Jeremiah 10:17

Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) Gather up thy wares.—The section from Jeremiah 10:1-16 inclusive had been as a long parenthesis, reproving Israel for the sin which placed it among the “uncircumcised in the heart” (Jeremiah 9:26). Now the prophet returns to his main theme, the devastation of the land of Israel as the penalty of that sin. He begins with a vivid touch in the picture of utter misery. The daughter of Israel (the word “inhabitant” is feminine), sitting as in a besieged fortress, is to gather up her goods and chattels into one small bundle (the English “wares” suggests the idea of trade, which is foreign to the context), and with that as the sole remnant of her possessions, to go forth into exile. Probably, indeed, the word may mean simply the travelling carpet or mantle which the exile was to take with him. The whole phrase has something of a proverbial type, like our “bag and baggage” or the collige sarcinulas et exi (“take up your packages and begone”) of Juven. Sat. vi. 146.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 10:17-18. Gather up thy wares, &c. — That is, as some explain it, “Collect to Jerusalem all that you have valuable in the country; flee thither for refuge with your best effects; for the enemy will soon extend himself over all your land, and render it desolate.” Or, rather, the prophet, returning to his former denunciations against Jerusalem, warns her to move her effects, and prepare for going into captivity; for, though she thought herself secure, as dwelling in a place of great strength and well fortified, yet her enemies should prevail and take it: compare Ezekiel 12:3. Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants at this once — I will, at one stroke, remove the whole body of this people out of their native country: see 1 Samuel 25:29. And I will distress them that they may find it so — Or, that they may find my threatenings to be true. This implies, that though they had been often saved by God’s providence from hostile attacks, they would, however, on this occasion, find it otherwise.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:17-25 The Jews who continued in their own land, felt secure. But, sooner or later, sinners will find all things as the word of God has declared, and that its threatenings are not empty terrors. Submission will support the believer under every grief allotted to him; but what can render the load of Divine vengeance easy to be borne by those who fall under it in sullen despair? Those cannot expect to prosper, who do not, by faith and prayer, take God with them in all their ways. The report of the enemy's approach was very dreadful. Yet the designs which men lay deep, and think well formed, are dashed to pieces in a moment. Events are often overruled, so as to be quite contrary to what we intended and expected. If the Lord has directed our steps into the ways of peace and righteousness, let us entreat him to enable us to walk therein. Say not, Lord, do not correct me; but, Lord, do not correct me in anger. We may bear the smart of God's rod, but we cannot bear the weight of his wrath. Those who restrain prayer, prove that they know not God; for those who know him will seek him, and seek his favour. If even severe corrections lead sinners to be convinced of wholesome truths, they will have abundant cause for gratitude. And they will then humble themselves before the Lord.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The prophet now returns to the main subject of his sermon, the conquest of Judaea.

Thy wares - Rather, thy bundle, which could contain a few articles for necessary use, and be carried in the hand. They are going into exile.

O inhabitant of the fortress - i. e., thou that art besieged, that inhabitest a besieged town.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. wares—thine effects or movable goods (Eze 12:3). Prepare for migrating as captives to Babylon. The address is to Jerusalem, as representative of the whole people.

inhabitant of the fortress—rather, "inhabitress of the fortress." Though thou now seemest to inhabit an impregnable fortress, thou shalt have to remove. "The land" is the champaign region opposed to the "fortified" cities. The "fortress" being taken, the whole "land" will share the disaster. Henderson translates, "Gather up thy packages from the ground." Rosenmuller, for "fortress," translates, "siege," that is, the besieged city. The various articles, in this view, are supposed to be lying about in confusion on the ground during the siege.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The prophet now enters upon another subject, and probably begins another sermon.

Gather up thy wares, i.e. every thing thou hast any advantage by, not only thy domestic concerns, but all thy traffic and merchandise, wherever thou hast any concerns in the land, as men use to do in case of invasion by an enemy, to secure them. It seems to be a sarcasm, or kind of military derision.

