The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
The prophets that have been before me - Hosea, Joel, Amos, and others.
Prophesied ... of evil. A few manuscript read famine, which is more usually associated with the specification of war and pestilence (Jeremiah 15:2; Jeremiah 18:21; Jeremiah 27:8; Jeremiah 27:13). But evil here includes all the calamities flowing from war-not merely famine, but also desolation, etc. Evil, being the more difficult reading, is less likely to be the interpolated one than famine, which probably originated in copying the parallel passages.