Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 44:30
Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
Verse 30. Behold I will give Pharaoh-hophra] That is, Pharaoh Apries. How this and the prophecies in the preceding chapter were fulfilled, we learn from ancient historians. The sum of such information is this: the subjects of Pharaoh Apries rebelling, he sent Amasis, one of his generals, to reduce them to their duty. But no sooner had Amasis begun to make his speech, than they fixed a helmet on his head, and proclaimed him king. Amasis accepted the title, and confirmed the Egyptians in their revolt; and the greater part of the nation declaring for him, Apries was obliged to retire into Upper Egypt; and the country being thus weakened by intestine war, was attacked and easily overcome by Nebuchadnezzar, who on quitting it left Amasis his viceroy. After Nebuchadnezzar’s departure, Apries marched against Amasis; but, being defeated at Memphis, was taken prisoner, carried to Sais, and was strangled in his own palace, thus verifying this prophecy. See Herodotus in Euterpe.
Thus Nebuchadnezzar made an easy conquest of the land. He conquered it as easily as “a shepherd puts on his cloak: he went thence in peace,” having clothed himself with its spoils; and left all quiet under a viceroy of his own choosing. The rebellion of Pharaoh’s subjects was the “fire that God kindled in Egypt,” Jer 43:12. And thus was he “delivered into the hands of his enemies,” his revolted people; and “into the hand of him who sought his life,” i.e., Amasis his general. And thus the whole prophecy was literally fulfilled.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Pharaoh was a name common to all the Egyptian kings, as may be learned from Gen 12:15; 41:1; Exo 1:8,11; but they had besides that name another peculiar to them. Whether this Hophra was Vaphres or Apries is not much material; nor is there any certainty when this prophecy was fulfilled; whether
Pharaoh-hophra were (as Herodotus saith) slain by Amasis, one of his subjects who rebelled against him and slew him, (as the aforementioned author tells us,) or Nebuchadnezzar, who Josephus saith came about five years after he had taken Jerusalem, and overran Egypt, and slew this Pharaoh-hophra, whose overthrow was a certain sign of the Jews destruction, it being not like that the king of Babylon should spare these Jews who had fled to this king of Egypt for shelter; considering also that the Jews had slain Gedaliah his deputy governor in Judea.
How God delivered Zedekiah into the hand of the king of Babylon, we read Jer 39. Here now ends the story of these Jews that had fled into Egypt.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. Hophrain HERODOTUScalled Apries. He succeeded Psammis, the successor of Pharaoh-necho,who was beaten by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, on the Euphrates.Amasis rebelled against, and overcame him, in the city Sais.
them that seek hislifeHERODOTUS, incurious accordance with this, records that Amasis, after treatingHophra well at first, was instigated, by persons who thought theycould not be safe unless he were put to death, to strangle him. “Hisenemies” refer to Amasis, c. the words are accurately chosen, soas not to refer to Nebuchadnezzar, who is not mentioned till the endof the verse, and in connection with Zedekiah (Eze 20:3;Eze 30:21). Amasis’ civil warwith Hophra pioneered the way for Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion in thetwenty-third year of his reign [JOSEPHUS,Antiquities, 10.11].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will give Pharaohhophra king of Egypt,…. Pharaoh was a common name of the kings of Egypt, who usually had some surname, by which they were distinguished; and the surname of the then present king of Egypt was Hophra; whom the Septuagint and others call Vaphres; and, Herodotus l Apries. The Targum renders it Pharaoh the broken; and the Syriac version Pharaoh the lame: now it is here predicted as a sign of the destruction of the Jews in Egypt, which should follow after, that God would deliver this king
into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; either into the hands of his rebellious subjects, headed by Amasis, by whom he was kept alive for a while after taken, and then put to death, as Herodotus reports; or rather into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar; for Josephus says m, that he, in the twenty third year of his reign, which was four or five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, having subdued the Syrians, Ammonites, and Moabites, entered Egypt in a hostile manner, and slew the then remaining king, and set up another; and this is confirmed by what follows:
as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that sought his life; in like manner, and as sure as he had done the one, he would do the other; and he puts the Jews in mind of what he had done by him, and which they had full and certain knowledge of; and might from hence conclude that this also would be accomplished, here given as a sign of their own ruin; and which, when they saw come to pass, might know that it was at hand; and, indeed, the king of Egypt, in whom they trusted, being taken by his enemies, and his country wasted, they must in course fall a prey to the conqueror.
l Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 161, 162, 169. & Melpomene, sive l. 4. c. 159. m Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This sign then had a reference to what was future. But the sign given to Moses was retrospective, for the people more clearly saw that God had been their deliverer, because it had been predicted to Moses when yet in the desert that the Israelites would come there; and that place, even Mount Sinai, had been already destined for that worship which afterwards was presented to God. The people at the time considered this, and by calling to mind what had been predicted, they were more and more confirmed as to their faith in God’s favor. Such was also the sign mentioned here, This shall be a sign, says Jeremiah, even that God would deliver Pharaoh-hophrah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar his enemy
Had any one then asked the Prophet why he spoke of the king of Egypt, he would have said, “Now indeed this sign remains as it were buried, its use is not seen; but God will in due time shew that I have been entrusted with his commands, for whatever I predict of the king of Egypt shall be fulfilled.” This sign was also added, for the thing seemed incredible, that is, that Egypt could be conquered, which was strongly fortified on every side. As, then, there was no entrance open for enemies, especially from Pelusium, the Jews thought that they dwelt, as they say, within the circle of the moon, and that they were placed beyond the reach of danger. Since, then, they confided in the protection of Egypt, and thought the land unassailable, this their confidence was laughed to scorn.
And the Prophet expressly mentions the surname of Pharaoh, which was Hophra, the meaning of which is not known to me; and it is probably an Egyptic word, for there is no such word in Hebrew: and it is not known whence the word Pharaoh has come. We know that all the kings of Egypt had this name, as the emperors of Rome were called Caesars, in memory of Julius Caesar. The kings of Egypt were in the same manner called Pharaohs. But each had his own name to distinguish him from the rest; and this king was called Hophra.
Now what the Prophet predicted, if we believe Josephus, was fulfilled about the fourth year after they had departed into Egypt. For Nebuchadnezzar went down again into Egypt, after having spoiled the Moabites and the Ammonites, and at length took possession of that kingdom. But it was a hateful message, when Jeremiah predicted the ruin of the kingdom. Nor is there a doubt, but that danger appeared before his eyes, when he saw that he addressed ungodly men, who a hundred times wished him to be destroyed. When therefore he dared to prophesy against the king, the whole people, and the land, we hence see how great must have been his firmness and his courage, still boldly to discharge his office; for he was not terrified by danger, but promulgated whatever God had committed to him. We then have here a singular example of magnanimity; for the Prophet hesitated not to risk his own life while obeying God.
By saying, I will deliver the king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies, and of them who seek his life, he intimates that there would be fatal enemies, though he speaks only of one enemy, but he connects the army with its head: I will deliver Pharaoh then into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, as I have delivered Zedekiah into the hand of his enemy and of him who sought his life; as though he had said, “The condition of the king of Egypt will not be better than that of Zedekiah.”: For Zedekiah occupied that sacred throne of which God had testified, “Here will I dwell;” and further, “On the throne of David shall one of his posterity ever continue.”
