Jeremiah 18:21

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Therefore deliver up their children . . .—The bitter words that follow startle and pain us, like the imprecations of Psalms 35, 69, 109. To what extent they were the utterances of a righteous indignation, a true zeal for God, which had not yet learnt the higher lesson of patience and forgiveness, or embodied an element of personal vindictiveness, we are not called on to inquire, and could not, in any case, decide. It is not ours to judge another man’s servant. In all like cases we have to remember that the very truthfulness with which the prayer is recorded is at least a proof that the prophet felt, like Jonah, that he did well to be angry (Jonah 4:9), that a righteous anger is at least one step towards a righteous love, and that we, as disciples of Christ, have passed, or ought to have passed, beyond that earlier stage.

Pour out their blood by the force of the sword.—Literally, with a bolder metaphor, pour them out into the hands of the sword.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:18-23 When the prophet called to repentance, instead of obeying the call, the people devised devices against him. Thus do sinners deal with the great Intercessor, crucifying him afresh, and speaking against him on earth, while his blood is speaking for them in heaven. But the prophet had done his duty to them; and the same will be our rejoicing in a day of evil.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Pour out ... sword - literally, "pour them out upon the hands of the sword, i. e., give them up to the sword."

Put to death - Rather, slain of death. The prophet's phrase leaves it entirely indefinite in what way the men are to die.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. pour out their blood by the force of the sword—literally, "by the hands of the sword." So Eze 35:5. Maurer with Jerome translates, "deliver them over to the power of the sword." But compare Ps 63:10, Margin; Isa 53:12. In this prayer he does not indulge in personal revenge, as if it were his own cause that was at stake; but he speaks under the dictation of the Spirit, ceasing to intercede, and speaking prophetically, knowing they were doomed to destruction as reprobates; for those not so, he doubtless ceased not to intercede. We are not to draw an example from this, which is a special case.

put to death—or, as in Jer 15:2, "perish by the death plague" [Maurer].

men … young men—Horsley distinguishes the former as married men past middle age; the latter, the flower of unmarried youth.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Deliver up their children to the famine; a dreadful imprecation; we meet with more of the same nature, Jeremiah 11:20 15:15 17:18. We find also several such imprecation in the Psalms, Psalm 35:4 40:14 69:22-25,27,28 109:6-10, &c. Hence a question is raised, whether it be lawful for God’s servants to pray for evil against their enemies. That which makes the doubt is, Christ’s command to us to pray for them that persecute us, Matthew 5:43,44, his own example, and Stephen’s, Acts 7:60. See the notes upon the aforementioned texts. It is doubtless our duty to pray for the conversion, forgiveness, and eternal salvation of our worst enemies; so Christ prayed, and Stephen, but neither of them prayed for their outward prosperity in their persecution and rage; and without doubt we may pray against God’s enemies, that God would tie their hands, weaken their power, confound their devices. For such other particulars as are mentioned in this verse, and the beginning of the following verse, and such as David mentions, Psalm 69, we must know they were both prophets, and did but pray to God to do that thing which God had revealed to them he would do.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine,.... To be starved, and perish by it, as they were in the siege of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans, and the Romans:

and pour out their blood by the force of the sword: or, "upon the hands of the sword" (f); by means of it; that is, the blood of the parents of the children; let the one perish by famine, and the other by the sword; which, when thrust into a man, blood gushes out, and runs upon the sword to the handle of it:

and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; let them have neither husbands nor children; which latter might be a comfort to them, when they had lost their husbands; but being stripped of these also, the affliction and distress must be the greater:

and let their men be put to death; or "slain with death" (g); with the pestilence, as Kimchi rightly interprets it; see Revelation 6:8; Jarchi understands it of the angel of death; see Hebrews 2:14;

let their young men be slain by the sword in battle; such being commonly employed in military service, as being the most proper persons for it.

(f) "super manus gladii", Montanus, Schmidt. (g) "occisi morte", Pagninus, Montanus, "i.e. peste" Schmidt; "occisi mortis", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore {i} deliver their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

