Jeremiah 7:33

Jer 7:33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray [them] away.

Ver. 33. And the carcases of this people,] {a} Their murrain carcases, as the Vulgate rendereth it.

Shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven.] Whereby we may also understand the devils of hell, saith Oecolampadius.

{a} Et erit morticinum populi.

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.

fray--scare or frighten (Deu 28:26). Typical of the last great battle between the Lord's host and the apostasy (Rev 19:17-18, Rev 19:21).

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

Jeremiah threatens them with something more grievous than death itself, — that God would impress the marks of his wrath even on their dead bodies. It is indeed true what a heathen poet says,

“That the loss of a grave is not great,” (Virgil, aeneid;)

but we must on the other hand remember that burying has been held as a sacred custom in all ages; for it was a symbol of the last resurrection. Barbarous then were the words, “Give me a stick, if you fear that birds will eat my dead body;” as the cynic, who had ordered his body to be cast into the field, derided what was said in answer to him, “The wild beasts and birds will devour thee:” “Oh,” said he, “let me have a stick, and I will drive them away;” intimating by such a saying, that he would then be without any feeling; but he shewed that he entertained no hope of immortality. But it was God’s will that the custom of burying should prevail among all nations, that in death itself there might be some evidence or intimation of the last resurrection. When therefore the Prophet declares here and in other places that the Jews would be without a burial, he doubtless enhances the vengeance of God.

We indeed know that some of the most holy men had not been buried; for the prophets were sometimes exposed to wild beasts and birds: and the whole Church complains in Psalm 79:2, that the dead bodies of the saints were exposed and became food for birds and wild beasts. This has sometimes happened; for God often mixes the good with the evil in temporal punishments, as he makes his sun to rise on the good and the evil: but yet of itself and for the most part, it is an evidence of a curse, when a man’s body is cast away without any burial.

It is this then that the Prophet means when he says, The carcase of this people shall be meat for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there will be none to terrify them; that is, there will be no one to perform the humane office of driving the beasts away, the very thing which nature itself would lead one to do. If any one now objects and says, that in this case the faithful could not be distinguished from the reprobate, the answer is plainly this, — that when the honor of a burial is denied to the faithful, God will become the avenger. But this does not prove that God does not in this way inflict a visible punishment on the reprobate, and thus expose them to reproach by whom he has been despised. He afterwards adds —

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.

(33) None shall fray them away.—No picture could be more appalling in its horrors—streets and valleys filled with the bodies of the slain, vultures and jackals feeding on them, and not one hand raised, like that of Rizpah (2Sa_21:10), to protect the dead from that extremest desecration. Here, again, we have an almost literal quotation from Deut. (Deu_28:26).

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

33. fray] frighten. The word is obsolete, except as a provincialism. It is the root of affray (participle, afraid). Cp. “he thought hir to affraye.” Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale. (Bible Word-Book.)

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.

And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth,.... That is, those which remain unburied, for which there will be found no place to bury them in; all places, particularly Tophet, being so full of dead bodies; not to have a burial, which is here threatened, was accounted a great judgment:

and none shall fray them away; or frighten them away; that is, drive away the fowls and the beasts from the carcasses. The sense is, either that there should be such a vast consumption of men, that there would be none left to do this, and so the fowls and beasts might prey upon the carcasses without any disturbance; or else that those that were left would be so devoid of humanity, as not to do this office for the dead.

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

The birds and beasts of prey shall feed on them, being exposed to open view for want of interment, Jer 19:7,

and none shall fray them away; ( a piece of humanity that even nature itself teacheth;) either by reason of the enemy’s presence, for fear of whom they durst not; or rather, because there will be none left to do it: and this is reckoned among the curses, Deu 28:26.

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

And the carcasses etc.; almost verbally identical with Deu_28:26.

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

Marg

carcases See Jer 19:11; 2Ki 23:10; Eze 6:5. Fulfilled in part in all the destructions of Jerusalem, but with a final look toward Rev 19:17-21.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

Yahweh continues to speak of his judgment on the people of Judah.

The corpses

"The dead bodies"

this people

"the people of Judah"

the birds of the skies

See how you translated "the birds of the heavens" in Jeremiah 4:25.

the beasts of the earth

"the wild animals of the land"

to frighten them away

"to scare them away"

I will put an end to

"I will remove from"

the sound of joy and the sound of gladness

These two phrases mean almost the same thing and are repeated for emphasis. The abstract nouns "joy" and "gladness" can be translated using the verb "rejoicing" and the adjective "glad." AT: "the sounds of people rejoicing and being glad" (See: Doublet and Abstract Nouns)

the sound of the groom and the sound of the bride

This is a metonym for what happens at marriage ceremonies. AT: "and people celebrating marriage" (See: Metonymy)

will become a desolation

The abstract noun "desolation" can be translated using the adjective "desolate." AT: "will become desolate" (See: Abstract Nouns)

translationWords

heaven

beast

kingdom of Judah

Jerusalem

bridegroom

bride

desolate

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

and no one will frighten them i.e., no one will frighten the fowl from the carcasses.

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.