Jeremiah 43:12,13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt I will cause the temples of the gods of Egypt to be set on fire, and their images to be consumed, or carried away, as being neither able to save their worshippers nor themselves. God here speaks of himself as the prime mover, or principal agent in this business, no doubt with a design to inculcate this necessary and important lesson, that in the punishing of idolatrous or ungodly nations both the plan is his, and the power of carrying it into execution, whatever instruments he may choose to employ as the subordinate ministers of his providence. And he shall array himself with the land of Egypt That is, he shall clothe, or enrich himself and his army with the spoils and plunder of the country: or he shall add Egypt to his dominions, and possess himself of the riches of it, with as much ease as the shepherd puts on his garment. So calamities, when they surround men on every side, are compared to a garment, Psalms 109:19. “The expression shows,” says Rollin, “the prodigious ease with which all the power and riches of a kingdom are carried away, when God appoints the revolution.” And he shall go forth from thence in peace None daring or attempting to resist him, or give him any molestation. He shall also break the images of Beth-shemesh Or, the house of the sun, as the word signifies. The LXX. render the clause, και συντριψει στυλους Ηλιουπολεως, He shall break in pieces the pillars of Heliopolis, that is, the city of the sun, where, as we learn from Herodotus, lib. 2. c. 59, the Egyptians celebrated a grand festival annually, in honour of the sun, that had a temple there. But בית שׁמשׁ, the house of the sun, seems rather to mean the temple itself, in which the images of their deity were erected.