Jeremiah 14:18

Jer 14:18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

Ver. 18. If I go forth into the field.] The prophet here sets forth the siege as present, though it was many years after, the more to affect the people.

Yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.] Or, Go about the land - sc., begging their bread, or fleeing their miseries - and men know them not, though men of such rank and quality.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Both high and low shall be led captives into Babylon.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

go about--that is, shall have to migrate into a land of exile. HORSLEY translates, "go trafficking about the land (see Jer 5:31, Margin; Co2 4:2; Pe2 2:3), and take no knowledge" (that is, pay no regard to the miseries before their eyes) (Isa 1:3; Isa 58:3). If the sense of the Hebrew verb be retained, I would with English Version understand the words as referring to the exile to Babylon; thus, "the prophet and the priest shall have to go to a strange land to practise their religious traffic (Isa 56:11; Eze 34:2-3; Mic 3:11).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword] Every place presents frightful spectacles; the wounded, the dying, the starving, and the slain; none to bury the dead, none to commiserate the dying, none to bring either relief or consolation. Even the prophets and the priests are obliged to leave the cities, and wander about in unfrequented and unknown places, seeking for the necessaries of life. Dr. Blayney thinks that the going about of the prophets and priests of the land, is to be understood thus: - "They went trafficking about with their false doctrines and lying predictions, as pedlars do with their wares, seeking their own gain." I think the other sense preferable.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He confirms the same thing in other words, not on account of the obscurity of what he had said, but because he knew that he was speaking to the deaf, or that such was their sloth, that they needed many goads. He says, in short, that there would be in the city no defense for the people to shield them from the punishment that was at hand, and that if they went into the fields the whole land would be covered with enemies, who would destroy them. This is the sum of the whole.

But he speaks as though he saw the event with his eyes, If I go out into the field, he says, their carcases meet me; for the enemy destroys with his drawn sword all who venture to go forth. Then he says, If I go into the city, there famine kins those whom the enemy has not reached. As he had said before, “Behold, all were east forth in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword.” But what he had said of the streets of Jerusalem he extends now to the fields; as though he had said, that there would be no place of rest to the Jews; for if they attempted to flee away, they met with the swords of enemies, and if they sought hiding — places, the famine would meet them, so that they would perish without being destroyed by any enemy.

The prophet, he says, as well as the priest shall wander, shall go round to the land and know not Some explain the last part of the verse as though the Prophet had said, When both the prophets and the priests shall be driven into exile, after many wanderings, they shall not understand that exile is a punishment due to their sins. They therefore take the words, ולא ידעו vela idou, and they shall not know, in a general sense, as though the Prophet here condemned that brutal blindness which possessed the minds of the people, nay, even of the priests, who did not consider that God punished them for their sins. Others explain the words more simply, — that they would go round to the land, that is, that they would come to Chaldea by various windings and by long circuits, and would come to a land they knew not, that is, which was before unknown to them. But I know not whether this was the meaning of the Prophet. Certainly a third view seems more suitable to me, though it has none in its favor, that is, that the priests and prophets would go round to seek subterfuges, as they would be destitute of all means of escape, not knowing what to do; and they shall not know, that is, they shall find that a sound mind is by God taken from them, because they had demented others. Hence I doubt not but that the Prophet had especially denounced this punishment on the wicked priests and the false prophets, because they thought that they would have some way of escape; but they would be mistaken; for their own conceit would at length disappoint them; and when they thought of this and of that, God would bring to nothing their crafty ways. And they were worthy of such a punishment, because they had fascinated the wretched people with their lies; and we also know that they were proud of their own crafts and wiles. The Prophet therefore derides this false confidence and says, They shall go round through the land and shall not understand, that is, all their counsels and plans shall be, without any fruit or benefit, though they may be long in forming them. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(18) Them that are sick with famine.—Literally, with even a more awful force, as summing all individual sufferings in one collective unity, the sickness of famine—the pestilence that follows on starvation.

Go about into a land that they know not.—Literally, go about (as in Gen_34:10, where the Authorised version has “trade”) in a land and know not, i.e., whither they go—are in a land of exile, and know not where to find a home, or where they may be dragged next, or, perhaps, with some commentators. learn no wisdom from their bitter experience. There is no adequate ground for the rendering in the margin, which, besides, gives no satisfactory meaning.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. them that are sick with famine] lit. as mg. the sicknesses of famine.

go about] mg. traffick. Such is the sense of the Heb. verb elsewhere, e.g. Gen_34:10; Gen_34:21, but the corresponding consonants in Syriac are found, though rarely, with the meaning, to go as a beggar. In either case, a fall in rank is indicated. Gi. proposes to substitute one of the two Heb. letters represented by s for the other, thus obtaining the sense of sinking to the earth in mourning garb. Cp. for this thought Jer_13:18. So Co.

in the land and have no knowledge] mg. into a land that they know not. But the last four words are obscure, and, as Peake suggests, may be the commencement of a new sentence of which the remainder has been lost.

