Jeremiah 21:13 - Exposition

Jehovah, standing, as it were, on the Mount of Olives, addresses the proud city beneath him. O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain ; rather, O inhabitress ; Jerusalem is personified as a virgin. The poetical description of the capital as a "valley" (the word, however, signifies a valley as wide as a plain) reminds us of "the valley [or rather, 'ravine'] of vision" ( Isaiah 22:1 , Isaiah 22:5 ); While "the rock of the plain" recalls "my mountain in the field" ( Jeremiah 17:3 ). So, as Graf points out, Babylon is called "a mountain" in metaphorical language ( Jeremiah 51:25 ). It is, however, singular that the prophet should call Jerusalem a "valley" and a "rock" in the same passage. In the former, perhaps, Jeremiah is thinking specially of the lower city, and in the latter of Mount Zion. Who shall come down against us ? viz. from the "hills round about Jerusalem."