Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 50:36

A sword [is] upon the liars; and they shall dote: a sword [is] upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.

36. boasters ] better than mg. boastings. The reference is to prophets and diviners who promised permanent empire to Babylon.

dote ] The same word is rendered are foolish in Jer 5:4.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Liars – Soothsayers, fortune-tellers.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote: the word here translated liars is by some translated bars, by some liars; and in the Hebrew it hath both significations; which makes some think it is to be understood of the chief men, who are the props, stays, and bars of a place, whose wisdom God threatens should fail them, so as they should dote, and show themselves fools. Others translating it liars as we do, understand it of their soothsayers and wizards, whom he calls liars, because they divined false, and saith they should dote, not foreseeing what should be.

A sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed: and though they were full of valiant, mighty men, yet their hearts should fail them when this day came, and all be destroyed amongst the rest.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

36. liarsThose whom he beforetermed “wise men,” he here calls “liars”(impostors), namely, the astrologers (compare Isa 44:25;Rom 1:21-25; 1Co 1:20).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

A sword [is] upon the liars,…. Some render it “bars” m, as the word sometimes signifies; and interpret it of great men, who are the strength and security of cities and commonwealths; but these are mentioned both before and after. The Targum renders it “diviners”; and so Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it n; of which there were many among the Chaldeans, who were a lying set of men, who imposed upon and deceived the people; these with their divinations and soothsayings could not save the land, nor themselves, from the devouring sword; nay, their sorceries and divinations were the cause of the ruin of it; see

Isa 47:9;

and they shall dote; or, that they may “become foolish” o; be infatuated, and act a mad part, and be at their wits’ end; not knowing what course to take for their own safety, and much less be able to give direction and advice to others:

a sword [is] upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed; the soldiers and their officers, the most valiant and courageous of them; these would be in the utmost fright and consternation at the approach of the enemy; especially when they perceived the city taken, and the carnage made of the king and his nobles.

m “vectes”; so some in Gataker. n “Divinos”, V. L. Vatablus, Tigurine version, Calvin, Pagninus; so R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 84. o “stultescant”, Schmidt; “ut stulte agant”, Piscator; “et insanient”, Pagninus, Montanus.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He repeats the same thing, but in other words; and in the first clause he mentions diviners whom he before called wise men; and he calls them now by their true and proper name; for בדים , bedim, mean mendacious men as well as falsehoods. He then calls those now impostors to whom he conceded before the name of wise men. But when he called them wise men, he spoke according to the common opinion, and he was unwilling to contend with the Chaldeans as to the character of their wisdom: he, however, at the same time made known the impositions of those who boasted that they had a familiar intercourse with God and angels, whilst they pronounced by the stars what was to be. (72) That art itself is indeed worthy of praise, were men to preserve moderation. But as the curiosity of men is insatiable, so they wandered here and there, and overleaped all limits, and thus perverted the whole order of nature. The Chaldeans, then, were not genuine, but, on the contrary, spurious astrologers.

This is the reason why the Prophet calls them now liars; for we have before seen, that it was a mere imposition, when the Chaldeans held that the whole life of man is subject to the influence of the stars. Hence he exhorted the faithful to fear no dangers from the stars. It is then no wonder that the Prophet now charges all the diviners with falsehoods, who yet proudly arrogated to themselves the name of wise men, they shall be infatuated, he says. The verb יאל, ial, means indeed to begin, but in Niphal it means to become foolish, or to be infatuated. (73)

Then he says, The sword shall be on her valiant men; whom before he called chief men or princes, שרים , sherim, he now calls strong, גברים, geberim, or those who excelled in valor. The amount of the whole is, — that whatever wisdom Babylon arrogated to itself would become folly, and that the valor in which it prided, would vanish away. For he says, that they would be broken in pieces The verb חתת, chetat, means to be broken, but as we have elsewhere seen, it is often applied to the mind, and then it means to dread, or to be terrified. He then says, that the valiant would not be able to stand when the sword was upon them, for they would become, as it were, lifeless, or, at least, they would become so effeminate as to think of nothing but flight.

(72) The word is rendered “diviners” by the Vulg., the Syr., and the Targ.; it is left out by the Sept. Some derive it from בדא, to feign, to devise, to invent, the א being left out in בדים, others say that it comes from בד, alone, solitary, separate, so that בדים were the recluse, retirement or seclusion being often the habit of impostors. It is connected, in Isa 44:25, with קסמים, diviners, prognosticators. — Ed.

(73) Events would prove, that they were foolish and ignorant, being not able to foretell the ruin of their own nation, notwithstanding their boast in the knowledge of futurity. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(36) A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote.The Hebrew word for liarsliterally, boastingsimplies the falsehood of folly rather than of purpose. Better, perhaps, the prating fools. The marginal readings chief stays and bars rest on no adequate authority. Here the word applies to the diviners and magicians (comp. Isa. 44:25).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

36. Liars The original word means to babble, to talk at random, and here the sense is soothsayers.

Dismayed Better, confounded.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments