Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 9:22
Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvest man, and none shall gather [them].
22. Speak, Thus saith the Lord ] The words are not found in LXX and they break the connexion.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 22. And as the handful after the harvestman] The reapers, after having cut enough to fill their hand, threw it down; and the binders, following after, collected those handfuls, and bound them in sheaves. Death is represented as having cut down the inhabitants of the land, as the reapers do the corn; but so general was the slaughter, that there was none to bury the dead, to gather up these handfuls; so that they lay in a state of putrescence, as dung upon the open field.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Speak, Thus saith the Lord; lest they should think these things would never be, cease not to tell them from me that they shall certainly come to pass, viz. what was said before, and what is said now in this verse (these words, Speak, Thus saith the Lord, being best read in a parenthesis).
The carcasses of men, Heb. a carcass of a man, noting here and there a scattered carcass.
Shall fall as dung upon the open field; as Jezebel was, 2Ki 9:37, exposed to all contempt, strewed up and down on the superficies of the earth, Heb. face of the field, and be offensive by their stench to all that pass by, Jer 44:12.
As the handful after the harvest man; either laid in heaps by death, as the harvestman doth his cocks of hay or sheaves of corn; or rather, they shall be no more regarded than a few scattered ears that drop out of the reapers hand, which either lie on the ground, and are eaten by birds, or trod to dirt by beasts; thus God would pour contempt upon them, which must needs be grievous to so proud a people as the Jews were.
None shall gather them; none shall have so much respect to them, or compassion of them, as to afford burial, Jer 8:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. saith the Lordcontinuingthe thread of discourse from Jer9:20.
dung (Jer8:2).
handful . . . none . . .gather themimplying that the handful has been so trodden as tobe not worth even the poor gleaner’s effort to gather it. Orthe Eastern custom may be referred to: the reaper cuts the grain andis followed by another who gathers it. This grain shall not beworth gathering. How galling to the pride of the Jews to hear that soshall their carcasses be trodden contemptuously under foot!
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Speak, thus saith the Lord,…. These are the words of the Lord to Jeremiah, to go on with his prophecy in his name; so the Targum,
“prophesy, thus saith the Lord:”
even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field; or, “upon the face of the field” f; this shows the reason why the women are called to mourning, because the men would fall by the sword in the open field, and there lie and rot, and become dung upon it. The Targum is,
“as dung spread upon the face of the field;”
which denotes the great number that should fall, which would cover the face of the field; the condition they should be in; and the contempt and neglect they should be had in:
and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them; as a handful of corn that is forgot, and left by the harvestman; or as ears of corn which are dropped by the reaper, or binder, and are usually gleaned or gathered up by the poor that follow; but in the case referred to, or supposed, are not gathered; so it would be with these people; they should be left upon the ground, like a handful forgot, or like ears of corn dropped, and not gathered up, and there they should lie, and none should bury them.
f “super faciebus agri”, Montanus, Schmidt; “in facie agri”, Cocceius; “in superficie agri”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Though Jeremiah continues the same subject, he yet introduces a preface, — that he had been commanded to declare what he says here; for on account of the strangeness of the event, the prophecy seemed incredible. He might, indeed, have proceeded with the subject, and omitted the words, “Thus saith Jehovah,” and have begun thus: “Fall shall the carcase of man,” etc. But, as I have said, this prophecy seemed to the greatest part as worthless, as though it was a fable: it was therefore necessary to introduce these words, — that he came forth furnished with God’s command; and he at the same time shews that he introduced nothing of his own, but that God himself spoke. We now perceive why these few words were introduced. (254)
He afterwards says, that the carcases of men would be cast forth as dung He speaks by way of reproach, as though he had said, that all would without honor be laid prostrate by their enemies. And he adds a similitude, They shall fall, he says, on the face of the field, that is, everywhere through all the fields shall they fall as dung, which is cast forth, and which excites nausea by its sight and by its odor. Thus the Prophet here denotes foetor and a deformed sight by the comparison of dung: yet we know with what pride were they then filled. This threatening then was to them very disagreeable; but as they flattered themselves in their vices, it was the more necessary to treat them roughly; for thus ought hypocrites to be dealt with, who indulge their own delusions: the more boldly they rise up against God, the more violently ought they to be east down, so that they may at length humble themselves under the mighty hand of God.
