Jeremiah 46:6

Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

46:1-12 The whole word of God is against those who obey not the gospel of Christ; but it is for those, even of the Gentiles, who turn to Him. The prophecy begins with Egypt. Let them strengthen themselves with all the art and interest they have, yet it shall be all in vain. The wounds God inflicts on his enemies, cannot be healed by medicines. Power and prosperity soon pass from one to another in this changing world.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Translate it: "The swift shall not flee away, and the hero shall not escape: in the north on the bank of the river Euphrates they shall stumble and fall."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. Let not—equivalent to the strongest negation. Let not any of the Egyptian warriors think to escape by swiftness or by might.

toward the north—that is, in respect to Egypt or Judea. In the northward region, by the Euphrates (see Jer 46:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That is, it is in vain for the swift to flee away, the mighty men shall not escape, but they shall stumble and fall at Carchemish, which was near the river Euphrates, and northward from Egypt.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty men escape,.... Those that were swift of foot, like Asahel, or carried but light armour, let not such trust to their swiftness or light carriage; nor let the mighty man think to escape by reason of his great strength, to make his way through the enemy, and get out of his hands. Or this may be rendered as future, "the swift shall not flee away", &c. (t) so the Targum; neither the one nor the other shall escape by the nimbleness of their heels, or the stoutness of their hearts:

they shall stumble and fall toward the north, by the river Euphrates; which lay north of Judea, where the prophet was, to whom this word came; and also was to the north of Egypt, whose destruction is here threatened: the place where this route and slaughter would be made was Carchemish, which was situated by that river; on the north side of which city, according to Abarbinel, the battle was; and which sense is mentioned by Kimchi, which the other follows.

(t) "non fugiet", Pagninus, Montanus; "non effugiet", Munster, Tigurine version.

Geneva Study Bible

Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the {e} north by the river Euphrates.

(e) The Babylonians will discomfit them at the river Euphrates.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - Let not the swift flee away. A strong way of expressing that even the swiftest cannot expect to flee, just as, in Isaiah 2:9, "forgive them not" means "thou canst not forgive them." Nothing seems to have struck the Jews so much as the unparalleled swiftness of the Chaldean warriors (Hebrews 1:6, 8; Jeremiah 4:13). They shall stumble; literally, they have stumbled; it is most probably the prophetic perfect ("they shall certainly fall"), though Ewald denies this, and consequently maintains that the prophecy was written after the battle of Car-chemish. Toward the north; i.e. "in the northern region," or, more loosely, "in the north" (comp. ver. 10). Carchemish was, of course, far to the north of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 46:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Thus well arrayed, the host advances to the fight; but suddenly the seer perceives the magnificent army terror-stricken, retreating, and breaking out into a disorderly flight. The question, "Why (wherefore) do I see?" points to the unexpected and incomprehensible turn in the progress of events. המּה חתּים is not an accus. dependent on ראיתי, but an independent clause: "What do I see? They are terror-stricken" (חתּים, terrified, broken-spirited through terror). יכּתּוּ, Hoph. from כּתת, to be broken, here and in Job 4:20 applied to persons. מנוס is added to the verb instead of the inf. abs., to give emphasis to the idea contained in the word; cf. Ewald, 281, a. מגור מסּביב .a , "horror, terror around" (cf. Jeremiah 6:25), is taken by Ewald as the reply of Jahveh to the question, "Wherefore is this? On every side there is danger;" and this is appropriately followed by the imperatives in Jeremiah 46:6, "Let no one, then, attempt to flee; not one shall escape to Egypt, but they must fall at the Euphrates." The perfects כּשׁלוּ ונפלוּ are prophetic; the stumbling and falling are as certain as if they had already happened. The second strophe commences at Jeremiah 46:7. The description begins anew, and that with a question of astonishment at the mighty host advancing like the Nile when it bursts its banks and inundates the whole country. יאר is the name of the Nile, taken from the Egyptian into the Hebrew language; cf. Genesis 41ff., Exodus 1:22, etc. התגּעשׁ, dash about (Jeremiah 5:22), wave backwards and forwards: the Hithpa. is here interchanged with the Hithpo. without any difference of meaning.