The young lions roared upon them Lions, in the figurative style of prophecy, denote powerful princes and conquerors; see Jeremiah 50:17; where the king of Assyria is mentioned as one of those lions which had devoured him, and Nebuchadnezzar as another. If we consider the prophet as speaking here of what was past, by the young lions he probably means the kings of Syria and Assyria, who laid the country waste, not only of the ten tribes, but also Judah and Benjamin; and carried the Israelites into captivity; see Isaiah 1:7. But the words כפרים ישׁאגו are more properly rendered, The young lions shall roar upon him; and so may be understood of Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar, whose successive hostilities against the kingdom of Judah were foreseen by the prophet, and are probably here foretold. It is true, the following verbs of this verse are in the past time, but the context favours interpreting them of the future. Nor is it unusual for the prophets to speak of events yet to come, and foreseen by them, as if they had been already accomplished. They made his land waste, his cities are burned, &c.
That Jeremiah speaks here of the future, and not of the past, appears from this: that in the time of Josiah, when this prophecy was uttered, the country was not in the condition here described; the land had not been reduced to desolation, nor the cities burned with fire; but the determination of the Lord was past, and the prophet clearly foresaw that these calamities would come. Also the children of Noph, &c., have broken the crown of thy head By the children of Noph and Tahapanes are meant the Egyptians, these being the two principal cities of Egypt, called by heathen writers Memphis and Taphanes, or Daphnæ Pelusicæ. “This no doubt alludes,” says Blaney, “to the severe blow which the nation received in a capital part, when the good King Josiah was defeated by the Egyptians, and slain in battle; or when, afterward, upon the deposition of Jehoahaz, the glory of the monarchy was debased, by its being changed into a tributary and dependant kingdom, 2 Kings 23:29-34, and 2 Chronicles 35:20.