Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 6:1-8
Here is I. Judgment threatened against Judah and Jerusalem. The city and the country were at this time secure and under no apprehension of danger; they saw no cloud gathering, but every thing looked safe and serene: but the prophet tells them that they shall shortly be invaded by a foreign power, an army shall be brought against them from the north, which shall lay all waste, and shall cause not only a general consternation, but a general desolation. It is here foretold,
1. That the alarm of this should be loud and terrible. This is represented, Jer 6:1. The children of Benjamin, in which tribe part of Jerusalem lay, are here called to shift for their own safety in the country; for the city…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 6:3
shepherds--hostile leaders with their armies (Jer 1:15; Jer 4:17; Jer 49:20; Jer 50:45).
feed--They shall consume each one all that is near him; literally, "his hand," that is, the place which he occupies (Num 2:17; see on Isa 56:5).
John Gill on Jeremiah 6:3
The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her,.... Kings and their armies, as the Targum paraphrases it; kings and generals are compared to shepherds, and their armies to flocks, who are under their command and direction; here they design Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, with his generals and armies, who should come up against Jerusalem, as to a good pasture:
they shall pitch their tents against her round about; their military tents, in allusion to pastoral ones. The phrase is expressive of the Chaldean army surrounding and besieging Jerusalem:
they shall feed everyone in his place; where he is ordered and fixed by his head general: or, "everyone shall feed his hand" (p): the sheep of…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Jeremiah 6:2-3
Jeremiah 6:2-3
2. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman
2. Quietae (alii vertunt, speciosam; sed alter sensus melius quadrat, quietae igitur) et delicatae similem feci filiam Sion.
3. The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.
3. Super eam venient pastores et greges eorum, figent adversus eam tabernecula sua in circuitu; pascent vir ad manum suam (hoc est, quisque ad locum suum).
As the place, where the Prophet was born, was pastoral, he retained many expressions derived from his education; for God did not divest his servants of every natural endowment whe…
