the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, and in the great and precious truths and promises of the Gospel God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of the promises the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. The firm stability of the ordinances of the covenant made with Noah, is employed to illustrate the stability and unchangeableness of the covenant of redemption. The mountains and the hills are referred to as fit emblems of its eternal immutability. (W. Rees, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. As Tabor is among the mountains] This mountain is situated in the plain of Esdraelon in Galilee, on the confines of the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar, Jos 19:22. It stood by itself, separated from all the other mountains by deep valleys, and is the highest of the whole.
And as Carmel by the sea] Carmel is a mountain on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, on the southern frontier of the tribe of Asher. Were the Egyptians as distinguished for valour and strength as the mountains Tabor and Carmel are for height among the other mountains in their vicinity, they should not be able to stand the shock of the Chaldean army.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, he shall as certainly come and encompass you with his armies as Tabor is encompassed with mountains, and as Carmel is by the sea, or as Barak going down from Mount Tabor destroyed Siseras army, or as surely as the rain came which Elijah first discovered from Mount Carmel, 1Ki 18:41,42. There are other guesses at the sense of this comparison, but the sense is undoubtedly no more than that Nebuchadnezzar should certainly come against Egypt, how vainly soever the Egyptians flattered themselves to the contrary, supposing the time past which the prophet spake of.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. As the mountains Tabor andCarmel tower high above the other hills of Palestine, soNebuchadnezzar (Jer 46:26)when he comes shall prove himself superior to all his foes. Carmelforms a bold promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean. Tabor isthe higher of the two; therefore it is said to be “among themountains“; and Carmel “by the sea.”
the King . . . Lord of hosts(Jer 48:15); in contrast to”Pharaoh king of Egypt . . . but a noise” (Jer46:17). God the true “King . . . the Lord ofhosts,” shall cause Nebuchadnezzar to come. Whereas Pharaohshall not come to battle at the time appointed,notwithstanding his boasts, Nebuchadnezzar shall comeaccording to the prediction of the King, who has all hostsin His power, however ye Egyptians may despise the prediction.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[As] I live, saith the King, whose name [is] the Lord of hosts,…. A greater King than either Nebuchadnezzar or Pharaoh; the Lord of the armies of heaven and earth; and who has them all at his command and service; swears by his life, by himself, because he can swear by no greater, to the truth of what follows; for this is the form of an oath:
surely, as Tabor [is] among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea,
[so] shall he come. Tabor is commonly said to be the mountain on which our Lord was transfigured; but that there is any just foundation for it is not certain. It was a mountain in Galilee, situated on the borders of the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun, Jos 19:12; it was two leagues from Nazareth eastward n; three miles from the lake of Gennesaret; ten miles from Diocaesarea to the east; and two days’ journey from Jerusalem o. Adrichomius p says it was a most beautiful mountain, situated in the midst of the plain of Galilee, remarkable for its roundness, and was about four miles or thirty furlongs high, abounding with vines, olives, and fruit trees, with which it was set all over; and gave to those at sea a most delightful sight at a considerable distance. Our countryman, Mr. Maundrell q, who travelled up it, gives this account of it; that it
“stands by itself in the plain of Esdraelon (the same the Scripture calls the valley of Jezreel); after a very laborious ascent (says he), which took up near an hour, we reached the highest part of the mountain: it has a plain area at top, most fertile and delicious; of an oval figure, extended about one furlong in breadth, and two in length: this area is enclosed with trees on all parts, except towards the south.”
