Jeremiah 9:21

Jer 9:21 For death is come up into our windows, [and] is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, [and] the young men from the streets.

Ver. 21. For death is come up into our windows,] i.e., The killing Chaldees break in upon us at any place of entrance, doors or windows. {Joe 2:9 Joh 10:1} The ancients give us warning here to see to our senses - those windows of wickedness - that sin get not into the soul thereby, and death by sin.

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.

Jer_9:21

For death is come up into our windows.

Death an invading enemy

I. Cruel.

1. Strikes at the dearest objects of our affection.

2. Robs us of our most useful men.

3. Drags us from the dearest things of the heart, occupation, social circles, cherished plans, etc.

4. Reduces our bodies to dust.

II. Unremitting. Active in every--

1. Man.

2. Family.

3. Community.

4. Nation.

III. Subtle. Fights in ambush, steals into house, poisons food, makes air pestiferous, etc.

IV. Resistless. All that science, art, wealth, and caution can do has failed.

V. Ubiquitous. In waves of air, on billows of deep, in valleys, on mountain, river, and brook, forest and flowers; whole earth his dominion.

VI. Conquerable. Christ has conquered death--

1. In His own resurrection.

2. In His power on minds of disciples. (Homilist.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Signifying, that there is no means to deliver the wicked from God’s judgments: but when they think to be most sure, and most far off, then they are soonest taken.

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

death . . . windows--The death-inflicting soldiery, finding the doors closed, burst in by the windows.

to cut off . . . children from . . . streets--Death cannot be said to enter the windows to cut off the children in the streets, but to cut them off, so as no more to play in the streets without (Zac 8:5).

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 21. For death is come up into our windows] Here DEATH is personified, and represented as scaling their wall; and after having slain the playful children without, and the vigorous youth employed in the labours of the field, he is now come into the private houses, to destroy the aged and infirm; and into the palaces, to destroy the king and the princes.

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

And by way of explanation he adds, For death has ascended into our windows There is here a kind of derision; for the Jews, as it has been said, had falsely promised to themselves a perpetual impunity; and therefore the Prophet adopts here a most suitable comparison. For as they sleep securely, who with closed doors seem to themselves to be beyond the reach of danger; so the Jews at that time despised God and all his judgments, as though the doors of their houses were closed. Hence the Prophet says, that death had entered in through the windows; and he thus derides their folly for thinking that they could escape the hand of God, because their gates were shut, as though. God’s power could not ascend above the clouds nor enter through their windows, when the doors were closed. In short, he intimates that the doors would not be opened by God; for though he might not be disposed to break them, he could yet immediately ascend into the windows. We now apprehend the Prophet’s design in saying, that death had entered through the windows.

And what he adds respecting palaces bears the same import; as though he had said, “Were our houses even fortified, and were they not. only commodious habitations, but made like citadels, yet God could not be excluded; for his power can penetrate through the highest and the thickest walls, so that a palace is to him like the weakest and frailest cottage.” We hence see that by this comparison he checks that foolisll confidence by which the Jews had deceived themselves, and by which they were as yet inebriated. Death then has ascended into our windows, etc.

He then adds, To cut off the young, or children, from the public ways, and the youths from the streets By these words he sets forth the dreadfulness of the calamity; for the youths would not be able to defend themselves by their own strength; for by בחורים, bechurim, he means the most robust. Even these would not be able to repel the onset of their enemies; though in the flower of their age, yet their rigor, however strong, would not protect them, nor would children and infants be spared. We see that two things are here set forth by the Prophet, — that the assaults of their enemies would be so violent, that young men would in vain resist them, as their vigor would avail them nothing, — and then that such would be the cruelty of their enemies, that no regard would be shewn for age, for they would put to death even infants newly born. 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.

(21) Death is come up into our windows.—“Death” stands here, as in Jer_15:2, specifically for the pestilence, which is to add its horrors to those of the famine and the sword, and which creeps in with its fatal taint at the windows, even though the invader is for a time kept at bay, and cuts off the children who else would play “without,” sc., in the court-yard of the house, and the “young men” who else would gather, as were their wont, in the streets or the open places of the city. The Hebrew word rehoboth (comp. Gen_26:22) answers to “piazza,” “square,” “market-place,” rather than to our street.