We hence see, that the Prophet reasons from the greater to the less; for if God had not spared King Zedekiah, who was, as it were, a sacred person, nothing better could be hoped for as to the king of Egypt, who reigned only in a manner usual and common. The sum of what is said then is, that the Jews had been already sufficiently taught by facts how true his prophecies were; for he had predicted what at length happened to Zedekiah; but his word was not believed. “It is now the time,” he says, “when the Jews must know that I am God’s faithful servant, as God had added a proof in the case of Zedekiah, which ought to have remained fixed in their memory.” Now, if they thought that the king of Egypt was beyond danger, they ascribed great injustice to God, who had not delivered Zedekiah, who had been anointed in his name, and by his command. This then is the import of the passage.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(30) Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra . . .The fate of the Egyptian king is announced, coming, as it did, before that of the fugitives, as a sign that the prediction of their doom also would in due course be accomplished. The king thus namedthe Apries of Herod. II., 161, 163, 169was the son of Psammis, and reigned for twenty-five years. He attacked Sidon by land and Tyre by sea, presumably before Nebuchadnezzars invasion of Phnicia, and then sent his armies against Cyrene. The issue of that campaign was disastrous, and his subjects revolted. His general, Amasis, who was sent to pacify the rebels, put himself at their head. Apries was deposed, kept in honourable imprisonment at Sais for a time, and afterwards strangled. His reign extended from B.C. 594 to 569. Jeremiah probably delivered his prediction circ. B.C. 580, and it is the last recorded event in his life. A late Christian tradition, resting probably on a Jewish one, states that then, or shortly afterwards, the Egyptian Jews, irritated by his reproaches, rose up against him and stoned him to death. (Tertull. Adv. Gnost, c. 8; Hieron. Adv. Jovin, ii. 37.) In Heb. 11:37 (they were stoned ) we may probably find a reference to his fate as one of the noble army of martyrs.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 44:30. I will give Pharaoh-hophra Pharaoh, as we have often observed, was a name common to all the kings of Egypt. But several of them had some additional epithet to distinguish them from the rest. This prince was Apries, (see the note on chap. Jer 37:5.) whose subjects rebelling, he sent Amasis one of his generals to reduce them to their duty; but no sooner had Amasis begun to make his speech, than they fixed a helmet on his head, and proclaimed him king. Amasis accepted of the title, and confirmed the Egyptians in their rebellion; and the greater part of the nation declaring for him, Apries was obliged to retire into Upper Egypt; and the country, being thus weakened by intestine war, was attacked and easily over-run by Nebuchadrezzar, who, on quitting it, left Amasis his viceroy. After Nebuchadrezzar’s departure, Apries marched against Amasis; but, being defeated at Memphis, was taken prisoner, carried to Sais, and strangled in his own palace; thus verifying this prophesy. See Rollin’s Ancient History, vol. 1: Bishop Newton’s Prophecies, vol. 1: p. 362 and Calmet.
REFLECTIONS.1st, No sufferings will change the heart or conduct, if we continue to resist the calls and drawings of divine grace. If any thing could have deterred a people from idolatry, we might well have thought that what the Jews had suffered would have been abundantly sufficient; yet here we behold them as mad upon their idols as ever. They were now dispersed in the several cities of Egypt; and Jeremiah is ordered,
1. To remind them of their past sins in opposition to the most earnest admonitions, and the consequences which they had beheld. They had seen their cities changed into ruinous heaps, their fruitful country turned into a desart, without man or beast. Their wickedness, especially their idolatries, was the cause thereof; the folly, as well as impiety of which, was amazing, and this aggravated by the repeated admonitions which they had rejected, and the earnest exhortations that they had despised. When God sent by his prophets, saying, Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate, they turned a deaf ear, and persisted in their abominations: therefore was his wrath poured out upon them, and the desolations of the land, as at that day, stood a fearful warning against the like provocations. Note; (1.) Sin is the abominable thing that God hates, and we cannot conceive or speak of it with sufficient detestation of its evil and malignity. (2.) The ministers of God, who warn others of the fearful consequences of sin, must do it with an earnestness and deep concern, such as the case demands. (3.) Judgments upon others should be our warnings: we are doubly culpable to sin, not only against God’s word, but against what our own eyes have seen.
