Ver. 9. — A call to the army, particular- izing its two grand divisions, viz the war- riors in chariots, and the light and lieavy armed infantry. M. Pierret, of the Ej;yp- tian Museum at the Louvre, writes thus: " The array was composed (1) of infantry equipped with a cuirass, a buckler, a pike or an axe, and a sword ; they manoeuvred to the sound of the drum and tlie trumpet ; (2) of light troops (archers, slingeis, and other soldiers carrying the axe or the toma- hawk); (3) warriurs in chariots. Cavalry, properly so called, was not employed. . . . The Egyptians also enlisted auxiliaries, such as Mashawash, a tribe of Libyans, who, after the defeat of a confederation of northern peoples hostile to Menephtah, into which they had entered, refused to leave Eeypt, and entered the Egyptian army ; the Kalia- l<ag, another Libyan tribe ; the Shardanag (Sardinians) ; the Madjaiu, who, after having been in war with the Egyptians under the twelfth dynasty, enrolled themselves under the standard of their lonquerors, and con- stituted a sort of gendarme/ie," etc. (' Dio- tionnaire d'Archeolof:ie Egyptienne,' pp. 61, 65). Among the mercenaries mentioned by Jeremiah, the Ludira deserve special men- tion. They are geiiei ally supposed to be a North African people (and so Ezck. xxx. 5). Professor Sayce, however, thinks they may bo the Lydian soldiers by whose help Psam- metichus made Kgypt indepeiident of Assy- ria, and his successors maintained their power (Chey'-.o's ' Prophecies of Isaiah,' ii. 287). Come up, ye horses; rather, Immd (or, prance), ye horses. The verb is literally go up, and seems to be used in the same tense, only in the Hiphil or causative conjugation, in Nah. iii. 3 (which should begin, " Horse- men making (their hoises) to rear"). Ewald and others render, "Mount the horses," the phrase being substantially the same as in ver. 4 (see above). But the parallelism here is opposed to this: and the prophet has evi- dently been a reader of the prophecy of Nahum, as the very next clause shows. Kage, 76 chariots ; rather, rush madly, y» chariots (alluding to Nah. ii. .5). The Ethio- pians: Hebrew, Cush: often mentioned in
connection with Egypt. The whole Nil* valley, as far as Aby^siliia, hud been reduced to an ligyptian province. At luotCush had its tui'U of revenge, and an Etii opian dymistv reiijned in the palaces of Thebes (B.C. 725— 66.5). The Libyans; Hebrew. Ptrf (which occurs in comb, nation with l.ud, as hero with Ludim,in Ezck. xxvii. 10; xxx. 5). This appears to be the E.:yptian Put (nasal- ized into Punt), i.e. tlio 8<>mali country on the east coast of Africa, opposite to Arabia (Biugoch).
Ver. 10. — The contrast. And yet that day is (the daij) of Ike Lord^ .'ehnvuh SalidulU (tlie rendering of t.jc Autliorized Version, For this is the day, etc., is elu.nly a mistake). The " dayof Juliovah"is anex|iru.-8ion so rnmiliar to us that wo are in danger of losing a part of its sublime meauiug. It is, in brief, " tliat crisis in the history of the world when Jehovali will interpose to rectify the evils of the present, bringing joy and glory to the linmlile believer, and misery and shame to the prouii and disoliedient. . . . This great crisis is called a day, in antithesis to the ages of the Divine long-sutfering : it is Jehovah's day, because, without a special Divine iuteriiosition, there would be no issue out of the perplexities and miseries of human life." We may say, with equal truth, that there are many " days of the Lord," and that there is only one. Every great revolution is a fresh stage in the great judt;ment-day ; " die W eltgeschiehte ist das Weltgericht" (Schilh.T). The lad classici for the esj)ressioii in the prophets are Amos v. 18, 20; Zeph. i. 7, 14 ; Joel ii. 1, 11; Isa. ii. 12; xiii. 6,9 (in Isa. ii. 12, the phraseology closely resembles that of our piisSiige — " for th. re is a day unto Je- hovah Sabauth;" Jehovali, t at is, hath it in reailiness in the supersensible world, where there is no time, and where all God's purposes have an ideal, but no less real existence. We might, in fact, render our passage, " but that day (is the day that be- longeth) unto the Lord," etc.). The Lord here, as generally elsewhere, is tliat ex- pressive form whieh intimates the universal lordship of the God who has revealed him self to Israel. The sword. A comparison with Isa. xxxiv. 6 suggests that it is " the Bword of the Lord " w hich is meant — a sym- bolic phrase for the Divine vengeanre, which meets us again in cli. xii. 12; xlvii. 6; Deut. xxxii. 41, 42; Jmlg. vii. 20 (comp Josh. V. 13) ; Isa. xxvii. 1 ; xxxi. 8 ; xxxiv 5, 6; Ixvi. 16; Zeoh. xiii. 7. If Jehovah can be spoken of as having an Arm, r Hand, and a Bow, why not also as having a sword i' Both expressions represent the self-revealing side of the Divine nature, and are not merely poetical ornaments, but coire spund to awful objective realities Divine
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THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xlti. 1— 28.
vengeance exists, and must exercise itself on all who oppose the Divine will. Hath a sacrifice. Tlie same figurative expression occurs in Isa xxxiv. 6, and, developed at considerable length, in Ezek. xxxix. 17—20, where tlie slaughtered foes are described as fatted beasts, rams, lambs, he-goats, bullocks —animals employed in the Jewish sacrifices. This, then, is tlie purpose for which this immense host " rolls up from Africa " — it is that it may fall by the Euphrates, at once as a proiif of God's justice, and as a warning to transgressors.
Ver. 11. — Go up into Oilead (see on eh. viii.22). In vain Bhalt then use, etc.; rather, in vain hast thou used, etc. ; a much more vigorous, pictorial expression. Thou shalt not be cured, Tlie literal rendering is more forcible, there is no plaster for thee ; i.e. no bandage will avail to heal the wound (oomp. eh. XXX. 13).
Vei. 12.— Hath filled the land; rather, the earth, corresponding to " the nations."