Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 13:4
Take the girdle that thou hast got, which [is] upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
4. hide it there ] in such a way that moisture should have full access to it.
the rock ] If an actual visit to the Euphrates is meant, the part referred to “cannot be anywhere near Babylon, where there are no ‘rocks,’ or rather ‘crags’ but in the upper part of its course, above Carchemish, or even above Samosata, where it still flows between rocky sides.” Dr.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In a hole of the rock – In a cleft of the rock. As there are no fissured rocks in Babylonia, the place where Jeremiah hid the girdle must have been somewhere in the upper part of the river.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. Go to Euphrates, and hide it there] Intending to point out, by this distant place, the country into which they were to be carried away captive.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God having commanded the prophet to procure such a girdle as was before mentioned, and to tie it upon his loins, he a second time comes to him, and commandeth him to take this girdle, and carry it to Euphrates. This was one of the four great rivers that the river out of the garden of Eden divided itself into, Gen 2:10,14. It was the border of the Promised Land, Gen 15:18; Deu 1:7; 11:24; 1Ch 5:9. Reubens lot was bounded by it. The prophet was commanded to hide his girdle in the
hole of a
rock in that river. But why there? Were there not other places nearer where the prophet might have hid it? It is judged by some that this command was also to signify unto them that they should be carried out of their own borders into captivity; or rather, that they had corrupted, and were become rotten, by doing after the fashions and manners of the heathens, who lived on the other side of Euphrates always, but having (a hundred years before this) captivated the ten tribes, lived also on this side of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. EuphratesIn order tosupport the view that Jeremiah’s act was outward, HENDERSONconsiders that the Hebrew Phrath here is Ephratha, theoriginal name of Beth-lehem, six miles south of Jerusalem, a journeyeasy to be made by Jeremiah. The non-addition of the word “river,”which usually precedes Phrath, when meaning Euphrates, favorsthis view. But I prefer English Version. The Euphrates isspecified as being near Babylon, the Jews future place of exile.
holetypical of theprisons in which the Jews were to be confined.
the rocksomewell-known rock. A sterile region, such as was that to which the Jewswere led away (compare Isa 7:19)[GROTIUS].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is upon thy loins,…. Either he is bid to take it off his loins, on which it was; or to go with it on them; seeing the taking it off does not seem absolutely necessary; and go with it to the place directed to in the following words:
and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock; by the river side, where the waters, coming and going, would reach and wet it, and it drying again, would rot the sooner. This signifies the carrying of the Jews captive to Babylon, by which city the river Euphrates ran, and the obscure state and condition they would be in there; and where all their pride and glory would be marred, as afterwards declared.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) Go to Euphrates.The Hebrew word Phrath is the same as that which, everywhere else in the O.T., is rendered by the Greek name for the river, Euphrates. It has been suggested (1) that the word means river generally, or rushing water, applied by way of pre-eminence to the great river and therefore that it may have been used here in its general sense; and (2) that it may stand here for Ephratah, or Bethlehem, as the scene of Jeremiahs symbolic actions, the place being chosen on account of its suggestive likeness to Euphrates. These conjectures, however, have no other basis than the assumed improbability of a double journey of two hundred and fifty miles, and this, as has been shown, can hardly be weighed as a serious element in the question. In Jeremiah 51 there can be no doubt that the writer means Euphrates. It may be noted, too, as a coincidence confirming this view, that Jeremiah appears as personally known to Nebuchadnezzar in Jer. 39:11. Those who make Ephratah the scene of what is here recorded, point to the caves and clefts in the rocky region between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea as agreeing with the description. On the other hand, the form Prath is nowhere found as substituted for the familiar Ephratah.
