23 Of Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it can't be quiet.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Jeremiah speaks here of the kingdom of Syria, which he means by Damascus, where the kings, as it is well known, resided. The Syrians had been from the beginning very hostile to the Israelites; and histories, well known, record that they had continual wars for many years. At length the kings of Israel confederated with the Syrians for the purpose of attacking their brethren the Jews. Hence it was, that the Syrians caused great troubles to the Jews, and were friends to the Israelites until both kingdoms were subverted by the Chaldeans. It is hence probable that this prophecy was announced while the kingdom was yet standing, or at least before its final overthrow; for it was much weakened before it was wholly cut off, as it has been stated elsewhere. It was necessary to make this preface, in order that we might know the design of God in proclaiming this prophecy against the Syrians, even because they had been from the beginning enemies to the Israelites, and also, because they had united their strength with them for the purpose of oppressing the Jews. They had therefore always been like the fans of the Devil in the work of consuming the church of God. God then shews here that the calamity which awaited them, was a just reward for the impious cruelty which they had exercised towards the chosen people. This we must bear in mind. He now says, that Hamath is confounded; this is considered to have been Antioch in Syria. There were many celebrated cities of this name; but Hamath towards Cilicia was the most renowned. He then says that the city Hamath, that is, Antioch, was ashamed as well as Arpad, which was also an opulent city. He adds, because they heard a bad report, or an adverse rumor. By these words he intimates that the kingdom of Syria would be terrified by a report only. No one could have thought such a thing, for when they had united themselves with the Israelites, they thought that they had power enough to drive away their enemies. As then they supposed themselves to be thus strong, so as to be beyond danger, the Prophet derides their confidence, and says that they would be so terrified by mere report, that they would be ashamed as though conquered by enemies. He then adds, that they would be melted; for mvg, mug, means to be dissolved or melted. But there is here a different reading; many copies have vym d'gh, beim dage, connected with this; and they who read thus are forced to wrest the words of the Prophet. This reading literally is, "They are ashamed in the sea, dread to rest," or, make to rest, "it cannot," or could not. We see how harsh is the expression; they, however, elicit this meaning, that these cities would be dissolved, as he who sails on the sea and cannot through dread make his heart tranquil. But, as I have already said, the words of the Prophet are thus perverted. Now, if we read for v, beth, k, caph, which denotes likeness, the meaning would be very suitable, as a sea of dread, or a turbulent sea (a noun in the genitive case instead of an adjective, a common thing in Scripture) which cannot rest or be still. [1] As to the general meaning of the passage, there is not much difference; for the Prophet intends to show that the Syrians would be like a turbulent sea, which is tossed here and there, so that the waves conflict together. If any one prefers to refer this to sailors, the meaning would be still materially the same. The sum of what is said then is, that as the Syrians had been terrible to all, so they would be frightened at the mere report of war, and so much so as to melt away and not be able to stand their ground, like the sea, which, when a tempest rages, has no rest, but is driven in all directions. He afterwards adds, --
1 - There are several copies in which the k, caph, is found, and it is evidently the most suitable reading, -- Confounded is Hamath and Arpad; For an evil report have they heard, -- they melt away; Like the sea the agitation, the quieting none can effect. The melting away was through fear. They were moved or agitated, and, like the sea, they could not rest or be still. 'l may be often rendered none or nothing. -- Ed
Though the superscription is confined to Damascus, the prophecy relates to the whole of Aram, called by us Syria, which was divided into two parts, the northern, of which Hamath was the capital, and the southeastern, belonging to Damascus.
Hamath is confounded - Or, is ashamed. For Hamath see Isaiah 10:9 note. Arpad lay about fourteen miles north of Aleppo, at a place now called Tel Erfad.
Fainthearted - The sinews are relaxed unknit, through terror.
There is sorrow on the sea - In the sea. As the sea is used (marginal reference) of the agitation of the thoughts of evil men, its sense here also probably is, there is sorrow, or rather anxiety, in the agitated hearts of the Syrians.
Concerning Damascus - This is the head or title of another prophecy. Damascus was one of the principal cities of Syria. It was taken by David, 2-Samuel 8:6, was retaken in the reign of Solomon, 1-Kings 11:24, etc., and regained its independence. Its kings were often at war with the ten tribes, and once it joined with them for the destruction of Judah. To defend himself against these powerful enemies Ahaz made a league with the king of Assyria, who besieged Damascus, took, and demolished it. From that time we hear nothing of Damascus till we meet with it in this prophecy. It appears to have been rebuilt and restored to some consequence. It made an obstinate resistance to Nebuchadnezzar; but was at last taken and sacked by him. At present it is both a large and populous city, with considerable commerce.
