Jeremiah 46:21

Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks.—Literally, bullocks of the stall. The prophet harps, as it were, on the same image. The mercenaries—Ionians, Carians, and others—in the army of Pharaoh-Hophra, who had their camp at Bubastis (Herod. ii. 152, 163), should be like a drove of terrified cattle, fed to the full, driven to the slaughter-house.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

46:13-28 Those who encroached on others, shall now be themselves encroached on. Egypt is now like a very fair heifer, not accustomed to the yoke of subjection; but destruction comes out of the north: the Chaldeans shall come. Comfort and peace are spoken to the Israel of God, designed to encourage them when the judgments of God were abroad among the nations. He will be with them, and only correct them in measure; and will not punish them with everlasting destruction from his presence.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Rather, "Also her hirelings in the midst of her are like calves of the stall." The mercenaries of Egypt - Nubians, Moors, and Lydians Jeremiah 46:9 - were destroyed at the battle of Carchemish, and their place was taken by hirelings from Asia Minor, Carians, and Ionians, whom Hophra took into his pay to the number of 30,000 men. These he settled in the midst of Egypt, in the fertile lands above Bubastis, in the Delta, where, well paid and fed and with great privileges, they became as calves of the stall. Their mutiny cost Hophra his crown.

For they also are turned back ... - literally, "for they also have lurched the back, they flee together, they stand not: for the day of their destruction is come upon them, the time of their visitations."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. Translate, "Also her hired men (mercenary soldiers, Jer 46:9, 16), who are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks, even they also are turned back," that is, shall turn their backs to flee. The same image, "heifer … bullocks" (Jer 46:20, 21), is applied to Egypt's foreign mercenaries, as to herself. Pampered with the luxuries of Egypt, they become as enervated for battle as the natives themselves.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; the mercenary soldiers also, which the Egyptians have hired from Cush and Phut, and other parts, are at present in a flourishing, prosperous state.

For they also are turned back, and are fled away together; they did not stand: we have translated yk here ill, it had been better translated but, for that is manifestly the sense. Though they at present lying in garrisons be fat and flourishing, like bullocks in the stalls, yet when it cometh to it they shall not stand, but turn back, and flee as well as the rest. Because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation; because the time is come when God resolveth to punish them, and bring calamity upon them. When the time is come which God hath set in his counsels, wherein he will punish persons or nations, no probabilities to the contrary are much considerable.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

All her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks,.... Or, "bullocks of the stall" (k); soldiers of other countries, that were hired into the service of Egypt, and lived so deliciously there, that they were unfit for war, and were like fatted beasts prepared for the slaughter. The Targum and Jarchi interpret it, her princes (l); who had the care of this heifer, and of the feeding of it; these themselves were like that, nourished for the day of slaughter:

for they also are turned back, and are fled away together; they turned their backs upon the enemy in battle, and fled in great confusion and precipitancy; see Jeremiah 46:15;

they did not stand; and face the enemy, and light him, but fell or fled before him:

because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation; the time appointed by the Lord to visit and punish them, and bring destruction on them for their sins.

(k) "velut vituli saginae", Montanus, Cocceius, (l) So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

Also her hired men {r} are in the midst of her like fatted bulls; for they also have turned back, and have fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity had come upon them, and the time of their judgment.

(r) As in Jer 46:9.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. her hired men] her mercenary troops.

like calves of the stall] See on Jeremiah 44:30. The reference is to the Ionian and Carian soldiers, who (Herod. II. 163) numbered 30,000, and lived on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile in a fertile district. Hence they seem to have earned the description given of them here, and were useless in war (Herod. II. 152 ff.). Cp. Malachi 4:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - Also her hired men are in the midst of her, etc.; rather, also her hirelings in the midst of her are like, etc. These seem to be distinguished from the mercenaries mentioned in ver. 9, the Ethiopians, Libyans, and Arabs, who were never adopted into the midst of the Egyptian people. On the other hand, the description will exactly apply to the Caftans and Ionians in the service of Psammetichus and Apries (Herod., 2:152, 163), who were "for many years" settled "a little below the city of Bubastis, on the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile." In this fertile country, itself comparable to "a very fair heifer" (ver. 20), these pampered and privileged mercenaries became "like calves of the stall." They did not stand, etc.; rather, they have not stood (firm), for the day of their destruction is come upon them. Jeremiah 46:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The mercenaries, also, of the daughter of Egypt, well fed, like fatted calves, betake themselves to flight. שׂכרים are "mercenaries," as distinguished from the allies mentioned in Jeremiah 46:9. It was Carians and Ionians through whom Psammetichus attained the supremacy over all Egypt: these had settled down in στρατόπεδα of their own, between Bubastis and Pelusium, on both banks of the eastern arm of the Nile (Herodotus, ii. 152, 154), and were very well cared for, since the king relied on them (Herod. ii. 152, 163). Hence the comparison with fatted calves, which, moreover, are co-ordinated with the subject, as is shown by the resumption of the subject in גּם המּה. כּי stands in the middle of the sentence, with an asseverative meaning: "Yea, these also turn their back, they flee together, do not stand; for the day of their destruction is come." "The day of their destruction" is used as in Jeremiah 18:17. On "the time of their visitation" (which stands in apposition to the preceding expression (cf. Jeremiah 11:23; Jeremiah 23:12 : it is not an accusative of time (Graf), for this always expresses the idea of continuance during a space of time.