He adds another comparison, As a handful, etc. Jerome renders it “hay.” If עמיד omid, were found elsewhere in this sense, I would willingly adopt this meaning; but I rather think that it means those ears of corn which are not gathered while the reapers collect their handfuls. They do not, indeed, leave complete handfuls, nor east them away; but it happens, through carelessness, that a few ears escape them. Then the Prophet says, that the Jews would be like those ears of corn which the reapers pass by and leave behind; and there is no one afterwards to gather them: and those ears of corn which thus remain in the field either rot of themselves, or are devoured by cattle or wild beasts. He then means, that there would be no residue of the people, for all, from the least to the greatest, would be given up to destruction.
This is the meaning; and at the same time he expresses contempt; for when reapers do not collect the whole produce of the field, there are still the poor, who gather the ears of corn; but when they are trodden under foot, and when there is no one to gather them, it betokens contempt; and this is what the Prophet intended to express. It now follows —
(254) Blayney and some others connect דבר with the former verse, and, on the authority of the Septuagint, leave out “thus saith Jehovah.” The Vulgate and the Targum retain the text as we have it, and the Syriac omits only the first word; and there is no MS. in favor of what has been proposed; and the meaning, as here represented by Calvin, is so evident, that no change is at all necessary, —
22. Speak, Thus saith Jehovah, Fall also shall the carcase of man, Like dung on the face of the field, Or like an handful of corn after the reaper, And without any to gather it.
This would be the fate of such as remained in the country, whilst the greatest part had fled into Jerusalem. It is by keeping this distinction in view that the whole passage, from verse the seventeenth, may be rightly understood. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) Speak, Thus saith the Lord.The abrupt opening indicates a new prediction, coming to him unbidden, which he is constrained to utter as a message from Jehovah.
As the handful.The reaper gathered into swathes, or small sheaves, what he could hold in his left hand, as he went on cutting with his sickle. These he threw down as they became too big to hold, and they were left strewn on the field till he returned to gather them up into larger sheaves. So should the bodies of the dead be strewn, the prophet says, on the open field, but there should be none to take them up and bury them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Carcasses of men The burning utterances of the prophet burst forth into one vivid and comprehensive statement a fitting conclusion to this remarkable passage. The dead shall be too many to be buried, as in Jeremiah 8:32, 33. As the reaper lets fall his handful of grain for the gleaner, so death shall cast down his handful, and none shall gather them.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 9:22. Speak, Thus, &c. For it shall come to pass, saith the Lord, that the carcases, &c. Houb.
And as the handful after the harvest-man Behind the reaper. This alludes to the manner of reaping corn in the field, where the reaper, as soon as he has cut what he can hold in his hand, lets it fall, and passes on; but is usually followed by another, who gathers what is cut, and binds it into sheaves. But here it is said, that there would be none to gather; and consequently the corn, after being cut, would lie neglected and rot on the ground, which renders the simile a very apt one.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 9:22 Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather [them].
Ver. 22. Speak, Thus saith the Lord. ] Heb., Speak, it is the Lord’s saying; and therefore thou mayest be bold to speak it. So 1Th 4:15 , “For I say unto you in (or, by) the word of the Lord.”
And as the handful after the harvestman.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Speak. This shows that Jerome’s Hebrew text was unpointed, for he read d-b-r as deber = pestilence, instead of dabar = word, or dabber = speak.
open field. Some codices, with one early printed edition, read “ground”.
none shall gather them. Compare Psa 79:3.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
fall: Jer 7:33, Jer 8:2, Jer 16:4, Jer 25:33, 2Ki 9:37, Psa 83:10, Isa 5:25, Zep 1:17
Reciprocal: Isa 17:5 – as when Jer 6:21 – fathers Jer 14:16 – be cast Jer 19:7 – and their Lam 1:20 – abroad Lam 4:5 – embrace Eze 5:2 – shalt burn Eze 16:5 – but thou Amo 4:10 – the stink Amo 8:3 – many Heb 3:17 – whose
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Men too would die, in the open fields, and lie there uncared for, like dung or like scraps of wheat left after a harvest.
"Here we see Death as the Grim Reaper. The custom was for a reaper to hold in his arm what a few strokes of his sickle had cut. Then he put it down, and behind him another laborer then gathered it into bundles and bound it into a sheaf. So death was to cover the ground with corpses, but the carcasses would lie there unburied because of the paucity of survivors and the great number of dead." [Note: Feinberg, p. 444. Cf. Romans 6:23.]