2. He upbraids them with their present idolatries, burning incense to the gods of Egypt, bringing heavy guilt on their consciences, and assured destruction on body and soul, till they should be made a proverb of wickedness and wretchedness, and an execration among all nations. He upbraids them also with their forgetfulness of their fathers’ wickedness, and their own, the cause of all the judgments under which they groaned: unaffected and unhumbled with which, to that very day they persisted in their disobedience to God’s law, and went on from evil to worse, to fill up the measure of their iniquities to the full. Note; (1.) When under judgments the heart grows harder, it is a dire symptom of a reprobate mind. (2.) They who sin against God, sin against their own souls, and bring upon themselves sure and swift destruction.
3. He denounces God’s vengeance on them for these abominations. As many as set their faces to go into Egypt, and were the authors of that pernicious resolution, shall perish there without exception, from the least to the greatest, and by the very judgments that they designed thereby to avoid, which God had brought on Jerusalem: nor should a man of them ever again return unto their own land, as they hoped and desired when they might do it with greater safety than at present, except the few that escaped out of the hands of Johanan. Or it intimates how much worse their condition would be in Egypt, than that of the captives in Babylon: some of these should come back again, but none shall return from Egypt. Note; (1.) They who will not be ruled by God’s word, will be broken by his rod. (2.) They who will take their affairs out of God’s hands, and think their own projects more to be depended on than God’s promises and providence, will meet with sure disappointment.
2nd, Never surely appeared more daring effrontery, and hardened impenitence.
1. They avow their determined resolution to abide in their idolatries, and follow the devices of their own hearts. The women had been chiefly engaged in the idolatrous rites, and their husbands approve and vindicate their conduct. Note; Custom in sin makes men daring and impudent.
2. They support their determination by many pretended arguments. They had authority and antiquity to recommend the practice: their fathers did so; their kings patronized it; they had numbers on their side; their whole land had made public profession of serving the queen of heaven, the moon, or the whole celestial host: nay, they affirm, that then they had plenty of all good things, and they date all their miseries from their neglect of their idols’ service. Note; (1.) Antiquity, authority, numbers, &c. are no arguments to vindicate any practice which the word of God forbids. (2.) Such is the deceivableness of unrighteousness, that the very methods which God takes to separate men from their sins, they urge as arguments to harden themselves therein.
3. The women, regarding themselves as most aimed at by the prophet’s rebuke, vindicate themselves by pleading their husbands’ countenance and approbation. Absurd pretence! as if that could authorize them to transgress the law of God. Note; (1.) Disobedience is duty, when superiors enjoin or countenance what God forbids.
(2.) It is grievous, when they who should assist each other in the way to heaven are mutual tempters, and harden each other in their sins.
3rdly, The prophet is neither intimidated by their numbers, nor discouraged by their obstinacy. If they will not reform, at least they shall hear their doom.
1. He contradicts the false assertion which they had made, that all their troubles arose from their neglecting the service of their idols, and shews them their real origin. It is true, God did long bear with their provocations, in hopes that they would repent; but he did not overlook or forget them: no; he saw, and, unable longer to forbear poured out his vengeance upon them for their wickedness, their idolatries, their rebellion, and disobedience to his warnings; for which their land was a desolation, and themselves a curse at that day.
2. God abandons them to the sin and ruin which they have chosen; and this is addressed particularly to the women, who were chief in the transgression. They had declared their determined purpose of persisting in their abominations, and fulfilling their vows to the queen of heaven; as if their being under a vow to do evil could lay them under an obligation to perform it: therefore he gives them up to their own delusions; and since they said, “Depart,” he will depart, confirming it with an oath, to shew the immutability of his counsel concerning them. They will lose all the remains of religion; they will no more swear by his name: either he will utterly consume all the Jews in Egypt by famine and the sword, and not leave a man to profane his holy name; or they shall be left to themselves, and sink into the idolatries of Egypt, incorporate with that nation, and forget the very mention of Israel’s God. A few indeed, who, as Baruch, stood firm amid the general apostacy, shall escape this destruction, and return again to their own land; and they shall see whose word shall stand, theirs, who promised the idolaters impunity, or his, who threatened them with ruin. Note; (1.) A greater curse cannot light upon the sinner, than to be given up of God to the devices of his own heart. (2.) However men flatter themselves, it will soon be proved whose word shall stand, God’s or theirs.