O inhabitant of the fortress: this is understood by some as spoken to the Babylonians, that they should make provision for their escape, their idols being not able to save them; but this seems to be remote from the prophet’s meaning. It is rather therefore directed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that being the chief place of security in Judea, and by a synecdoche to all other places that they promised themselves security in; the approaching destruction being to pass through the whole country.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Gather up thy wares out of the land,.... Or thy merchandise, as the Targum; or thy substance, as the Septuagint; all valuable effects and goods that are movable, which might be carried from place to place. The meaning is, that the Jews would gather up their riches from the several parts of the land of Judea, and bring them to Jerusalem, a fortified place; or they would be in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy. Kimchi interprets the words as if spoken of Babylon, and directed to the Chaldeans, not to be elated with the captivity of Israel; and because the word signifies "to humble and subdue" he takes the sense to be,

"gather in or contract thine humiliation or subjection;''

that is, of other nations; refrain thyself, or cease from subduing kingdoms; that is now at an end, it shall be no more so; but the words manifestly respect the people of the Jews, as is clear from the next verse.

O inhabitant of the fortress; of the fortress of Zion, or the fortified city, Jerusalem. The Targum is,

"O thou that dwellest in the strong place, in the fortified cities.''

It may be rendered, "that dwellest in the siege" (y); in the besieged city, Jerusalem.

(y) "quae habitas in obsidione", V. L. Cocceius, Schmidt.

Geneva Study Bible

{k} Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

(k) The prophet wills the Jews to prepare themselves for this captivity, showing that it was now at hand that they would feel the things of which he had told them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. thy wares out of the land] the Hebrew word occurs here only, and is of doubtful meaning. This rendering connects it with the Hebrew root of Canaanite; the Canaanites being the merchants best known to the Hebrews. It seems to mean a few articles gathered together, rather than any considerable amount or burden. Hence it suggests hasty flight. The mg. thy bundle from the ground, derives it from a root found in Arabic and meaning, to be contracted or folded in; hence to be done up tightly. See Dr. pp. 354 f.

O thou, etc.] fem. and so collective. See on Jeremiah 4:11, Jeremiah 7:29.

O thou that abidest in the siege] i.e. thou who art in a besieged city. This is to be preferred to the reading in mg.

17, 18. Du. and Co. omit these vv., Du. rejecting 20, 21 also, while Gi. omits Jeremiah 10:18. See note on it.

17–25. Exile is at hand. Appeal to Jehovah in His wrath to remember mercy

The utterances, interrupted by Jeremiah 9:23-26, and Jeremiah 10:1-16, are now continued. The passage has apparently suffered both by corruption of MT. and by marginal glosses, afterwards incorporated with the text. It may be summarized thus.

(i) 17–22. The city is bidden hastily to prepare to be cast forth into exile as the result of impending siege. The country laments, as it lies waste. The inhabitants are carried captive, because of the folly of their rulers. The report of the invasion of the northern foe presages desolation.

(ii) 23–25. The prophet, pleading the weakness of man’s nature, prays that there may be a mitigation of Judah’s punishment, and that God’s wrath may be poured instead upon heathen nations.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 17-22. - This passage connects itself immediately with Jeremiah 9, where the invasion of Judah and the dispersion of its inhabitants have been foretold. Here, after describing dramatically the departure of the latter into exile, the prophet reports a distinct revelation of the same fact, so that this can no longer be assumed to be mere imaginative rhetoric. The Jewish people is then introduced, lamenting her sad fate, but expressing resignation. Verse 17. - Gather up thy wares. "Wares" should rather be bundle. There is no allusion to trafficking. O inhabitant of the fortress; rather, thou that dwellest besieged. Jeremiah 10:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The captivity of the people, their lamentation for the devastation of the land, and entreaty that the punishment may be mitigated. - Jeremiah 10:17. "Gather up thy bundle out of the land, thou that sittest in the siege. Jeremiah 10:18. For thus hath Jahveh spoken: Behold, I hurl forth the inhabitants of the land this time, and press them hard, that they may find them. Jeremiah 10:19. Woe is me for my hurt! grievous is my stroke! yet I:think: This is my suffering, and I will bear it! Jeremiah 10:20. My tent is despoiled, and all my cords are rent asunder. My sons have forsaken me, and are gone: none stretches forth my tent any more, or hangs up my curtains. Jeremiah 10:21. For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not sought Jahveh; therefore they have not dealt wisely, and the whole flock is scattered. - Jeremiah 10:22. Hark! a rumour: behold, it comes, and great commotion from the land of midnight, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, an abode of jackals. - Jeremiah 10:23. I know, Jahveh, that the way of man is not in himself, nor in the man that walketh to fix his step. Jeremiah 10:24. Chasten me, Jahveh, but according to right; not in Thine anger, lest Thou make me little. Jeremiah 10:25. Pour out Thy fury upon the peoples that know Thee not, and upon the races that call not upon Thy name! for they have devoured Jacob, have devoured him and made an end of him, and laid his pastures waste."

