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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
46:1 against the Gentiles. Most of the book of Jeremiah consists of prophetic warnings to Israel, but Part VI (chapters 45–52) is devoted to prophecies against the Gentile nations that God had used to punish Israel (Egypt, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Syria, Kedar, Hazor, Elam and especially Babylonia).
46:2 Carchemish. Carchemish, on the upper Euphrates, had once been a Hittite capital. It was here, almost immediately after this prophecy of Jeremiah, that the armies of Babylon defeated the invading Egyptians (605 B.C.), the event which inaugurated the great neo-Babylonian empire of Nebuchadnezzar.
46:13 Babylon should come. After defeating the Egyptians at the Euphrates, Nebuchadnezzar did indeed invade Egypt, as Jeremiah had prophesied, inflicting great defeat on their armies, on at least two occasions.
46:14 Noph. Noph is the same city as Memphis, originally lower Egypt’s great capital, near which the pyramids and sphinx were erected. Although it remained a great city for many centuries, it eventually became “waste and desolate,” as Jeremiah had predicted (Jeremiah 46:19; see note on Ezekiel 30:13). Modern Cairo, ten miles away, was partially built from the stones of Memphis.
46:14 Tahpanhes. Tahpanhes and Migdol were also cities of Egypt, to which the Jewish refugees had fled (Jeremiah 44:1). The Babylonians did indeed overtake them there, as Jeremiah had warned when he had urged them to stay in their land (Jeremiah 42:15-19).
46:25 No. No was the Hebrew name for Thebes, the metropolis and religious center of Upper Egypt. The sun-god, Amon, was worshiped there, and the city was also called No-Amon. It eventually was abandoned, but its ruins are still very impressive. See also the note on Ezekiel 30:14.
46:28 I am with thee. Despite all of Jeremiah’s prophecies of calamity and exile on Israel, he repeatedly assured the people that God had not forsaken them.
46:28 full end. This remarkable prophecy has been fulfilled again and again through the long history of Israel’s dispersion and persecution, with numerous examples (Assyria, Edom, etc.), and it is still being fulfilled today (Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, etc.).
46:28 correct thee in measure. This prophecy and similar prophecies throughout the Bible constitute one of the most remarkable of all prophecies. Despite millennia of exile and unparalleled persecution, the people and the nation of Israel have survived, even today ranking as one of the most strategically important nations on earth.