Hamath is confounded - This is a city of Syria, on the Orontes. The Greeks called it Epiphania.
Arpad - Not far from Damascus.
Sorrow on the sea - They are like the troubled sea, that cannot rest.
Concerning (y) Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; [there is] sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
(y) Which was the chief city of Syria, by which he means the whole country.
Concerning Damascus,.... Or, "unto Damascus" (d); or, "against Damascus" (e); that is, "thus saith the Lord"; which is to be repeated from the foregoing instances, Jeremiah 49:1. This is to be understood, not only of the city of Damascus, but of the whole kingdom of Syria, of which Damascus was the metropolis; see Isaiah 7:8;
Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; two cities in Syria; the first is generally thought to be Antioch of Syria, sometimes called Epiphania; and the other the same with Arvad, inhabited by the Arvadim, or Aradians; see 2-Kings 18:34; these, that is, the inhabitants of them, as the Targum, were covered with shame, thrown into the utmost confusion and consternation:
for they have heard evil tidings; of the Chaldean army invading the land of Syria, and of their coming against them; and perhaps of their taking of Damascus their capital city; all which must be bad news unto them, and give them great uneasiness:
they are fainthearted; or "melted" (f); their hearts melted like wax, and flowed like water; they had no heart nor spirit left in them, through fear of the enemy;
there is sorrow in the sea, it cannot be quiet: the Targum is,
"fear in the sea, carefulness hath taken hold on them, behold, as those that go down to the sea to rest, and cannot rest;''
or, as other copies, cannot flee. So Jarchi, and Kimchi interpret it, as if the note of similitude was wanting, and the sense this, that the inhabitants of the above places were either like the troubled sea itself, which cannot rest; or like persons in a storm at sea, who are in the utmost uneasiness and distress: or else it designs such that belonged to the kingdom of Syria, that dwelt in the isles of the sea; who were in great fright when they heard of the invasion of their country by the Chaldeans, particularly the Antaradians.
(d) "ad Damascum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus. (e) "Contra Damascum", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt. (f) "liquefacti sunt", Vatablus, Cocceius, Schmidt.
How easily God can dispirit those nations that have been most celebrated for valour! Damascus waxes feeble. It was a city of joy, having all the delights of the sons of men. But those deceive themselves who place their happiness in carnal joys.
Prophecy as to Damascus, &c. (Isaiah 17:1; Isaiah 10:9). The kingdom of Damascus was destroyed by Assyria, but the city revived, and it is as to the latter Jeremiah now prophesies. The fulfilment was probably about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 10.9,7].
Hamath is confounded--at the tidings of the overthrow of the neighboring Damascus.
on the sea--that is, at the sea; the dwellers there are alarmed. Other manuscripts read, "like the sea." "There is anxiety (restless) as is the sea: they cannot quiet it," that is, it cannot be quieted (Isaiah 57:20).
it--Whatever dwellers are there "cannot be quiet."
Concerning Damascus. - Aram, on this side of the Euphrates, or Syria, was divided, in the times of Saul and David, into the kingdoms of Damascus, Zobah, and Hamath, of which the second, extending between Damascus and Hamath (see on 2-Samuel 8:3), or situated north-eastward from Damascus, between the Orontes and the Euphrates, was the most powerful; its kings were defeated by Saul (1-Samuel 14:47), and afterwards conquered and made tributary to the kingdom of Israel by David, who did the same to the Syrians of Damascus that had come to the assistance of Hadadezer king of Zobah (2 Sam 8 and 10). After the death of David and during the time of Solomon, a freebooter named Rezon, who had broken away from Hadadezer during the war, established himself in Damascus (see on 1-Kings 11:23-25), and became the founder of a dynasty which afterwards made vassals of all the smaller kings of Syria, whose number is given 1-Kings 20:1. This dynasty also, under the powerful rulers Benhadad I and II and Hazael, long pressed hard on the kingdom of Israel, and conquered a great part of the Israelite territory (1-Kings 15:18., Jeremiah 20:1., Jeremiah 22:3.; 2-Kings 5:1., Jeremiah 6:8., 8:28f., 10:32f., 12:18ff., Jeremiah 13:3.). At last, King Joash, after the death of Hazael, succeeded in retaking the conquered cities from his son, Benhadad III (2-Kings 13:19.); and Jeroboam II was able to restore the ancient frontiers of Israel as far as Hamath (2-Kings 14:25). Some decades alter, Rezin king of Damascus, in alliance with Pekah of Israel, undertook a war of conquest against Judah during the time of Ahaz, who therefore called to his aid the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser. This monarch conquered Damascus, and put an end to the Syrian kingdom, by carrying away the people to Kir (2-Kings 15:37; 2-Kings 16:5-9). This kingdom of Syria is called "Damascus" in the prophets, after its capital. We find threats of destruction and ruin pronounced against it even by such early prophets as Amos (Amos 1:3-5), for its cruelty committed against Israel, and Isaiah (Isaiah 17:1.), because of its having combined with Israel to destroy Judah. According to the use of language just referred to, "Damascus," mentioned in the heading of this prophecy, is not the city, but the kingdom of Syria, which has been named after its capital, and to which, besides Damascus, belonged the powerful cities of Hamath and Arpad, wxich formerly had kings of their own (Isaiah 37:13). Jeremiah does not mention any special offence. In the judgment to come on all nations, Aram-Damascus cannot remain exempt.
