Jeremiah 9:16

Jer 9:16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

Ver. 16. And I will scatter them also among the heathen.] As had been forethreatened. {Deu 28:15-68 Lev 26:14-39} But men will not believe till they feel. They read the threats of God’s law, as they do the old stories of foreign wars, and as if they lived out of the reach of God’s rod.

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.

THE CARNIVAL OF DEATH, Jer_9:16-21.

16. I will scatter them — God’s determination thus to do is rendered more appalling by the statement whom neither they nor their fathers have known.

Till I have consumed them — Not utterly, as is repeatedly indicated in this book: God’s forbearance still continuing to the remnant who should be spared a feeble life in their own land.

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

Zion laid waste. - Jer 9:16. "Thus hath Jahveh of hosts said: Give heed and call for mourning women, that they may come, and send to the wise women, that they may come, Jer 9:17. And may make haste and strike up a lamentation for us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with water. Jer 9:18. For loud lamentation is heard out of Zion: How are we spoiled, sore put to shame! because we have left the land, because they have thrown down our dwellings. Jer 9:19. For year, ye women, the word of Jahve, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth, and teach your daughters lamentation, and let one teach the other the song of mourning! Jer 9:20. For death cometh up by our windows, he entereth into our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the thoroughfares. Jer 9:21. Speak: Thus runs the saying of Jahve: And the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the field, and as a sheaf behind the shearer, which none gathereth."

In this strophe we have a further account of the execution of the judgment, and a poetical description of the vast harvest death is to have in Zion. The citizens of Zion are called upon to give heed to the state of affairs now in prospect, i.e., the judgment preparing, and are to assemble mourning women that they may strike up a dirge for the dead. התבּונן, to be attentive, give heed to a thing; cf. Jer 2:10. Women cunning in song are to come with speed (תּמהרנה takes the place of an adverb). The form תּבואינה (Psa 45:16; Sa1 10:7) alternates with תּבואנהּ, the usual form in this verb, e.g., Gen 30:38; Kg1 3:16, etc., in order to produce an alternating form of expression . "For us" Ng. understands of those who call the mourning women, and in it he finds "something unusual," because ordinarily mourners are summoned to lament for those already dead, i.e., others than those who summon them. "But here they are to raise their laments for the very persons who summon them, and for the death of these same, which has yet to happen." There is a misunderstanding at the bottom of this remark. The "for us" is not said of the callers; for these are addressed in the second person. If Ng.'s view were right, it must be "for you," not "for us." True, the lxx has εφ ̓ ὑμᾶς; but Hitz. has rejected this reading as a simplification and weakening expression, and as disturbing the plan. "For us" is used by the people taken collectively, the nation as such, which is to be so sorely afflicted and chastised by death that it is time for the mourning women to raise their dirge, that so the nation may give vent to its grief in tears. We must also take into account, that even although the lamentations were for the dead, they yet chiefly concerned the living, who had been deeply afflicted by the loss of beloved relations; it would not be the dead merely that were mourned for, but the living too, because of their loss. It is this reference that stands here in the foreground, since the purpose of the chanting of dirges is that our eyes may flow with tears, etc. Zion will lament the slain of her people (Jer 8:22), and so the mourning women are to strike up dirges. תּשּׂנה for תּשּׂאנה, as in Rut 1:14; cf. Ew. 198, b. On the use of ירד and נזל with the accus.: flow down in tears, cf. Gesen. 138, 1, Rem. 2, Ew. 281, b.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

nor their fathers have known--alluding to Jer 9:14, "Their fathers taught them" idolatry; therefore the children shall be scattered to a land which neither their fathers nor they have known.

send a sword after them--Not even in flight shall they be safe.

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

As he had said that the Jews were following what theyhad received from their fathers, so he says now that God would scatter them among nations,which had been unknown to them and to their fathers. He then alludes to their mischievous tradition; for the fathers had imbued their children with ungodly errors, and had withdrawn them from God, that their doctrine might become altogether familiar to them. There is then a contrast to be noticed between the knowledge with which the fathers had inebriated their children, and their ignorance of the language of the nations.

And then as he had said, that they were walking after the hardness of their own heart and after Baalim, he says, I will send a sword after them We hence see that the Prophet in both clauses alludes to the defection of which he had spoken. And he adds, Until I shall have consumed them; and this is added, that they might not promise themselves a temporary or a moderate chastisement. Jeremiah then declares, that as they had abused God’s forbearance, destruction was nigh them, and that God would contimle to consume them, until he had wholly destroyed 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.

I will scatter them also among the Heathen,.... Besides the bitter judgments of famine and pestilence during the siege, what remained of them should be carried captive out of their own land into foreign countries, than which nothing could be more distressing:

whom neither they or their fathers have known; a circumstance greatly aggravating their captivity:

and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them; or men that kill with the sword, as the Targum: it chiefly regards such of them as were scattered among the Moabites and Ammonites, and especially that went into Egypt; see Jer 44:27.

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

Consumed. Chap. xliv. 27. No country shall afford them protection. (Calmet) --- The richer sort were made captives, and most of the people destroyed, but not all, chap. iv. 25. (Worthington)

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).

I will scatter them also among the heathen; either you shall wander up and down among strangers, like Cain’s curse; or rather, you shall have no friend abroad, but be sold as so many slaves from person to person.

Whom neither they nor their fathers have known; part of the curse threatened Deu 28:64.

And I will send a sword after them: neither shall this serve their turn, but I will follow them with the sword till they be destroyed; probably meant of those that might escape out of Jerusalem, and flee into Egypt, the Chaldeans should pursue them thither, and either take or slay them there, i.e. such of them as were appointed for destruction; for otherwise they were not all consumed, a full end was not to be made, as is promised, Jer 5:10.

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

I will scatter them also, etc. (comp. Deu_28:64 Lev_26:33) I will send a the sword after them. Even in the land of their captivity they shall have no rest. A special prophecy to the same effect was addressed to the Jewish fugitives in Egypt. (Jer_44:27) In both cases it is the unbelievers who are referred to; the nation as such was, through its Divine calling, indestructible.

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

A sword - But I will follow them with the sword, 'till they be destroyed, such of them as were appointed for destruction; for otherwise, they were not all consumed, a full end was not to be made.

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