Jeremiah 10:17-20

In Jeremiah 10:17 the congregation of the people is addressed, and captivity in a foreign land is announced to them. This announcement stands in connection with Jeremiah 9:25, in so far as captivity is the accomplishment of the visitation of Judah threatened in Jeremiah 9:24. That connection is not, however, quite direct; the announcement is led up to by the warning against idolatry of vv. 1-16, inasmuch as it furnishes confirmation of the threat uttered in Jeremiah 10:15, that the idols shall perish in the day of their visitation, and shows besides how, by its folly in the matter of idolatry, Judah has drawn judgment down on itself. The confession in Jeremiah 10:21 : the shepherds are become brutish, points manifestly back to the description in Jeremiah 10:14 of the folly of the idolaters, and exhibits the connection of Jeremiah 10:17-25 with the preceding warning against idolatry. For "gather up," etc., Hitz. translates: gather thy trumpery from the ground; so that the expression would have a contemptuous tone. But the meaning of rubbish cannot be proved to belong to כּנעה; and the mockery that would lie in the phrase is out of place. כּנעה, from Arab. kǹ, contrahere, constipare, means that which is put together, packed up, one's bundle. The connection of אסף and מארץ is pregnant: put up thy bundle and carry it forth of the land. As N. G. Schroeder suspected, there is about the expression something of the nature of a current popular phrase, like the German Schnr dein Bndel, pack up, i.e., make ready fore the road. She who sits in the siege. The daughter of Zion is meant, but we must not limit the scope to the population of Jerusalem; as is clear from "inhabitants of the land," Jeremiah 10:18, the population of the whole land are comprised in the expression. As to the form יושׁבתי, see at Jeremiah 22:23. אספּי with dag. lene after the sibilant, as in Isaiah 47:2. "I hurl forth" expresses the violent manner of the captivity; cf. Isaiah 22:17. "This time;" hitherto hostile invasions ended with plundering and the imposition of a tribute: 2 Kings 14:14; 2 Kings 16:5; 2 Kings 18:13. - And I press them hard, or close them in, למען ימצאוּ. These words are variously explained, because there is no object expressed, and there may be variety of opinion as to what is the subject. Hitz., Umbr., Ng., take the verb find in the sense of feel, and so the object צרה would easily be supplied from the verb הצרתי: so that they may feel it, i.e., I will press them sensibly. But we cannot make sure of this meaning for מצא either from Jeremiah 17:9 or from Ecclesiastes 8:17, where know (ידע) and מצא are clearly identical conceptions. Still less is Graf entitled to supply as object: that which they seek and are to find, namely, God. His appeal in support of this to passages like Psalm 32:6; Deuteronomy 4:27 and Deuteronomy 4:29, proves nothing; for in such the object is manifestly suggested by the contest, which is not the case here. A just conclusion is obtained when we consider that הצרתי contains a play on בּמּצור in Jeremiah 10:17, and cannot be understood otherwise than as a hemming in by means of a siege. The aim of the siege is to bring those hemmed in under the power of the besiegers, to get at, reach them, or find them. Hence we must take the enemy as subject to "find," while the object is given in להם: so that they (the enemy) may find them (the besieged). Thus too Jerome, who translates the disputed verb passively: et tribulabo eos ut inveniantur; while he explains the meaning thus: sic eos obsideri faciam, sicque tribulabo et coangustabo, ut omnes in urbe reperiantur et effugere nequeant malum. Taken thus, the second clause serves to strengthen the first: I will hurl forth the inhabitants of this land into a foreign land, and none shall avoid this fate, for I will so hem them in that none shall be able to escape.