3. God gives them a sign of the certainty of the threatened judgments. The king of Egypt, their protector, shall be shortly given into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands, as Zedekiah had been; and, so far from defending them, should be ruined himself. Note; They who for human confidences forsake the living God, shall find them no better than broken reeds.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER! we are engaged, in the perusal of this Chapter, in a most solemn and awful history. Israel, given up to idolatry, and their neck hardened against all the calls of the Lord’s long suffering and patience. Let us pause over it, and remark the tremendous and fearful condition of such a state. There is, indeed, in every man, by nature, a blindness, an ignorance, and even an enmity, against God. Our wills, our inclinations, our faculties, are all on the side of rebellion; and until an act of grace is wrought upon the heart, there is none that will seek after God. But, when added to this, a judicial blindness follows, this is most alarming indeed! Thus the Lord by his servant proclaims, My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. Intimating the natural hardness and impenitency of the heart, shut up in unbelief. So I gave them up unto their own heart’s lusts; and they walked in their own counsels. As if the Lord had said, Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone! Oh! precious, precious Lord Jesus! thou that art the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof! blessed forever be thy gracious interposition, in coming to take away sin by the sacrifice of thyself! Lord! open our hearts, and keep them open by thy grace, that they may never more be shut against thee!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 44:30 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaohhophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
Ver. 30. Behold, I will give Pharaohhophra. ] Called also Vaphres, and by Herodotus, Apries, being nephew to Necho, who slew Josiah. A very proud prince he saith Apries was, slain by Amasis, who succeeded him. But others gather from this text, and from Eze 29:19 ; Eze 31:11 ; Eze 31:15 ; Eze 31:18 , that he was slain by Nebuchadnezzar. Josephus a also and Jerome say as much. b
a Antiq., lib. x. cap. 11.
b Jerome in Thren., cap. 4.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
them. Not Nebuchadnezzar; but, as the monuments now tell us, the soldiers who revolted against Hophra. He was delivered into their hands, as Zedekiah had already been delivered into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.
life = soul. Hebrew. nephesh.
as = according as.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will: Jer 43:9-13, Jer 46:13-26, Eze 29:1 – Eze 30:26, Eze 31:18, Eze 32:1-32
as I: Jer 34:21, Jer 39:5-7, Jer 52:8-11, 2Ki 25:4-7
Reciprocal: Isa 19:1 – Egypt Isa 31:2 – against the help Jer 24:8 – and them Jer 34:20 – and into Jer 44:29 – a sign Jer 46:26 – I will Eze 5:4 – take Eze 29:2 – Pharaoh Eze 29:3 – I am
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
44:30 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will {p} give Pharaohhophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
(p) He shows the means by which they would be destroyed to assure them of the certainty of the plague and yet they remain still in their obstinacy till they perish: for Josephus writes that five years after the taking of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar the younger having overcome the Moabites and the Ammonites went against Egypt and slew the king and so brought these Jews and others into Babylon.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
13
CHAPTER XVII
EGYPT
Jer 43:8-13, Jer 44:30, Jer 46:1-28
“I will visit Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings: even Pharaoh and all them that trust in him.” Jer 46:25
THE kings of Egypt with whom Jeremiah was contemporary-Psammetichus II, Pharaoh Necho, and Pharaoh Hophra-belonged to the twenty-sixth dynasty. When growing distress at home compelled Assyria to loose her hold on her distant dependencies, Egypt still retained something of her former vigorous elasticity. In the rebound from subjection under the heavy hand of Sennacherib, she resumed her ancient forms of life and government. She regained her unity and independence, and posed afresh as an equal rival with Chaldea for the supremacy of Western Asia. At home there was a renascence of art and literature, and, as of old, the wealth and devotion of powerful monarchs restored the ancient temples and erected new shrines of their own.
