Jeremiah 6:6 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Said, viz. to the Chaldeans. Here God declares whence they have their commission: q.d. They come not up on their own heads: see Jeremiah 5:14,15. God would have the Jews to know that they have not so much to do with the Chaldeans as with him; that they are his rod to scourge them for their sins, Jeremiah 1:15,16. See 2 Kings 18:25. And thus God is said to hiss for such whom he will employ in such work, Isaiah 5:26, Isaiah 7:18. And he styles himself the Lord of hosts, to show that it is in vain to contend in battle with them, whom he sends forth, and will be, as it were, the captain of their hosts. Hew ye down trees, Heb. a tree, collectively taken: q.d. Cut them down all as one tree, not sparing their very fruit trees, which indeed were to be spared in such a case, Deuteronomy 20:19; either such as lie in the way of your march, or all round about Jerusalem; or such as you may have need of there or elsewhere for your use, either to raise up works against the strong places, Deuteronomy 20:20, or to make other instruments of war. Cast a mount; throw up one continued trench, as a mount round about it. See on Isaiah 37:38. Heb. pour out the engine; of that see 2 Samuel 20:15. To be visited; God is said to visit sometimes in mercy, Ge 1 24 Zep 2:7, and sometimes in judgment, as here, and Jeremiah 5:9, Jeremiah 23:2. They are ripe for it, Ezekiel 7:10-12; see 1 Thessalonians 2:16; and it is decreed against them, and ready to come upon them, chap, 23:12 Hosea 9:7. All attempts have failed, and now there is no remedy. She is wholly oppression; in the abstract, she doth nothing but oppress; there are found in her all kinds of oppression and injustice; a synecdoche for all other cruelties, 2 Kings 24:3,4 Eze 7:23; even in that city which was once full of judgment, and righteousness lodged in it, Isaiah 1:21, swallowed up with oppression.