16 He made many to stumble, yes, they fell one on another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Brevity of expression renders this sentence obscure or ambiguous. The verb hrvh, erebe, is put without a nominative case; but it is to be applied to God. God, then, has multiplied. And then there is a change of number, for the singular is to be taken as a plural when he says, he falls, kvsl, cushil: the meaning is, that many would stumble, because God would drive them, as it was said in the last verse. Hence comes what immediately follows, Even fall shall every one on his friend, that is, before the enemy smote them; by crowding together they would of themselves dash one against another, so that each would fall by the pushing of his associate. He afterwards adds, And they shall say, Rise Here he speaks not of natives. Some think that the reference is to foreigners, who had come into Egypt on account of the fruitfulness of the land; for a dwelling in Egypt, which we know was very fertile and full of all abundance, was especially advantageous to them. As, then, Egypt had in it many strangers and sojourners, some interpreters think that the Prophet here speaks of them, as though he had said, "They who came into Egypt, to live well there through the affluence of all good things, shall find nothing better for them than to flee away:" They shall then say, Rise; that is, every one will exhort one another, and say, Let us go into the land of our nativity, that is, "Let us be satisfied with our own native soil; for the very richness of Egypt will prove fatal to us if we remain in it." But I rather think that the Prophet refers to the hired soldiers. We saw yesterday that when Pharaoh carried on war on the banks of Euphrates, he had with him Ethiopians, and Lydians, and many from Libya, and we shall see again presently that there were hired soldiers in Egypt when Nebuchadnezzar conquered it. It was then very suitable for the Prophet to mention these foreign soldiers whom Pharaoh had hired; for at the beginning of the verse he said, Every one shall stumble on his neighbor, and then it follows, And they shall say, Let us return to our own people and to the land of our nativity When he says, Every one shall stumble on his neighbor, he means, no doubt, those valiant men, called to defend Egypt; of the same also he speaks when he says, Rise, let us return to the land of our nativity. He says, From the face of the devastating sword. The word hyvnh, eiune, is derived by some from yyn, iin, wine; and they give this explanation, "from the inebriated sword." Jerome renders the word "Dove," but without reason. He then calls the sword wasting or destroying, which had already been inebriated with much blood, and which had done many slaughters. By the sword, he means that of the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar. Some render the words, "saddening sword," but this rendering appears to me unmeaning. They then say, "As we have been already broken down, and see our enemies committing slaughters with impunity, and kill all who meet them, nothing is better for us than to return to our own land." It follows, --
Literally, as in the margin, i. e., Yahweh hath made many to stumble.
Arise - The Egyptian army being composed of mercenaries, has no patriotic feeling and immediately that the battle is lost, they propose to abandon the country which has hired them, and return each to his native land.
One fell upon another - In their terror and confusion ranks fell on ranks, and overturned each other.
Let us go again to our own people - Let us flee to our own country with all possible speed. These were the auxiliaries.
He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our (n) own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
(n) As they who would repent that they helped the Egyptians.
He made many to fall,.... That is, the Lord, by the hand of the Chaldeans, by whose sword multitudes fell in battle:
yea, one fell upon another; they fell in heaps, denoting the multitude of the slain; or rather they fell in flight one upon another; one fell, and then another upon him, as usually they do, when men are frightened and flee precipitantly, as in Jeremiah 46:12;
and they said, arise: not those that fell, which may seem at first sight; but either the strangers in the land of Egypt, as Kimchi, such as the Jews were; who, perceiving the destruction that was coming on Egypt, exhort one another to arise, and get out of it; or rather the auxiliaries of the Egyptians, as the Ethiopians, Lybians, and Lydians, Jeremiah 46:9; who finding the enemy too strong for them, and they themselves deserted or unsupported by Pharaoh's army, advise one another to quit his service, and provide for their own safety:
and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity; their own country, where they were born, and their friends and relations lived; that so they might be safe
from the oppressing sword; the sword of the Chaldeans. The Septuagint version is a very bad one, followed by the Arabic, which renders it, "from the Grecian sword"; and so is the Vulgate Latin version, "from the face of the dove"; to countenance which it is said, that the Chaldeans and Assyrians had a dove in their ensigns; See Gill on Jeremiah 25:38; and so a most ancient Saxon translation in the library of Christ's Church in Oxford, "from the face of the sword of the culver" (k), or "dove"; that is, from their sword, who display their banners in the field with the ensign of a dove; meaning the Chaldeans. The Targum is,
"from the sword of the enemy, which is as wine inebriating;''
which sense is followed by Jarchi.
(k) Apud Gregory's Posthuma, p. 236.
He--Jehovah.
made many to fall--literally, "multiplied the faller," that is, fallers.
one fell upon another-- (Jeremiah 46:6, Jeremiah 46:12): even before the enemy strikes them (Leviticus 26:37).
let us go again to our own people--the language of the confederates and mercenaries, exhorting one another to desert the Egyptian standard, and return to their respective homes (Jeremiah 46:9, Jeremiah 46:21).
from the oppressing sword--from the cruel sword, namely, of the Chaldeans (compare Jeremiah 25:38).
As the mighty one of Egypt does not stand, but is thrust down by God, so Jahveh makes many stumble and fall over one another, so that the strangers return to their own home in order to escape the violence of the sword. The subject of ויּאמרוּ is indefinite; the speakers, however, are not merely the hired soldiers or mercenaries (Jeremiah 46:11), or the allied nations (Ezekiel 30:5), but strangers generally, who had been living in Egypt partly for the sake of commerce, partly for other reasons (Hitzig, Graf). As to חרב היּונה, see on Jeremiah 25:38.
*More commentary available at chapter level.