Jeremiah 6:23

He adds other particulars, in order more fully to render the Chaldeans objects of dread: They shall lay hold, he says, on the bow and the lance They who render the last word shield, do not sufficiently attend to the design of the Prophet. For there is no mention here made of defense; but it is the same as though the Prophet had said, that they would come furnished with bows and spears, that they might shoot at a distance. The word כידון, kidun, means a spear and a lance; (182) and it means also a shield: but in this place the Prophet, I doubt not, means a spear; as though he had said, “They will strike at a distance, or near at hand.”

He afterwards adds, that they would be cruel, according to what Isaiah says, when he speaks of the Persians and Medes,

“They will covet neither gold nor silver,” (Isaiah 13:17)

and yet they were a rapacious people. This is indeed true; but the Prophet meant both these things, that as the Persians and Medes were to be the executioners of divine vengeance, they would come with a new disposition and character, despising gold and silver, and other kinds of spoil, and seeking only blood. And they will shew, he says, no mercy; and then he adds, their voice shall make an uproar, or sound, like the sea He touches, I have no doubt, on the stupor of the people in not attending to the voice of God; for the teaching of Jeremiah had for many years sounded in their ears: Isaiah and others had preceded him; but the people had continued deaf. He says now, “Ye shall hereafter hear other teachers; they will not warn you, nor give you counsel, nor be satisfied with reproofs and threatenings, but they will come like a tempest on the sea; their voice shall make an uproar ”

He adds, Ascend shall they on horses, (183) and be set in order as a man for war; that is, “Thou, Jerusalem, shalt find that thou wilt have to do with military men.” The Prophet means, in short, that the Jews most foolishly trusted in their own strength, and thus heedlessly despised the threatenings of the prophets. But as their security was of this kind, he says that they would at length really find out how stupid they had been, for the Chaldeans would come with dreadful violence, prepared for war — against whom? Against thee, he says, O daughter of Sion I cannot proceed further, on account of some other business.

Set in order it shall be, like a man for war, Against thee, daughter of Sion.

Then the next verse refers to the same, the nation, —

Heard have we the report of it; Relaxed have become our hands,
Distress has laid hold on us, The pain like that of one in travail.

The effect is first stated, the relaxation of the hands; then the cause, the distress and anguish they felt. — Ed.