It is called by the Septuagint, Josephus, and other writers, Itabyrium. Carmel is with great propriety called “Carmel by the sea”; it was situated on the border of the tribe of Asher; and near to it was the river Kishon, Jos 19:26. So Mr. Maundrell r says,
“we arrived in two hours at that ancient river, the river Kishon, which cuts his way down the middle of the plain of Esdraelon; and then, continuing his course close by the side of Mount Carmel, falls into the sea at a place called Caypha;”
by which it appears that the mount was near the sea; and Pliny s calls it a promontory, and places it on the Phoenician shore; on which he says were the promontory Carmel, and a town upon the mountain of the same name, formerly called Ecbatana. Adrichomius t gives it the name of “Carmel of the sea”; and says it was a very high mountain, and woody, abounding with most noble vines, olives, fruit trees, and odoriferous herbs. So Josephus u makes mention of Carmel and the sea together; he says, the Zebulonites obtained land as far as the lake of Genezareth, contiguous to Carmel and the sea; and their being near to each other appears from a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud w; says
“R. Samuel Bar Chain Bar Judah, in the name of R. Chanina, when the orb of the sun begins to set, a man standing on Mount Carmel, and goes down and dips in the great sea (the Mediterranean sea), and goes up again, and eats his “teruma” (or offering), it is a presumption that he dipped in the daytime;”
and which is also evident from the passage in 1Ki 18:42; where Elijah and his servant are said to be on the top of Mount Carmel, and from thence he bid his servant look towards the sea: now these mountains so situated are taken notice of, either to show the manner of the king of Babylon’s coming against Egypt; that as Tabor and Carmel were high mountains in the land of Israel, so should Nebuchadnezzar lift up his head on high, and come with great pride and haughtiness of spirit against the Egyptians; or rather the certainty of his coming, that he should come as sure as those mountains were in the places they were; or, best of all, the certainty of the destruction of the Egyptians, and the truth of this prophecy concerning it; though the Egyptians were as firm, and might think themselves as secure and as immovable, as the above mountains, yet should certainly come to ruin, and the word of God concerning it should stand as firm as they. To this sense agrees the Targum,
“as this word stands firm, that Tabor is among the mountains, and Carmel in the sea, so shall his destruction come.”
The words, according to the accents, may be better rendered, “as Tabor among the mountains, [and Carmel also], he shall come into the sea” x; that is, Pharaoh, though he lift up his head as high as Tabor and Carmel, he shall be brought low into the depths of the sea; into a most forlorn and deplorable condition, into a very low estate; and perhaps there may be an allusion to the ancient Pharaoh being drowned in the sea; and with this agrees the Syriac version, “Pharaoh shall fall as the fragment of a mountain, and as Carmel, into the midst of the sea”; compare with this Mt 11:23.
n Borchard, Breidenbach, &c. in Lightfoot, Chorograph. on John, vol. 2. p. 495. o Vid. Reland. Palestina Illustrata, l. 1, c, 51, 331, 383. p Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, Zabulon, No. 95. p. 143. q Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 113, 114. Ed. 7. r Ib. p. 57. s Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 19. t Ut supra (Theatrum Terrae Sanctae), Issachar, No. 19. p. 35. u Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22. w T. Bab. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 2. 2. x “quia sicut Tabor in montibus, et sicut Carmel (scil. in montibus est) ita in mare veniet”, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Why did the Prophet say this, except that the Egyptians thought they had escaped, because the time had been delayed? As, then, the length of time had deceived them, thinking, as they did, that God had told what was false, or that he had forgotten what he had predicted by his Prophets, he says, I live, saith Jehovah, that is, by my life; for God here swears by his life, that what he now declares would come. This seems to be the true meaning. Igor did the Prophet speak thus only for the sake of the Egyptians, but also for the sake of the Jews; for we know that it was usual and common with them proudly to assert that what the Prophets had spoken from God’s mouth was all vain: hence that proverbial saying,
“
To-morrow we shall die, let us eat and drink.” (Isa 22:13)
They also called the prophecies burdens, by way of reproach and contempt. As the ungodly promised themselves impunity through God’s forbearance, it was necessary to testify to them what we here read, even that whatever God had threatened would come to pass, though he delayed it for a time. For he suspends his punishment, but his vengeance at length breaks out, when the unbelieving think that all things will turn out prosperously; yea, when they say,
“
Peace and security, then sudden destruction overtakes them.” (1Th 5:3)
By the word מועד, muod, then, the Prophets mean a fixed time, not that they had pointed out a certain day, but that they had spoken of the destruction of Egypt, as though God had already gone forth as the judge.
As, then, they said that the time had passed by, God here swears by his life; and hence he says, whose name is King, Jehovah of hosts God here sets forth his own greatness in opposition to the power of Pharaoh and of all other kings; for prosperity commonly brings pride with it, and those who excel in dignity and power become self-willed and insolent. Hence to repress this haughty insolence, he says, that the name of King, the God of hosts, belongs not properly to any but to himself alone.
