Arise, and let us go again to our own people. — The case contemplated is that of the settlers in Egypt, the Lydians, Ionians, and Carians (see Note on Jeremiah 46:9) whom Psammetichus had encouraged, or the fugitives from Judæa of Jeremiah 43:5-7. These should find that it was no longer a safe home for them. The “oppressing sword” is beyond question the right rendering, but it is curious that both the LXX. and Vulgate have taken the adjective in different senses: the former giving “from the Greek sword,” as if the word for oppressing (Ionah) meant Ionian; and the latter, the apparently strange version, a facie gladii columbœ (“from before the sword of the dove”). See, however, as giving a possible explanation of the words as referring to the dove as a symbol of the Chaldæan power, the Note on Jeremiah 25:38.
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 46:16
Jeremiah 46:16
16 He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.