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

21. is come up] Cp. Joe_2:9.

palaces] See on Jer_6:5.

from without] Cp. Zec_8:5.

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.

For death is come up into our windows,.... Their doors being shut, bolted, and barred, they thought themselves safe, but were not; the Chaldeans scaled their walls, broke in at the tops of their houses, or at their windows, and destroyed them: for the invasion of the enemy, and the manner of their entrance into them, seem to be described. Death is here represented as a person, as it sometimes is in Scripture; see Rev 6:8 and as coming suddenly and unawares upon men, and from whom there is no escape, or any way and method of keeping him out; bolts and bars will not do; he can climb up, and go in at the window:

and is entered into our palaces; the houses of their principal men, which were well built, and most strongly fortified, these could not keep out the enemy: and death spares none, high nor low, rich nor poor; it enters the palaces of great men, as well as the cottages of the poor. The Septuagint version is, "it is entered into our land"; and so the Arabic version; only it places the phrase, "into our land", in the preceding clause; and that of "into", or "through our windows", in this:

to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets; these words are not strictly to be connected with the preceding, as though they pressed the end of death, ascending up to the windows, and entering palaces, to cut off such as were in the streets; but the words are a proposition of themselves, as the distinctive accent "athnach" shows; and must be supplied after this manner, and passing through them it goes on, "to cut off", &c. and so aptly describes the invading enemy climbing the walls of the city, entering at windows, or tops of houses, upon or near the walls; and, having destroyed all within, goes forth into the streets, where children were at play, and slays them and into courts or markets, where young men were employed in business, and destroys them. The Jews (e) interpret it of famine.

(e) T. Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 60. 2.

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

For. This was the song. (Calmet) --- Streets. Death spares none. The least suspecting fall. (Haydock) --- It enters by the windows, if the doors be shut, Joel ii. 8.

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).

Death is come up; the unavoidableness of the ruin is expressed metaphorically, Eze 21:14; Jer 6:5, most likely alluding to the violent and universal storming of a city, Jer 5:10, wherein there is no respect had to sex, youth, or age. Several other allusions. See English Annotations. The Chaldeans are here understood by death, as bringing death wherever they come; a metonymy of the effect.

To cut off the children from without; no safety within or without; the enemy shall cut off all, not only those at home, but even those that are conversing or playing in the streets, which most commonly young men and children are, Jer 6:11.

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

21. Death is come up into our windows — Implying his resistlessness, and the universality of his conquests. He comes in by all avenues. As the result of his work there are no children… without, nor young men in the streets. Silence and death bear undisputed sway.

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

Death is come up, etc. "Death," equivalent to "pestilence", (as Jer_15:2) the most dreaded foe of a besieged population. (For the figure, comp. Joe_2:9) The children from without. The ideal of Zechariah is that "the streets of the city should be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof" (viii. 5). But the pitiless reaper, Death, shall cut off even "the playful child from the street" (so we might render more literally). Streets, in the parallel clause, means the "broad places" where men congregate to toll the news.

The death of the wicked contrary to nature.

Various respects in which this is so: it is sudden; it defies all the resources of comfort and protection; it is untimely, and cuts off the young in their bloom the children for the fathers" sin, the hope of the nation and the family. "Death will not, as an enemy lurking without, attack those only who venture out to him, but will assault the people, penetrating into all their houses, to fetch his sacrifices" (Naegelsbach, in Lunge). Why so?

I IT IS BECAUSE THE LAWS OF GOD AND OF NATURE HAVE BEEN SHAMEFULLY VIOLATED.

II THE TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CONFIRMED SINNER ARE SWIFTLY REMOVED TO ANOTHER JUDGMENT-SEAT.

III IT IS INTENDED AS A DEMONSTRATION AGAINST EVIL AND A TERROR TO EVILDOERS. M.

Vers. 21, 22. Death"s doings.

