Jeremiah 21:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 21:13
Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
properly · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular construct
valley
הָעֵ֛מֶקha.'E.mek
H6010
a vale (i.e. broad depression) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
rock
צ֥וּרtzur
H6697
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
plain
הַמִּישֹׁ֖רha.mi.Shor
H4334
a level · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
say
הָאֹֽמְרִים֙ha.'o.me.Rim
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
down
יֵחַ֣תye.Chat
H5181
to sink · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
enter
יָב֖וֹאya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
habitations
בִּמְעוֹנוֹתֵֽינוּbim.'o.no.Tei.nu
H4585
an abode · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Lamentations 4:12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered i…
Ezekiel 13:8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD.
Obadiah 1:3-4 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart…
Psalms 125:2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.
Jeremiah 23:30-32 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.
Jeremiah 49:4-5 Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come un…
Jeremiah 50:31 Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.
Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean up…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 21:8–end
By the civil message which the king sent to Jeremiah it appeared that both he and the people began to have a respect for him, which it would have been Jeremiah's policy to make some advantage of for himself; but the reply which God obliges him to make is enough to crush the little respect they begin to have for him, and to exasperate them against him more than ever. Not only the predictions in the foregoing verses, but the prescriptions in these, were provoking; for here,
I. He advises the people to surrender and ??desert to the Chaldeans, as the only means left them to save their lives, Jer 21:8-10. This counsel was very displeasing to those who were flattered by their false prophets into a…
inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain--Jerusalem personified; situated for the most part on hills, with valleys at the bottom of them, as the valley of Hinnom, &c.; and beyond the valleys and mountains again, a position most fortified by nature, whence the inhabitants fancied themselves beyond the reach of enemies; but since God is "against" them, their position will avail nothing for them. The "valley" between Mount Zion and Moriah is called Tyropœon. ROBINSON takes, "rock of the plain" as Mount Zion, on which is a level tract of some extent. It is appropriately here referred to, being the site of the royal residence of the "house of David," addressed (Jer 21:12).
John Gill on Jeremiah 21:13
Behold, I am against thee,.... Or, "behold, I unto thee" (s); to be supplied either thus, "behold, I say unto thee" (t); what follows; and therefore take notice of it, attend unto it: or, "behold, I come unto thee" (u); who bid defiance to all their enemies to come near them, as in the latter part of the verse. The Targum is,
"lo, I send my fury against thee;''
and the phrase denotes the Lord's opposition to them; his setting himself against them, and coming out unto them in his great wrath:
O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the Lord; a description of Jerusalem; between the lower and higher part of which lay a valley, called Tyropaeon, which divided the two hills, o…
(Verse 13, 14.) Behold, I am against you, O inhabitants of the solid and level valley, says the Lord, those who say, who will strike (or terrify) us? And who will enter our houses? And I will visit upon you; and what follows, according to the fruit of your endeavors, says the Lord, is not found in the Septuagint. And I will set fire to its forest, and it will consume all around it. For the inhabitants of the solid and level valley, the Septuagint translated, Behold, I am against you, who dwell in the valley of Sor () the level, for which Symmachus interpreted as a rock besieged, Theodotius as a fortified place; in the first edition of Aquila it is solid, in the second Tyre. For Tyre speaks its language, and the land of the Hebrews, and the area around it, and it sounds like a restricted place. However, it speaks against Jerusalem, which is surrounded by siege, or in the likeness of Tyre, like a vast sea, it is encircled by the Babylonian army and cannot escape. Or certainly, it sees itself as an impregnable and robust rock due to the strength of its walls and their size, and it says: Who can frighten us? And who will enter our house? When God speaks in the opposite way: I will visit you; you will not be able to escape my eye. But I will visit you for destruction, and I will repay you the fruit of your wickedness. And I will kindle a fire in your forest. Not the Babylonians, as you think, not the king of the Chaldeans; but my anger will accomplish all these things. But he calls the forest Jerusalem, and all the surrounding region, which does not have the fruitful trees of good works, because it is prepared for burning. He calls the valley beautiful because it is easily passable by enemies, and not a high mountain that can be difficult to climb, next to which it is also said in Isaiah: The vision of the Valley of Zion (Isa. 22:1). Let us refer whatever is prophesied about the royal house and the metropolis city to the ecclesiastical order and the leaders of the Churches, only those who have surrendered to pride, riches, and indulgence. Not immediately because it is the royal house, it will be saved from destruction, just as those who are of the Davidic lineage, very few have been found who pleased the Lord like David himself, Hezekiah and Josiah, and a great part of the leaders and the royal lineage as a whole provoked the wrath of the Lord against the people.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Plain — (1.) Heb. ‘abel (Judg. 11:33), a “grassy plain” or “meadow.” Instead of “plains of the vineyards,” as in the Authorized Version, the Revised Version has “Abel-cheramim” (q.v.), comp. Judg. 11:22; 2…
Valley — (1.) Heb. bik’ah, a “cleft” of the mountains (Deut. 8:7; 11:11; Ps. 104:8; Isa. 41:18); also a low plain bounded by mountains, as the plain of Lebanon at the foot of Hermon around the sources of the…
Confidence · FALSE — FALSE
Security · .God is against it — .God is against it
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Jeremiah 21:13–end
Jeremiah 21:13-14
13. Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of in the plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
13. Ecce ego contra to, quae habitas in valle, petra in planitie (vel, patrae planitiei, alii vertunt) dicit Jehova; qui dicitis, Quis descendet contra nos? et quis ingrediatur habitacula nostra?
l4. But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.
14. Et visitabo super vos secundum fructum studiorum vestrorum, dicit Jehova; et accendam ignem in sylva ejus, et consum…
The Lord's reply through Jeremiah consists of three parts: a. The answer to the king's hope that the Lord will save Jerusalem from the Chaldeans (Jer 21:4-7); b. The counsel given to the people and the royal family as to how they may avert ruin (Jer 21:8-12); c. The prediction that Jerusalem will be punished for her sins (Jer 21:13 and Jer 21:14).
Jer 21:3-6
The answer. - Jer 21:3. "And Jeremiah said to them: Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: Jer 21:4. Thus hath Jahveh the God of Israel said: Behold, I turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and gather them together into the midst…
The people in Jerusalem had put their complete faith in the mighty fortress of the city, believing it could not be conquered (see 2 Kgs 18:35-37; 2 Chr 32:20-23; Isa 37:36-38). The Lord had protected the city in the past, but now the Lord was fighting against it. • light a fire in your forests: See Isa 6:13.
Rashi on Jeremiah 21:13
O dweller of the valley Jerusalem is in the midst of a valley. Another explanation. That the Holy One, blessed be He, devised a deep plot against you to destroy you.
rock of the plain Mountain, entirely surrounded by plain.
Who will encamp upon us who will encamp upon us. Comp. (II Kings 6: 9) “For there the Arameans are encamped (נְחִתִּים).”