A hole of the rock.Better, cleft. In the lower part of its course the Euphrates flows through an alluvial plain, and the words point therefore to some part of its upper course above Pyl, where its course is through a valley more or less rocky.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Euphrates The future scene of the captivity. In most other places in the Bible (Jer 51:63; 2Ch 35:20, and perhaps Gen 2:14, being the only exceptions) this name is associated with Nahar, ( ,) hence some have conjectured that the name is here used in a special sense. For instance, some have conjectured that it is used for Ephrath Bethlehem, with the first weak letter omitted, so that the command would be, Go to Bethlehem. But this is violent and without warrant, and misses the significance of the locality. Ewald conjectures that the word is from the Arabic for water-fissure; “a view,” says Keil, “requiring no serious refutation.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 13:4. Go to Euphrates Many commentators have doubted respecting this particular, and have not thought it possible that the prophet should thus have gone backwards and forwards to the banks of the Euphrates; accordingly they have given different interpretations of the word. Bochart supposes that Euphrata is meant; and all the difficulty, says Houbigant, will be removed, if you read it, pherath, according to the Hebrew, thereby understanding some neighbouring place, where Jeremiah might commodiously hide his girdle, and bring it back again at the command of the Lord. See Boch. in Phaleg. Dissert. de Transportatione Jesu Christi in Montem, p. 954. But I apprehend there is no reason to take these symbolical actions in the letter. Many of them unquestionably passed in vision; and it is most probable, that the present was of this sort. In this view the parable loses none of its force; and we may then with propriety understand the Euphrates to be literally meant, which certainly best agrees with the parable, and is significative of the nation to which this apostate people was to be carried captive. See Dr. Waterland’s Script. Vind. part. 3: p. 72.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 13:4 Take the girdle that thou hast got, which [is] upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
Ver. 4. Arise, go to Euphrates. ] A river which ran by Babylon, six hundred and fourscore miles from Jerusalem. The prophet’s journey therefore thither seemeth to have been but visional, as was Isaiah’s going barefoot, Hosea’s marriage with a whore, Ezekiel’s lying on one side three hundred and ninety days together; his journey from Chaldea to Jerusalem. Eze 8:3-4
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah’s Eighth Prophecy (see book comments for Jeremiah).
Euphrates. On the road to Babylon, this river would be first met with at Carchemish, then held by the Egyptians (Jer 46:2).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
go: Intending to point out, by this distant place, the country, Chaldea, into which they were to be carried captive. Jer 51:63, Jer 51:64, Psa 137:1, Mic 4:10
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 13:4. It is significant that Jeremiah was to hide the girdle near the River Euphrates, for that was the territory in which the people of Judah were to be in captivity.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 13:4. Arise, go to Euphrates God commanded the prophet to go and hide the girdle on the bank of the Euphrates, to signify that the Jews should be carried captive over that river, called the waters of Babylon, Psa 137:1. In the margin of our ancient English Bibles, it is observed, that, because this river Perath, or Euphrates, was far from Jerusalem, it is evident that this was done in a vision. And the generality of the best commentators have been of this opinion; it not being probable that the prophet should have been sent twice upon a journey of such considerable length and difficulty, to the very great loss of his time, merely upon the errands here mentioned, namely, to carry the girdle to the Euphrates, and to fetch it back, when, it seems, every purpose would have been answered altogether as well if the transaction had been represented in vision. Several things, it must be observed, are related in Scripture as actually done, which yet were certainly only performed in visions. One instance we have Jer 25:15-29, where Jeremiah is commanded to take a cup of wine in his hand, and to cause several kings and nations, there enumerated, to drink of it: for it would be a perfect absurdity to believe that he actually went round to all those kings and nations, and made them drink of the contents of his cup. And yet he makes no more distinction in this latter case, than in that now before us, between mental and bodily action. Another remarkable instance we have Gen 15:5, where the text says, that God brought Abraham forth abroad, and bid him tell the stars; and yet it appears, by a subsequent verse, that the sun was not then gone down. Indeed, in all these cases, and in many more that might be mentioned of a similar kind, it made no difference as to the end God had in view, whether the transactions related were visionary or real; for either way they served equally to represent the events which it was Gods pleasure to make known. See Lowth and Blaney.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:4 Take the sash that thou hast bought, which [is] upon thy loins, and arise, go to {a} Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.
(a) Because this river was far from Jerusalem, it is evident that this was a vision, by which it was signified that the Jews would pass over the Euphrates to be captives in Babylon, and there for length of time would seem to be rotten, although they were joined to the Lord before as a girdle about a man.