Jeremiah 5:16

Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) An open sepulchre.—Every arrow in the quivers of the Chaldæan bowmen was to be as a messenger of death, a blast or pestilence from the grave.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:10-18 Multitudes are ruined by believing that God will not be so strict as his word says he will; by this artifice Satan undid mankind. Sinners are not willing to own any thing to be God's word, that tends to part them from, or to disquiet them in, their sins. Mocking and misusing the Lord's messengers, filled the measure of their iniquity. God can bring trouble upon us from places and causes very remote. He has mercy in store for his people, therefore will set bounds to this desolating judgment. Let us not overlook the nevertheless, ver. 18. This is the Lord's covenant with Israel. He thereby proclaims his holiness, and his utter displeasure against sin while sparing the sinner, Ps 89:30-35.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Their quiver - See Jeremiah 4:29, note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. open sepulchre—(Compare Ps 5:9). Their quiver is all-devouring, as the grave opened to receive the dead: as many as are the arrows, so many are the deaths.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Quiver; collectively expressed for quivers; a synecdoche for the whole military preparations, and a metonymy of the containing for the contained, viz. the arrows that will be shot out of them, called the sons of the quiver, Lamentations 3:13; bow and arrow being the chief weapons for war in those countries, and in those days.

Is an open sepulchre; a proverbial speech, Psalm 5:9, relating to the dreadful havoc and destruction that will be made, devouring the living as the grave doth the dead, or making work for the greedy, devouring grave, that never saith it hath enough, Proverbs 1:12. Or, they shall destroy many with one quiver, as one grave will swallow many dead, which may note their skill, and the success they shall have, few of their arrows shall fail of doing execution.

They are all mighty men; these Chaldeans are all men of valour, fit for warriors.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Their quiver is an open sepulchre,.... The Chaldeans used bows and arrows in fighting; and the quiver is a case for arrows; and the phrase denotes, that their arrows would do great execution, and be very mortal; so that a quiver of them would be as devouring as an open grave, into which many dead are cast. The Septuagint and Arabic versions have not this clause; and the Syriac version renders it, "whose throats are as open sepulchres"; see Romans 3:13,

they are all mighty men; strong in body, of bold and courageous spirits, expert in war, and ever victorious; so that there was no hope of being delivered out of their hands.

Geneva Study Bible

Their quiver is as an {p} open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.

(p) Who will kill many with their arrows.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. Their quiver is an open sepulchre] Their arrows are deadly. Cp. Psalm 5:9.

Their quiver] Cp. Jeremiah 4:29 (“bowmen”).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Their quiver. (See on Jeremiah 4:29.) As an open sepulcher; i.e. furnished with deadly arrows, "fiery darts." So the psalmist, of the "throat" of deceitful persecutors (Psalm 5:9). Jeremiah 5:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

But the people is to have proof of the truth of the word of the Lord. Because it, despising the threatening of punishment, says: Misfortune shall not light upon us, the Lord will make the word in the mouth of Jeremiah a fire, and the people wood, that the fire may consume it. On this figure, cf. Isaiah 1:31; Isaiah 10:17. Jeremiah 5:15. explain this, and announce the inroad of a dreadful enemy that is to lay waste the land and consume the people. "A people from far," as in Jeremiah 4:16. Judah is called "house of Israel," not so much because it is what remains of Israel, but because, after the captivity of the ten tribes, Judah regarded itself as the only true Israel or people of God. Further description of the hostile people is intended to show its formidable power, and to inspire dread. איתן, enduring, firm, strong; cf. Genesis 49:24; Micah 6:2. מעולם, dating from eternity, i.e., very ancient, not of recent origin, but become mighty in immemorial antiquity. A people speaking a language unfamiliar to the Jews, to comprehend whom is impossible, i.e., barbarous; cf. Deuteronomy 28:49. Further (Jeremiah 5:16), it is a race of very heroes, fully furnished with deadly weapons. J. D. Mich. took objection to the figure, "its quiver is as an open grave;" but his conjecture שׂפתו put nothing better in place of it. The link of comparison is this: as an open grave is filled with dead men, so the quiver of this enemy is filled with deadly missiles.