Jeremiah 46

III. PROPHECIES ABOUT THE NATIONS CHS. 46-51

In Jeremiah, prophecies concerning foreign nations come at the end of the book. In the other major prophets, Isaiah and Ezekiel, they come after oracles against Israel and or Judah, and before oracles dealing with Israel’s restoration. Oracles against foreign nations appear in every prophetical book except Daniel and Hosea. Collections of them appear in Amos 1-2, Isaiah 13-23, Ezekiel 25-32, and Zephaniah 2:2-15, as well as here. [Note: See Douglas Stuart, Hosea-Jonah, pp. 405-6, for a complete list of the oracles against foreign nations in the prophetical books.] The fact that the prophets of Israel and Judah gave oracles about other nations reflects Yahweh’s sovereignty over the whole world.

"The OAN [oracles against nations] had three main purposes: (1) to pronounce doom on a foreign nation, sometimes for mistreatment of Israel; (2) to serve as a salvation oracle or oracle of encouragement for Israel; (3) to warn Israel about depending on foreign alliances for their security . . .

"While in some OAN in the prophetic books foreign nations are condemned for their mistreatment of Israel and Judah, it is remarkable that, with the exception of the Babylon oracle . . ., none of the foreign nations in the OAN in Jeremiah is to be judged for such mistreatment. The oracles are not clearly nationalistically motivated, and thus it cannot be shown that they functioned primarily, if at all, as salvation oracles for Judah. In six of the oracles in Jeremiah 46-49, no reasons are given for judgment. The language about destruction is not strident; it gives no hint of xenophobic hatred. . . ." [Note: Thomas G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52, pp. 275, 277. Smothers wrote the commentary on chapters 46-51 in this volume, which appears in the bibliography under Keown, Scalise, and Smothers.]

By common scholarly consensus, these chapters contain some of the finest Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament. The canonical arrangement of these oracles reflects general movement from Egypt in the southwest to Babylon in the northeast. [Note: See the maps at the end of these notes for the locations of some places mentioned in these chapters.]

A. The oracle against Egypt ch. 46

This chapter on Egypt contains three separate prophecies that Jeremiah delivered about the fate of that nation. Their purpose seems to have been to discourage King Jehoiakim (609-598 B.C.) and the pro-Egyptian party in Judah from forming an alliance with Egypt.