Jeremiah 5:15 - Exposition

O house of Israel. After the captivity of the ten tribes, Judah became the sole representative of the people of Israel (scrap. Jeremiah 2:26 ). A mighty nation . The Authorized Version certainly gives apart of the meaning. The Hebrew word rendered "mighty" ( 'ēthān ), rather, "perennial," is the epithet of rocks and mountains ( Numbers 24:21 ; Micah 6:2 ); of a pasture ( Jeremiah 49:19 ); of rivers ( Deuteronomy 21:4 ; Psalms 74:15 ). As applied in the present instance, it seems to describe the inexhaustible resources of a young nation. Render here, ever replenished ; i . e . ever drawing anew from its central fountain of strength. Does not this aptly convey the impression which a long-civilized nation (and the Jews, who have been called "rude," were only so by comparison with the Egyptians and Assyrians) must derive from the tumultuous incursions of nomad hosts? The description-will therefore fit the Scythians; but it is not inappropriate to the Chaldeans, if we take into account the composite nature of their armies. An ancient nation ; i . e . one which still occupies its primeval seat in the north ( Jeremiah 6:22 ), undisturbed by invaders. Whose language thou knowest not. So Isaiah of the Assyrians, "(a people) of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand." The Jews were no philologists, and were as unlikely to notice the fundamental affinity of Hebrew and Assyrian as an ancient Greek to observe the connection between his own language and the Persian. When the combatants were to each other βάρβαροι , mercy could hardly be expected. The sequence of verses 49 and 50 in Deuteronomy 28:1-68 speaks volumes.