This harassment will bring the people to their senses, so that they shall humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. Such feelings the prophet utters at Jeremiah 10:19., in the name of the congregation, as he did in the like passage Jeremiah 4:19. As from the hearts of those who had been touched by their affliction, he exclaims: Woe is me for my breach! i.e., my crushing overthrow. The breach is that sustained by the state in its destruction, see at Jeremiah 4:6. נחלה, grown sick, i.e., grievous, incurable is the stroke that has fallen upon me. For this word we have in Jeremiah 15:18 אנוּשׁה, which is explained by "refuseth to be healed." ואני introduces an antithesis: but I say, sc. in my heart, i.e., I think. Hitz. gives אך the force of a limitation equals nothing further than this, but wrongly; and, taking the perf. אמרתּי as a preterite, makes out the import to be: "in their state of careless security they had taken the matter lightly, saying as it were, If no further calamity than this menace us, we may be well content;" a thought quite foreign to the context. For "this my suffering" can be nothing else than the "hurt" on account of which the speaker laments, or the stroke which he calls dangerous, incurable. אך has, besides, frequently the force of positive asseveration: yea, certainly (cf. Ew. 354, a), a force readily derived from that of only, nothing else than. And so here: only this, i.e., even this is my suffering. חלי, sickness, here suffering in general, as in Hosea 5:13; Isaiah 53:3., etc. The old translators took the Yod as pronoun (my suffering), whence it would be necessary to point חלי, like גּוי, Zephaniah 2:9; cf. Ew. 293, b, Rem. - The suffering which the congregation must bear consists in the spoliation of the land and the captivity of the people, represented in Jeremiah 10:20 under the figure of a destruction of their tent and the disappearance of their sons. The Chald. has fairly paraphrased the verse thus: my land is laid waste and all my cities are plundered, my people has gone off (into exile) and is no longer here. יצאני construed with the accus. like egredi urbem; cf. Genesis 54:4, etc. - From "my sons have forsaken me" Ng. draws the inference that Jeremiah 10:19 and Jeremiah 10:20 are the words of the country personified, since neither the prophet could so speak, nor the people, the latter being indeed identical with the sons, and so not forsaken, but forsaking. This inference rests on a mistaken view of the figure of the daughter of Zion, in which is involved the conception of the inhabitants of a land as the children of the land when personified as mother. Nor is there any evidence that the land is speaking in the words: I think, This is my suffering, etc. It is besides alleged that the words give no expression to any sense of guilt; they are said, on the contrary, to give utterance to a consolation which only an innocent land draws from the fact that a calamity is laid upon it, a calamity which must straightway be borne. This is neither true in point of fact, nor does it prove the case. The words, This is my suffering, etc., indicate resignation to the inevitable, not innocence or undeserved suffering. Hereon Graf remarks: "The suffering was unmerited, in so far as the prophet and the godly amongst the people were concerned; but it was inevitable that he and they should take it upon their shoulders, along with the rest." Asserted with so great width, this statement cannot be admitted. The present generation bears the punishment not only for the sins of many past generations, but for its own sins; nor were the godly themselves free from sin and guilt, for they acknowledge the justice of God's chastisement, and pray God to chasten them בּמשׁפּט, not in anger (Jeremiah 10:24). Besides, we cannot take the words as spoken by the prophet or by the godly as opposed to the ungodly, since it is the sons of the speaker ("my sons") that are carried captive, who can certainly not be the sons of the godly alone.