But this revival was no new growth springing up with a fresh and original life from the seeds of the past; it cannot rank with the European Renascence of the fifteenth century. It is rather to be compared with the reorganisations by which Diocletian and Constantine prolonged the decline of the Roman Empire, the rally of a strong constitution in the grip of mortal disease. These latter-day Pharaohs failed ignominiously in their attempts to recover the Syrian dominion of the Thothmes and Rameses; and, like the Roman Empire in its last centuries, the Egypt of the twenty-sixth dynasty surrendered itself to Greek influence and hired foreign mercenaries to fight its battles. The new art and literature were tainted by pedantic archaism. According to Brugsch, “Even to the newly created dignities and titles, the return to ancient times had become the general watchword. The stone door posts of this age reveal the old Memphian style of art, mirrored in its modern reflection after the lapse of four thousand years.” Similarly Meyer tells us that apparently the Egyptian state was reconstituted on the basis of a religious revival, somewhat in the fashion of the establishment of Deuteronomy by Josiah.
Inscriptions after the time of Psammetichus are written in archaic Egyptian of a very ancient past; it is often difficult to determine at first sight whether inscriptions belong to the earliest or latest period of Egyptian history.
The superstition that sought safety in an exact reproduction of a remote antiquity could not, however, resist the fascination of Eastern demonology. According to Brugsch, (2:293) in the age called the Egyptian Renascence the old Egyptian theology was adulterated with Graeco-Asiatic elements – demons and genii of whom the older faith and its purer doctrine had scarcely an idea; exorcisms became a special science, and are favourite themes for the inscriptions of this period. Thus, amid many differences, there are also to be found striking resemblances between the religious movements of the period in Egypt and amongst the Jews, and corresponding difficulties in determining the dates of Egyptian inscriptions and of sections of the Old Testament.
This enthusiasm for ancient custom and tradition was not likely to commend the Egypt of Jeremiahs age to any student of Hebrew history. He would be reminded that the dealings of the Pharaohs with Israel had almost always been to its hurt; he would remember the Oppression and the Exodus-how, in the time of Solomon, friendly intercourse with Egypt taught that monarch lessons in magnificent tyranny, how Shishak plundered the Temple, how Isaiah had denounced the Egyptian alliance as a continual snare to Judah. A Jewish prophet would be prompt to discern the omens of coming ruin in the midst of renewed prosperity on the Nile.
Accordingly at the first great crisis of the new international system; in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, either just before or just after the battle of Carchemish-it matters little which-Jeremiah takes up his prophecy against Egypt. First of all, with an ostensible friendliness which only masks his bitter sarcasm, he invites the Egyptians to take the field:-
“Prepare buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
Harness the horses to the chariots, mount the chargers,
Stand forth armed cap-a-pie for battle;
Furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail.”
This great host with its splendid equipment must surely conquer. The prophet professes to await its triumphant return; but he sees instead a breathless mob of panic-stricken fugitives, and pours upon them the torrent of his irony:-
“How is it that I behold this?
These heroes are dismayed and have turned their backs;
Their warriors have been beaten down;
They flee apace, and do not look behind them:
Terror on every side-is the utterance of Jehovah.”
Then irony passes into explicit malediction:-
“Let not the swift flee away, nor the warrior escape;
Away northward, they stumble and fall by the river Euphrates.”
Then, in a new strophe, Jeremiah again recurs in imagination to the proud march of the countless hosts of Egypt:
“Who is this that riseth up like the Nile,
Whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?
Egypt riseth up like the Nile,
His waters toss themselves like the rivers.
And he saith, I will go up and cover the land”
(like the Nile in flood);
“I will destroy the cities and their inhabitants”
(and, above all other cities, Babylon).
Again the prophet urges them on with ironical encouragement:-
“Go up, ye horses; rage, ye chariots;
Ethiopians and Libyans that handle the shield,
Lydians that handle and bend the bow”
(the tributaries and mercenaries of Egypt).
Then, as before, he speaks plainly of coming disaster:
“That day is a day of vengeance for the Lord Jehovah Sabaoth, whereon He will avenge Him of His adversaries”
(a day of vengeance upon Pharaoh Necho for Megiddo and Josiah).
