Jeremiah 13:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Go to Euphrates— Many commentators have doubted respecting this particular, and have not thought it possible that the prophet should thus have gone backwards and forwards to the banks of the Euphrates; accordingly they have given different interpretations of the word. Bochart supposes that Euphrata is meant; and all the difficulty, says Houbigant, will be removed, if you read it, פרת pherath, according to the Hebrew, thereby understanding some neighbouring place, where Jeremiah might commodiously hide his girdle, and bring it back again at the command of the Lord. See Boch. in Phaleg. Dissert. de Transportatione Jesu Christi in Montem, p. 954. But I apprehend there is no reason to take these symbolical actions in the letter. Many of them unquestionably passed in vision; and it is most probable, that the present was of this sort. In this view the parable loses none of its force; and we may then with propriety understand the Euphrates to be literally meant, which certainly best agrees with the parable, and is significative of the nation to which this apostate people was to be carried captive. See Dr. Waterland's Script. Vind. part. 3: p. 72.