Jeremiah 2:18 - Exposition

What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt? rather, with the way to Egypt . Isaiah ( Isaiah 30:2-5 ; Isaiah 31:1 ) and Hosea ( Hosea 7:11 , Hosea 7:16 ) had already inveighed against an Egyptian alliance. The name given by Manasseh to his sen and successor (Amen) suggests that at one period in his reign an Egyptian policy was in the ascendant, which coincides with the tradition preserved in 2 Chronicles 33:11 , of an Assyrian captivity of Manasseh. Jehoiakim at a later period was a vassal of Egypt ( 2 Kings 23:31 , 2 Kings 23:35 ). To drink the waters ; taking up the idea of the second clause of verse 13. Sihor , or Shihor, occurs again in Isaiah 23:3 , as a name of the Nile. It properly means, not so much "the black" as "the dark grey" (connected with shakhar , the morning grey), from the color of the water. Rosenmüller's contrast between the muddy waters of foreign streams and the "fountain of living waters" is uncalled for; besides, the Nile water has always been held in high esteem. The Septuagint has γηών , i . e . Gihon, also a name of-the Nile according to Ecclesiasticus 24:27. The way of —rather, to— Assyria . It is true that Assyria was, to say the least, powerless to interfere for good or for evil, when these words were written. But in verse 5 the prophet has already warned us that his complaints are partly retrospective. It would seem that the Assyrian party from time to time gained the upper hand over the Egyptian in the councils of the State. Or perhaps the prophet may refer to the Quixotic fidelity to Assyria of Josiah (see below on verse 36). The river ; i . e . the Euphrates, "the great river" ( Genesis 15:18 ). Babylonia it should be remembered, was in nominal subjection to Assyria; the Euphrates was the boundary between Syria and Palestine on the one hand, and Assyria—here the Assyrio-Babylonian region—on the other.