Jeremiah 2:15

The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) The young lions roared . . .—The real answer to the question, that Israel had forsaken its true master, is given in Jeremiah 2:17. Here it is implied in the description of what the runaway slave had suffered. Lions had attacked him; not figuratively only, as symbolising invaders, but in the most literal sense, they had made his land waste (2Kings 17:25).

Are burned.—Better, levelled with the ground.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 2:15-16. The young lions roared upon them — Lions, in the figurative style of prophecy, denote powerful princes and conquerors; see Jeremiah 50:17; where the king of Assyria is mentioned as one of those lions which had devoured him, and Nebuchadnezzar as another. If we consider the prophet as speaking here of what was past, by the young lions he probably means the kings of Syria and Assyria, who laid the country waste, not only of the ten tribes, but also Judah and Benjamin; and carried the Israelites into captivity; see Isaiah 1:7. But the words כפרים ישׁאגוare more properly rendered, The young lions shall roar upon him; and so may be understood of Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar, whose successive hostilities against the kingdom of Judah were foreseen by the prophet, and are probably here foretold. It is true, the following verbs of this verse are in the past time, but the context favours interpreting them of the future. Nor is it unusual for the prophets to speak of events yet to come, and foreseen by them, as if they had been already accomplished. They made his land waste, his cities are burned, &c.

That Jeremiah speaks here of the future, and not of the past, appears from this: that in the time of Josiah, when this prophecy was uttered, the country was not in the condition here described; the land had not been reduced to desolation, nor the cities burned with fire; but the determination of the Lord was past, and the prophet clearly foresaw that these calamities would come. Also the children of Noph, &c., have broken the crown of thy head — By the children of Noph and Tahapanes are meant the Egyptians, these being the two principal cities of Egypt, called by heathen writers Memphis and Taphanes, or Daphnæ Pelusicæ. “This no doubt alludes,” says Blaney, “to the severe blow which the nation received in a capital part, when the good King Josiah was defeated by the Egyptians, and slain in battle; or when, afterward, upon the deposition of Jehoahaz, the glory of the monarchy was debased, by its being changed into a tributary and dependant kingdom, 2 Kings 23:29-34, and 2 Chronicles 35:20.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:14-19 Is Israel a servant? No, they are the seed of Abraham. We may apply this spiritually: Is the soul of man a slave? No, it is not; but has sold its own liberty, and enslaved itself to divers lusts and passions. The Assyrian princes, like lions, prevailed against Israel. People from Egypt destroyed their glory and strength. They brought these calamities on themselves by departing from the Lord. The use and application of this is, Repent of thy sin, that thy correction may not be thy ruin. What has a Christian to do in the ways of forbidden pleasure or vain sinful mirth, or with the pursuits of covetousness and ambition?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Upon him - Rather, against him. Israel has run away from his master's house, but only to find himself exposed to the beasts of prey in the wilderness.

They made his land waste - The prophet points to the actual results of Israel's until the multiplication of wild beasts rendered human life unsafe 2 Kings 17:25, but the Assyrian invasions had reduced Judaea to almost as sad a state.

Burned - Others render, "leveled to the ground."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. lions—the Babylonian princes (Jer 4:7; compare Am 3:4). The disaster from the Babylonians in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, and again three years later when, relying on Egypt, he revolted from Nebuchadnezzar, is here referred to (Jer 46:2; 2Ki 24:1, 2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The young lions; understand the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, &c., called

lions from their fierceness, and young from their strength. See this Jeremiah 4:7 50:17.

Roared upon him, and yelled; noting the terrible voice that the lion puts forth, either in the seizing the prey, some say in sport, Lamentations 2:7; or the devouring it, Isaiah 5:29. A metaphor, noting the cruelty of the enemy, Psalm 74:4.

Burned without inhabitant, i.e. so consumed and wasted that they are uninhabitable, or shortly shall so consume and waste them. See Jeremiah 2:14.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The young lions roared upon him, and yelled,.... Or, "gave out their voice" (e); meaning the kings of the nations, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi explain it; and are to be understood of the kings of Assyria and Babylon, and particularly of Nebuchadnezzar; see Jeremiah 50:17 compared to lions for their strength and cruelty; their "roaring" and "yelling design" the bringing forth of their armies against Israel, the noise of the battle, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war, and the voice of the warrior:

and they made his land waste; all this is said as past, when it was yet to come, because of the certainty of it, and the sure accomplishment of these prophecies; for this respects the future desolation of the land of Israel at the Babylonish captivity:

his cities are burnt without inhabitant; not only Jerusalem was burnt with fire, Jeremiah 52:13, but other cities in the land of Israel, so that they were not inhabited: or, "they were desolate or destroyed" (f) as the Septuagint version, so that none could dwell in them; and so the Targum,

"her cities are desolate, without inhabitant.''