Behold

I DEATH"S CARNIVAL. In many an ancient continental city you may see portrayed in still vivid colors, on the roofs of their covered bridges, across on that of the old bridge at Lucerne, on the walls of their churches, and elsewhere, the grim" Dance of Death." These verses remind of those paintings, and tell in yet more fearful form of Death"s dread carnival. With what diabolic zest he is represented at his work here! He is shown to us, not as coming in in ordinary manner to the sick-chamber, where his coming has long been expected and may even be welcomed; but as breaking in roughly, unexpectedly, cruelly, like a thief coming in at the windows. Nor as drawing near to the poor, the defenseless, the miserable; but entering into our palaces, the abode of the great, the rich, the strong. Nor as calling home those whose day"s work is done, who have lived their life, and to whom eventide has long ago arrived; but as cutting ruthlessly down the dear young children in the very blossom of their days. Nor as ridding the earth of the cruel and vile; but tearing from us the innocent, the children. Nor are vigor, strength, and promise any more a defense against him than decrepit old age; for "the young men" are his victims even as others. And no multitude of slain will satiate him. Ver. 22 represents the numbers of the dead as so great that they have to be left unburied and uncared for to rot upon the open field. It is true that this frightful picture is taken from the awful experiences of a besieged city, but with slight modifications it is true everywhere and always. This life is the carnival of Death. What are men but a long succession of mourners? As the poet saysOur hearts like muffled drums are beating Funeral marches to the grave.

And when we contemplate the cruel consequences of this carnival of Death, which is going on still, the mind and heart reel, and faith in the fatherhood of God would fade utterly out of men"s souls were it not that in brighter colors still the Word of God portrays

II DEATH"S CONQUEROR. Christ has abolished death. The broken pillar, the turned-down torch, the "Vale, vale, in aeternum vale," of the old Pagan world, have now no appropriateness because no truth. Death is sorrow still, even to those who believe in him who is "the Resurrection and the Life;" but it is not and cannot be that hopeless, unutterable, unfathomable woe which it was till he came who hath abolished death. No doubt this terrible verse (Ver. 21), which tells of Death"s dread doings, is yet far more true than we would like it to be, and often and often, in the blank desolation and shattered hopes which earth"s bereavements bring to us, we fail to derive all the consolation and help which Death"s glorious Conqueror has given to us. But, nevertheless, he has given them, and it is true that "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Let us see to it that we are, by a living abiding trust, "in the Lord," and then, though we sorrow, and sorrow bitterly still, yet it will not be, it is not, "as those that have no hope. C.

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

Death - The unavoidableness of the ruin is expressed metaphorically, alluding to the storming of a city, wherein there is no respect had to sex, youth, or age.

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

The numbers of the dead will be so great, that the bodies will be left lying unburied. The concluding touch to this awful picture is introduced by the formula, "Speak: Thus saith the Lord," as a distinct word from God to banish all doubt of the truth of the statement. This formula is interposed parenthetically, so that the main idea of the clause is joined by ו cop. to Jer 9:20. This ו is not to be deleted as a gloss, as it is by Ew. and others, because it is not found in the lxx. With "as dung," cf. Jer 8:2; Jer 16:4. עמיר, prop. a bundle of stalks, grasped by the hand and cut, then = עמר, sheaf. As a sheaf behind the reaper, which nobody gathers, i.e., which is left to lie unheeded, is not brought by the reaper into the barn. The point of the simile is in the lying unheeded. Strange to say, Graf and Ng. propose to refer the "none gathereth" not to the sheaf of the shearer, but to the dead bodies: whereas the reaper piles the sheaves upon the waggon ad brings them to the threshing-floor, the corpses are left ungathered.

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.)

General Information:

Here Yahweh is saying what the people of Judah will say when he destroys the land.

For death has come through our windows ... young men in the city squares

The people of Judah will compare death to a person who can climb in windows to attack the people inside and attacks people in the palaces, streets, and city squares. (See: Personification)

palaces

fancy houses where kings live. Death will come to rich and poor alike.

city squares

marketplaces

This is Yahweh's declaration

Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 1:8. AT: "This is what Yahweh has declared" or "This is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

the corpses of men will fall like dung ... like grain stalks after the reapers

These two phrases mean the same thing and emphasize the large number dead bodies. AT: "dead bodies will fall all over the place" (See: Parallelism)

corpses of men will fall like dung in the fields

This describes the great number of people who will die, by comparing their bodies to dung that falls in the fields. AT: "dead bodies will drop everywhere like animal dung falls all over the fields" (See: Simile)

like grain stalks after the reapers

This describes the great number of people who will die, by comparing their bodies to cut stalks of grain. AT: "like stalks of grain fall everywhere after the farmers cut them down" (See: Simile)

there will be no one to gather them

"there will be nobody to gather the dead bodies"

translationWords

die

dung

grain

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