“The sword shall devour and be sated, and drink its fill of their blood:
For the Lord Jehovah Sabaoth hath a sacrifice in the northern land, by the river Euphrates.”
In a final strophe, the prophet turns to the land left bereaved and defenceless by the defeat at Carchemish:-
“Go up to Gilead and get thee balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt:
In vain dost thou multiply medicines; thou canst not be healed.
The nations have heard of thy shame, the earth is full of thy cry:
For warrior stumbles against warrior; they fall both together.”
Nevertheless the end was not yet. Egypt was wounded to death, but she was to linger on for many a long year to be a snare to Judah and to vex the righteous soul of Jeremiah. The reed was broken, but it still retained an appearance of soundness, which more than once tempted the Jewish princes to lean upon it and find their hands pierced for their pains. Hence, as we have seen already, Jeremiah repeatedly found occasion to reiterate the doom of Egypt, of Nechos successor, Pharaoh Hophra, and of the Jewish refugees who had sought safety under his protection. In the concluding part of chapter 46, a prophecy of uncertain date sets forth the ruin of Egypt with rather more literary finish than in the parallel passages.
This word of Jehovah was to be proclaimed in Egypt, and especially in the frontier cities, which would have to bear the first brunt of invasion:-
“Declare in Egypt, proclaim in Migdol, proclaim in Noph and Tahpanhes:
Say ye, Take thy stand and be ready, for the sword hath devoured round about thee.
Why hath Apis fled and thy calf not stood?
Because Jehovah overthrew it.”
Memphis was devoted to the worship of Apis, incarnate in the sacred bull; but now Apis must succumb to the mightier divinity of Jehovah, and his sacred city become a prey to the invaders.
“He maketh many to stumble; they fall one against another.
Then they say, Arise, and let us return to our own people
And to our native land, before the oppressing sword.”
We must remember that the Egyptian armies were largely composed of foreign mercenaries. In the hour of disaster and defeat these hirelings would desert their employers and go home.
“Give unto Pharaoh king of Egypt the name. Crash; he hath let the appointed time pass by.”
The form of this enigmatic sentence is probably due to a play upon Egyptian names and titles. When the allusions are forgotten, such paronomasia naturally results in hopeless obscurity. The “appointed time” has been explained as the period during which Jehovah gave Pharaoh the opportunity of repentance, or as that within which he might have submitted to Nebuchadnezzar on favourable terms.
“As I live, is the utterance of the King, whose name is Jehovah Sabaoth,
One shall come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.”
It was not necessary to name this terrible invader; it could be no other than Nebuchadnezzar.
“Get thee gear for captivity, O daughter of Egypt, that dwellest in thine own land:
For Noph shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up and left without inhabitants.
Egypt is a very fair heifer, but destruction is come upon her from the north.”
This tempest shattered the Greek phalanx in which Pharaoh trusted:-
“Even her mercenaries in the midst of her are like calves of the stall;
Even they have turned and fled together, they have not stood:
For their day of calamity hath come upon them, their day of reckoning.”
We do not look for chronological sequence in such a poem, so that this picture of the flight and destruction of the mercenaries is not necessarily later in time than their overthrow and contemplated desertion in Jer 46:15. The prophet is depicting a scene of bewildered confusion; the disasters that fell thick upon Egypt crowd into Giesebrecht, his vision without order or even coherence. Now he turns again to Egypt herself:-
“Her voice goeth forth like the (low hissing of) the serpent;
For they come upon her with a mighty army, and with axes like woodcutters.”
A like fate is predicted in Isa 29:4 for “Ariel, the city where David dwelt”:-
“Thou shalt be brought low and speak from the ground;
Thou shalt speak with a low voice out of the dust;
Thy voice shall come from the ground, like that of a familiar spirit,
And thou shalt speak in a whisper from the dust.”