Kimchi's father explains the word by "budded", or brought forth herbs or plants; for desolate places bring up plants; where there is no inhabitant, grass grows.

(e) "dederunt vocem suam", Montanus, Pagninus; "edunt rocem suam", Schmidt. (f) "desolatae sunt, sive destructae", Vatablus.

Geneva Study Bible

The young {x} lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without {y} inhabitant.

(x) The Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians.

(y) Not one will be left to dwell there.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled] referring to the frequent Assyrian invasions. The lion was the symbol of Assyria (Nahum 2:12 f.). Cp. Isaiah 5:29 (of an attacking host).

burned up] Many prefer to render, slightly altering MT., are laid waste, desolated, as in Jeremiah 4:7.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - The young lions, etc. A fresh figure, and a most natural one in Judaea (comp. 1 Samuel 17:34); already applied to the Assyrians by Isaiah (Isaiah 5:29, 30). Burned; rather, made ruinous (corer. "ruinous heaps," 2 Kings 19:25). Jeremiah 2:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

By this double sin Israel has drawn on its own head all the evil that has befallen it. Nevertheless it will not cease its intriguing with the heathen nations. Jeremiah 2:14. "Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he become a booty? Jeremiah 2:15. Against him roared the young lions, let their voice be heard, and made his land a waste; his cities were burnt up void of inhabitants. Jeremiah 2:16. Also the sons of Noph and Tahpanes feed on the crown of thy head. Jeremiah 2:17. Does not this bring it upon thee, thy forsaking Jahveh thy God, at the time when He led thee on the way? Jeremiah 2:18. And now what hast thou to do with the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? and what with the way to Assur, to drink the waters of the river? Jeremiah 2:19. Thy wickedness chastises thee, and thy backslidings punish thee; then know and see that it is evil and bitter to forsake Jahveh thy God, and to have no fear of me, saith the Lord Jahveh of hosts." The thought from Jeremiah 2:14-16 is this: Israel was plundered and abused by the nations like a slave. To characterize such a fate as in direct contradiction to its destiny is the aim of the question: Is Israel a servant? i.e., a slave or a house-born serf. עבד is he who has in any way fallen into slavery, יליד בּיתa slave born in the house of his master. The distinction between these two classes of salves does not consist in the superior value of the servant born in the house by reason of his attachment to the house. This peculiarity is not here thought of, but only the circumstance that the son of a salve, born in the house, remained a slave without any prospect of being set free; while the man who has been forced into slavery by one of the vicissitudes of life might hope again to acquire his freedom by some favourable turn of circumstances. Another failure is the attempt of Hitz. to interpret עבד as servant of Jahveh, worshipper of the true God; for this interpretation, even if we take no account of all the other arguments that make against it, is rendered impossible by .יליד That expression never means the son of the house, but by unfailing usage the slave born in the house of his master. Now the people of Israel had not been born as serf in the land of Jahveh, but had become עבד, i.e., slave, in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15); but Jahveh has redeemed it from this bondage and made it His people. The questions suppose a state of affairs that did not exist. This is shown by the next question, one expressing wonder: Why then is he it become a prey? Slaves are treated as a prey, but Israel was no slave; why then has such treatment fallen to his lot? Propheta per admirationem quasi de re nova et absurda sciscitatur. An servus est Israel? atqui erat liber prae cunctis gentibus, erat enim filius primogenitus Dei; necesse est igitur quaerere aliam causam, cur adeo miser sit (Calv.). Cf. the similar turn of the thought in Jeremiah 2:31. How Israel became a prey is shown in Jeremiah 2:15 and Jeremiah 2:16. These verses do not treat of future events, but of what has already happened, and, according to Jeremiah 2:18 and Jeremiah 2:19, will still continue. The imperff. ישׁאגוּ and ירעוּך alternate consequently with the perff. נתנוּ and נצּתה, and are governed by היה לבז, so that they are utterances regarding events of the past, which have been and are still repeated. Lions are a figure that frequently stands for enemies thirsting for plunder, who burst in upon a people or land; cf. Micah 5:7; Isaiah 5:29, etc. Roared עליו, against him, not, over him: the lion roars when he is about to rush upon his prey, Amos 3:4, Amos 3:8; Psalm 104:21; Judges 14:5; when he has pounced upon it he growls or grumbles over it; cf. Isaiah 31:4. - In Jeremiah 2:15 the figurative manner passes into plain statement. They made his land a waste; cf. Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 18:16, etc., where instead of שׁית we have the more ordinary שׂוּם. The Cheth. נצּתה from יצת, not from the Ethiop. נצה (Graf, Hitz.), is to be retained; the Keri here, as in Jeremiah 22:6, is an unnecessary correction; cf. Ew. 317, a. In this delineation Jeremiah has in his eye chiefly the land of the ten tribes, which had been ravaged and depopulated by the Assyrians, even although Judah had often suffered partial devastations by enemies; cf. 1 Kings 14:25.