It shall come, he says, as Tabor is in the mountains, and Carmel in the sea Their exposition is not suitable who say, “As wild beasts fleeing from hunters, pass over from neighboring mountains to Mount Tabor, and as trees cut on Carmel are carried to the sea.” This is an extremely forced explanation, and cannot be adapted to the present passage. For what is the design of the Prophet? even to shew that what he had just declared would be immutable, and so fixed that it could not be reversed, that though the whole world attempted to frustrate what God had decreed, yet nothing could be done. Then he says, As Tabor is in the mountains, that is, As Mount Tabor is surrounded by other mountains, and has there its deep roots, so that it cannot be torn up; and as Carmel is in the sea Now this Carmel was not understood by the Jews to have been that mount where Nabal dwelt, but a mountain not far from Ptolemais, and it was girded and washed by the sea: hence he says, As Carmel is a mountain in the sea. Tabor as well as Carmel remain fixed, and cannot be transferred to another place; so he says, shall this prophecy come to pass; it is valid and shall be accomplished; as though he had said, “This immutable decree cannot be refixed, as Carmel cannot be moved, nor Tabor, so as to be transplanted elsewhere.” It now follows, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) Surely as Tabor is among the mountains . . .Nebuchadnezzar in his high-towering greatness is compared to two of the most conspicuous mountains of Palestine, Tabor rising in solitary greatness 1,350 feet above the plain, Carmel 1,805 feet above the sea. So, in Jer. 22:6, the king of Judah is compared to Gilead and the head of Lebanon.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. As Tabor is among the mountains The overshadowing power of Nebuchadrezzar is the point of the comparison. Tabor, though by no means a high mountain, yet stands out from the surface of the plain below with unusual boldness, and so is conspicuous in all directions. Carmel is a bold, lofty promontory, standing out above the Mediterranean in a most imposing manner. Both are fit types of that formidable Babylonian who had come to stand forth so loftily above the common level of the world.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 46:18. Surely, &c. Surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come. Or, as sure as that Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, it shall come to pass. The first sense seems preferable: Houbigant explains it thus: “As much as Tabor overtops all other mountains, so much shall the Chaldeans be superior to the Egyptians; and as the waves of the sea roar in vain at the foot of mount Carmel, so shall the Egyptian waves rage in vain.” See Jer 46:8.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 46:18 [As] I live, saith the King, whose name [is] the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor [is] among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, [so] shall he come.
Ver. 18. As I live. ] Formula iurandi elliptica, et Deo propria. Let none presume to swear in that sort.
Surely as Tabor is among the mountains.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
saith the King = [is] the King’s oracle. Compare Jer 48:15.
the LORD of hosts. See note on Jer 6:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
saith: Jer 10:10, Jer 44:26, Jer 48:15, Jer 51:17, Isa 47:4, Isa 48:2, Mal 1:14, Mat 5:35, 1Ti 1:17
Tabor: Jos 19:22, Jdg 4:6, Psa 89:12
Carmel: 1Ki 18:42, 1Ki 18:43
Reciprocal: Jos 19:26 – Carmel Jdg 4:12 – mount Tabor 1Ki 18:19 – mount Carmel Psa 95:3 – a great Jer 31:35 – The Lord Jer 48:18 – daughter Jer 51:57 – the king Eze 33:11 – As I live Hos 5:1 – Tabor Zep 2:9 – as I Zec 14:16 – the King 1Ti 6:15 – who
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 46:18. Tabor was a high mountain and Carmel was a prominent range in the land of Palestine. Their impressive existence is used as an illustration of the surety and force of the king of Babylon when he comes against Egypt.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 46:18. As I live saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts He, before whom the mightiest kings on earth, though gods to us, are but as grasshoppers; he hath said and sworn what follows; Surely as Tabor, &c. As surely as Tabor is among the mountains and Carmel by the sea, so surely shall the conqueror of Egypt come. Or, though Egypt were as inaccessible as the top of Tabor, and begirt with the sea like Carmel, yet the enemy should come upon her, and make an entire conquest of her. Houbigant paraphrases the clause thus, As much as Tabor overtops all other mountains, so much shall the Chaldeans be superior to the Egyptians; and as the waves of the sea roar in vain at the foot of mount Carmel, so shall the Egyptians waves rage in vain. Blaney understands the clause in nearly the same sense, observing, Tabor and Carmel were two of the most considerable mountains in the land of Israel. Carmel formed the principal headland all along the sea-coast. Nebuchadnezzar is compared to these on account of his superiority over all others.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
46:18 [As] I live, saith the King, whose name [is] the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor [is] among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, [so] shall {p} he come.
(p) That is, that the Egyptians will be destroyed.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The true King, Yahweh of Hosts, promised that an enemy would come against Egypt, and it would be as imposing as a mountain. Mount Tabor, which stood 1,800 feet tall and towered over the Jezreel Valley below, and Mount Carmel, which rose 1,700 feet beside the Mediterranean Sea, were such mountains.