Thus too Egypt would seek to writhe herself from under the heel of the invader: hissing out the while her impotent fury, she would seek to glide away into some safe refuge amongst the underwood. Her dominions, stretching far up the Nile, were surely vast enough to afford her shelter somewhere: but no! the “woodcutters” are too many and too mighty for her:-
“They cut down her forest-it is the utterance of Jehovah for it is impenetrable;
For they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.”
The whole of Egypt is overrun and subjugated; no district holds out against the invader, and remains unsubjugated to form the nucleus of a new and independent empire.
“The daughter of Egypt is put to shame; she is delivered into the hand of the northern people.”
Her gods share her fate; Apis had succumbed at Memphis, but Egypt had countless other stately shrines whose denizens must own the overmastering might of Jehovah:-
“Thus saith Jehovah Sabaoth, the God of Israel:
Behold, I will visit Amon of No,
And Pharaoh, and Egypt, and all her gods and kings,
Even Pharaoh and all who trust in him.”
Amon of No, or Thebes, known to the Greeks as Ammon and called by his own worshippers Amen, or “the hidden one,” is apparently mentioned with Apis as sharing the primacy of the Egyptian divine hierarchy. On the fall of the twentieth dynasty, the high priest of the Theban Amen became king of Egypt, and centuries afterwards Alexander the Great made a special pilgrimage to the temple in the oasis of Ammon and was much gratified at being there hailed son of the deity.
Probably the prophecy originally ended with this general threat of “visitation” of Egypt and its human and divine rulers. An editor, however, has added, from parallel passages, the more definite but sufficiently obvious statement that Nebuchadnezzar and his servants were to be the instruments of the Divine visitation.
A further addition is in striking contrast to the sweeping statements of Jeremiah:-
“Afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old.”
Similarly, Ezekiel foretold a restoration for Egypt:-
“At the end of forty years, I will gather the Egyptians, and will cause them to returnto their native land: and they shall be there a base kingdom: it shall be the basest of the kingdoms.” {Eze 29:13-15}
And elsewhere we read yet more gracious promises to Egypt:-
“Israel shall be a third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land: whom Jehovah Sabaoth shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.” {Isa 19:25}
Probably few would claim to discover in history any literal fulfilment of this last prophecy. Perhaps it might have been appropriated for the Christian Church in the days of Clement and Origen. We may take Egypt and Assyria as types of heathendom, which shall one day receive the blessings of the Lords people and of the work of His hands. Of political revivals and restorations Egypt has had her share. But less interest attaches to these general prophecies than to more definite and detailed predictions; and there is much curiosity as to any evidence which monuments and other profane witnesses may furnish as to a conquest of Egypt and capture of Pharaoh Hophra by Nebuchadnezzar.
According to Herodotus, Apries (Hophra) was defeated and imprisoned by his successor Amasis, afterwards delivered up by him to the people of Egypt, who forthwith strangled their former king. This event would be an exact fulfilment of the words, “I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life,” {Jer 44:30} if it were not evident from parallel passages {Jer 46:25} that the Book of Jeremiah intends Nebuchadnezzar to be the enemy into whose hands Pharaoh is to be delivered. But Herodotus is entirely silent as to the relations of Egypt and Babylon during this period; for instance, he mentions the victory of Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo-which he miscalls Magdolium-but not his defeat at Carehemish. Hence his silence as to Chaldean conquests in Egypt has little weight. Even the historians explicit statement as to the death of Apries might be reconciled with his defeat and capture by Nebuchadnezzar, if we knew all the facts. At present, however, the inscriptions do little to fill the gap left by the Greek historian; there are, however, references which seem to establish two invasions of Egypt by the Chaldean king, one of which fell in the reign of Pharaoh Hophra. But the spiritual lessons of this and the following prophecies concerning the nations are not dependent on the spade of the excavator or the skill of the decipherers of hieroglyphics and cuneiform script; whatever their relation may be to the details of subsequent historical events, they remain as monuments of the inspired insight of the prophet into the character and destiny alike of great empires and petty states. They assert the Divine government of the nations, and the subordination of all history to the coming of the Kingdom of God.