(i) Seeing the obstinate malice of the adversaries, who grew daily more and more, the prophet being moved with God's Spirit, without any carnal affection prays for their destruction because he knew that it would be to God's glory, and profit of his Church.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21–23. See on Jeremiah 17:18. Here also we may be permitted to consider the passage to be an editorial addition. Erbt retains 22 b and 23 as genuine, Gi. all but “and their … battle” (Jeremiah 18:21), while Du. and Co. reject the passage, which in its bitter imprecations indeed forms a harsh contrast to the prophet’s expressions elsewhere of affectionate mourning for the attitude taken up by his countrymen, as well as to the teaching of the N.T. (Matthew 5:44).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - Pour out their blood by the force, etc.; rather, spill them into the hands of, etc. (see Psalm 63:10); a phrase akin to that in Isaiah 53:12. The sword is personified. Let their men he put to death; another personification, for the Hebrew has "slain of Death" - pestilence is referred to, as Jeremiah 15:2. Jeremiah 18:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Enmity displayed against the prophet by the people for this discourse, and prayer for protection from his enemies. - Jeremiah 18:18. "Then said they: Come and let us plot schemes against Jeremiah; for law shall not be lost to the priest, and counsel to the wise, and speech to the prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue and not give heed to all his speeches. Jeremiah 18:19. Give heed to me, Jahveh, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me! Jeremiah 18:20. Shall evil be repaid for good, that they dig a pit for my soul? Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them, to turn away Thy wrath from them! Jeremiah 18:21. Therefore give their sons to the famine and deliver them to the sword, that their wives become childless and widows, and their men slaughtered by death, their young men smitten by the sword in battle. Jeremiah 18:22. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when Thou bringest troops upon them suddenly; for they have digged a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet. Jeremiah 18:23. But Thou Jahveh knowest all their counsels against me for death: forgive not their iniquity and blot not out their sin from before Thy face, that they be overthrown before Thee; in the time of Thine anger deal with them."

Even the solemn words (Jeremiah 18:15-17) of the prophet were in vain. Instead of examining themselves and reforming their lives, the blinded sinners resolve to put the troublesome preacher of repentance out of the way by means of false charges. The subject of "and they said" is those who had heard the above discourse; not all, of course, but the infatuated leaders of the people who had. They call on the multitude to plot schemes against him, cf. Jeremiah 11:18. For they have, as they think, priests, wise men, and prophets to give them instruction out of the law, counsel, and word, i.e., prophecy - namely, according to their idea, such as advise, teach, and preach otherwise than Jeremiah, who speaks only of repentance and judgment. Recent scholars render תּורה doctrine, which is right etymologically, but not so when judged by the constant usage, which regards the Torah, the law, as containing the substance of all the doctrine needed by man to tell him how to bear himself towards God, or to make his life happy. The Mosaic law is the foundation of all prophetic preaching; and that the speakers mean תּורה in this sense is clear from their claiming the knowledge of the Torah as belonging to the priests; the law was committed to the keeping and administration of the priests. The "counsel" is that needed for the conduct of the state in difficult circumstances, and in Ezekiel 7:26 it is attributed to the elders; and "speech" or word is the declarations of the prophets. On that subject, cf. Jeremiah 8:8-10. To smite with the tongue is to ruin by slanders and malicious charges, cf. Jeremiah 9:2, Jeremiah 9:4,Jeremiah 9:7, where the tongue is compared to a lying bow and deadly arrow, Psalm 64:4., Psalm 59:8, etc. That they had the prophet's death in view appears from Jeremiah 18:23; although their further speech: We will not give heed to his words, shows that in the discourse against which they were so enraged, he had said "nothing that, according to their ideas, was directly and immediately punishable with death" (Hitz.); cf. Jeremiah 26:6, Jeremiah 26:11. Against these schemes Jeremiah cries to God in Jeremiah 18:19 for help and protection. While his adversaries are saying: People should give no heed to his speeches, he prays the Lord to give heed to him and to listen to the sayings of his enemies. "My contenders," who contend against me, cf. Jeremiah 35:1; Isaiah 49:25. - In support of his prayer he says in Jeremiah 18:20 : Shall evil be repaid for good? cf. Psalm 35:12. In his discourses he had in view nothing but the good of the people, and he appeals to the prayers he had presented to the Lord to turn away God's anger from the people, cf. Jeremiah 14:7., Jeremiah 18:19-22. (On "my standing before Thee," cf. Jeremiah 15:1.) This good they seek to repay with ill, by lying charges to dig a pit for his soul, i.e., for his life, into which pit he may fall; cf. Psalm 57:7, where, however, instead of שׁוּחה (Jeremiah 2:6; Proverbs 22:14; Proverbs 23:27), we have שׁיחה, as in Jeremiah 18:22, Chet. - He prays the Lord to requite them for this wickedness by bringing on the people that which Jeremiah had sought to avert, by destroying them with famine, sword, and disease. The various kinds of death are, Jeremiah 18:21, distributed rhetorically amongst the different classes of the people. The sons, i.e., children, are to be given up to the famine, the men to the sword, the young men to the sword in war. The suffix on הגּרם refers to the people, of which the children are mentioned before, the men and women after. On הגּר על ידי ח, cf. Ezekiel 35:5; Psalm 63:11. "Death," mentioned alongside of sword and famine, is death by disease and pestilence, as in Jeremiah 15:2.