Jeremiah 33:5

Jer 33:5 They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but [it is] to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.

Ver. 5. They come to fight with the Chaldeans.] But they fight not in God’s name; for he hath, for all their wickedness, hidden his face from them; therefore they fight with such sorry success; the houses which they would defend are filled with their dead caresses. This whole verse would be hemmed in with a parenthesis.

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.

33:5 The men were already as good as dead because the Lord had decreed the destruction of the city.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Jews think to overcome the Chaldeans, but they seek their own destruction.

He showeth that God’s favor is cause of all prosperity, as his anger is of all adversity.

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

They--the Jews; the defenders of the "houses" (Jer 33:4), "come forward to fight with the Chaldeans," who burst into the city through the "thrown-down houses," but all the effect that they produce "is, to fill them (the houses) with their own "dead bodies."

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

There are two parts to this prophecy, — that the Jews were about to perish through their own fault, — and that they were to be restored through the favor and goodness of God alone. Here, then, in the first place, the Prophet condemns the false confidence of the people, who stoutly resisted the Chaldeans. They came, he says, to fight with the Chaldeans; but what would be the issue of the battle? even to fill, he says, with the carcases of men their very houses When he says that the Jews were come, he speaks of what had already, as it were, taken place. It is indeed a participle in the present tense, coming; but the Prophet here sets before their eyes what was to be, as though he had said, “The Jews will boldly rush forth, and will think themselves equal, and even superior to the Chaldeans; thus they will arm themselves with courage for the battle.” Then he says this, in order to ridicule the audacity of the people. The sad issue of the fight follows, the filling of their own houses with the carcases of men. The copulative is redundant, or it must be taken as explanatory, and rendered, even. They shall come then to fight, evern that they may fill their own houses with carcases, and thus inflame the fury of their enemies. For it hence happened that the Chaldeans shed more blood, and spared not the mass of the people; because we know that when a city is won by force, more cruelty is exercised, and the slaughters become much greater. Had the Jews willingly surrendered, they would have received more humanity at the hand of their conquerors; but the Chaldeans became implacable, because their fury had been kindled by the pertinacity of the people fighting against them. God, at the same time, shews that the Chaldeans would not be victorious through their own valor, but because he himself would smite or slay the Jews. Then he ascribes to his own vengeance the calamity which might have seemed to proceed from the Chaldeans; for Jeremiah could not have exhorted the people to repentance except he shewed that it happened through a righteous judgment, that the Chaldeans so cruelly raged against them. But we must defer the rest until to-morrow.

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.

(5) They come to fight with the Chaldeans . . .—The Hebrew construction is participial, and has the force expressed in English by “they” used indefinitely. The prophet sees, as it were, a sortie of the besieged, but it is doomed to failure, and the houses of the city are filled with those who were slain by the sword, as well as by the “famine and pestilence” (Jer_32:24).

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

5. have hid my face] in displeasure. Cp. Deu_31:17 and elsewhere.

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.

They come to fight with the Chaldeans,.... Either the Jews out of the country, or their auxiliaries, their neighbours, to oblige them to break up the siege; but all to no purpose: or rather the Jews within; who, from the mounts erected, fight with the Chaldeans; or by sallying out upon them:

but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men; the mounts, made of their houses, or their houses themselves; it is only to make them graves, and fill them with these carcasses:

whom I have slain in mine anger, and in my fury; that is, suffered to be slain, being wroth and angry with them, for their sins, as follows:

and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from the city; had no pity for it, showed no mercy to it, gave it no help and assistance, or protection, having withdrawn his presence from it. So the Targum,

"I have caused my Shechinah to depart from this city, because of their wickedness.''

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

Render, They, i. e., the Jews come to fight with the Chaldaeans, and to fill them, i. e., the houses, with the dead bodies etc.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

It is very difficult to determine whether these words contain an entire sense in themselves, or what connexion they have with the foregoing words: not to repeat men’s diverse apprehensions, of which a large account is given by the author of the English Annotations, I think they judge best who think they have an entire sense in themselves, and judge that the they here mentioned are the Jews, of whom the prophet saith they come, because he knew they would sally out and fight with their enemies; but to no purpose but to fill their houses with their own dead bodies, whom he would cause in his anger to be slain, for their wickedness which they had provoked God by, and caused him to hide his face from that city which had so much of his countenance formerly.

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

5. They come to fight, etc. — This sentence is very enigmatical, and has occasioned many conjectural emendations of the text. But all such violent solutions of difficulties are to be rejected. We may take into thought the possibility of textual change, but have no right to postulate such change. The best explanation these puzzling words admit of is, They (the people) come to fight with the Chaldeans, but (the result is,) to fill the houses with the dead bodies of the slain, etc.

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

They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is, etc. The passage is obscure, so obscure that we cannot avoid inferring that it is corrupt. "They come" could only refer to the Jews, but these would rather be said to "go out;" the Hebrew writers are particular in distinguishing between to "come" and to "go out." Besides, there is no grammatical connection with the preceding verse. The Septuagint omits "they come," but the passage still remains enigmatical.

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

They - The Jews sally out and fight with their enemies, but to no purpose, but to fill their houses with their own dead bodies, whom I will cause in my anger to be slain.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

and to fill them with the corpses of the men And the houses that they demolished they make into graves for the corpses of those killed within the city.

and that which I have hidden, etc. So said the Lord: Behold, I will bring it, etc.

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.