"Hamath is ashamed, and Arpad, for they have heard evil tidings: they despair; there is trouble on the sea; no one can rest. Jeremiah 49:24. Damascus has become discouraged, she has turned to flee: terror has seized her; distress and pains have laid hold on her, like a woman in childbirth. Jeremiah 49:25. How is the city of praise not left, the city of my delight? Jeremiah 49:26. Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all the man of war shall be silent in that day, saith Jahveh of hosts. Jeremiah 49:27. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Benhadad."
The largest cities of Aram are seized with consternation and discouragement. Damascus would flee, but its men of war fall by the sword of the enemy, and the city is in flames. The description of the terror which overpowers the inhabitants of Aram begins with Hamath (Epiphaneia of the Greeks, now called Hamah), which lies north from Hums (Emesa), on the Orontes (el 'Asi); see on Genesis 10:17 and Numbers 34:8. Arpad is always mentioned in connection with Hamath (Isaiah 10:9; Isaiah 36:19; Isaiah 37:13; 2-Kings 18:34 and 2-Kings 19:13): in the list of Assyrian synonyms published by Oppert and Schrader, it is sounded Arpadda; and judging by the name, it still remains in the large village of Arfd, mentioned by Maras., about fifteen miles north from Haleb (Aleppo); see on 2-Kings 18:34. The bad news which Hamath and Arpad have heard is about the approach of a hostile army. "She is ashamed," i.e., disappointed in her hope and trust (cf. Jeremiah 17:13), with the accessory idea of being confounded. נמוג, to be fainthearted from fear and anxiety; cf. Joshua 2:9, Joshua 2:24; Exodus 15:15, etc. There is a difficulty with the expression בּים, from the mention of the sea. Ewald has therefore invented a new word, בּי, which is stated to signify mind, heart; and he translates, "their heart is in trouble." Graf very rightly remarks, against this, that there was no occasion whatever for the employment of a word which occurs nowhere else. The simplest explanation is that of J. D. Michaelis, Rosenmller, and Maurer: "on the sea," i.e., onwards to the sea, "anxiety prevails." The objection of Graf, that on this view there is no nominative to יוּכל, cannot make this explanation doubtful, because the subject (Ger. man, Fr. on, Eng. people, they) is easily obtained from the context. The words השׁקט לא יוּכל form a reminiscence from Isaiah 57:20, where they are used of the sea when stirred up, to which the wicked are compared. But it does not follow from this that the words are to be understood in this passage also of the sea, and to be translated accordingly: "in the sea there is no rest," i.e., the sea itself is in ceaseless motion (Hitzig); or with a change of בּים into כּים, "there is a tumult like the sea, which cannot keep quiet" (Graf). As little warrant is there for concluding, from passages like Jeremiah 17:12., where the surging of the Assyrian power is compared to the roaring of the waves of the sea, that the unrest of the inhabitants of Syria, who are in a state of anxious solicitude, is here compared to the restless surging and roaring of the sea (Umbreit). For such a purpose, דּאגה, "concern, solicitude," is much too weak, or rather inappropriate.
Damascus - Being the head of this country, is put for the whole country. Hamath - Hamath and Arpad were two cities also of Syria. On the sea - Their inhabitants that live near the sea shall be troubled.
*More commentary available at chapter level.