19–15:1. See introd. summary to section. Co. somewhat drastically considers that the expression “the throne of thy glory” (Jer_14:21), i.e. Jerusalem, must belong to a later date than Jeremiah’s, and that this excludes from genuineness Jer_14:19-22. He also, however, points to metrical difficulties, which Gi. (Metrik) gets over by a considerable amount of omissions. The latter part of Jer_14:19 has already occurred in Jer_8:15, but one passage (we can hardly say which) is probably quoted from the other.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If I go forth into the field,.... Without the city, where was the camp of the enemy besieging it

then behold the slain with the sword! the sword of the enemy; who by sallying out of the city upon them, or by endeavouring to make their escape into the country, fell into their hands, and were slain by them.

And if I enter into the city; the city of Jerusalem:

then behold them that are sick with the famine! just ready to die, being starved for want of provisions; and multitudes dead, and their carcasses lying in the streets unburied; the prophet does not make mention of the dead indeed, only of the sick with famine; the reason of which, Kimchi says, is because the sick were more than the dead.

Yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they knew not; into the land of Chaldea, a strange and foreign country, whither they were carried captive, both in the times of Jehoiakim and of Zedekiah, and whither they might go in ways far about: and this seems to be understood of false prophets and wicked priests, that had led the people about, and had caused them to wander from the ways of God and his worship; and therefore, in righteous retaliation, they are led in round about ways to a land unknown to them: though some think that the true prophets and priests of the Lord may be meant, as Ezekiel and Daniel, who were carried captive into Babylon: others interpret them of such going about in the land of Judea seeking for bread and water, or food in the time of the famine;

but they know not (q), as the last clause may be literally rendered, that is, men know them not, take no notice of them, show no regard to them, and give them no relief; the famine being so sore, that everyone was for himself, and could afford no help to others, even to the prophets and priests. Some render the words, "yea, the priest and the prophet make merchandise against the land"; or, "through the lands" (r); by deceiving the people with their false prophecies: or rather, go about the land making merchandise (s); of the souls of men; see Pe2 2:3, making a gain of their visions and prophecies:

and they know not; the people are not aware of their deception and falsehood. The Targum is,

"for even the scribe and the priest are turned to their own negotiations or merchandises, to that which is in the land, neither do they inquire;''

they minded their own affairs, and inquired not for, nor sought after, the people's good.

(q) "et non agnoverunt, Supple, ulli eos", De Dieu. (r) "nundinantur contra terram", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "mercaturam exercuerunt per terram", Cocceius. (s) "est circuire terram negotiandi causa", Grotius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Famine. Under Jechonias many were slain, and the chiefs carried into captivity, 4 Kings xxiv. 12. --- Into. Hebrew, "through the land, and are ignorant." Chaldean, "they apply to their business, to earthly concerns, and care not," chap. v. 31.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The prophet is by God directed to speak still of the calamities of this people as a thing past, though yet to come, according to the usual style of prophetical writings; and to tell them, that whatsoever their false prophets told them, yet he so certainly knew the contrary, that he could even wish himself melted into tears for them, and had even already before his eyes the doleful spectacle of their miseries; some in the field slain by the enemy’s sword, others within the walls almost starved to death.

Both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not: the word in the Hebrew סחרו which we translate go about, signifies so primarily, and in a second sense to merchandise, because merchants go about countries to trade. This hath made that variety of sense which the margins of our Bible have; but our translation is true enough, and the sense seems to be, that priests and prophets (though accounted sacred persons) should be made captives also, and wander in a land wherein they were foreigners. This is thought to relate to the first captivity in the time of Jehoiakim, when the people of the best fashion were carried into captivity.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Prophet and the priest — These stays of the people’s faith, the fountains of influence and objects of trust, will themselves go into exile.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A picture of the state of things after the capture of Jerusalem: the slain without, the famine-stricken within. The latter are described allusively as "sicknesses of famine" (so literally). As a peculiarly striking evidence of the downfall of greatness, it is added that even prophet and priest have to go about into a land that they know not. The verb used here can obviously not have its ordinary sense of going about for purposes of traffic. Aramaic usage suggests, however, a suitable meaning; what the prophet sketches before us is a company of these ex-grandees "begging their way" into an unknown land.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

have gone around They have gone around to seek rescue.

to a land [which] they had not known To another land about which they did not know until then.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.