Jeremiah 46:18, commentary and pictures

Jeremiah 46:18 belongs to the prophecies concerning the kingdoms surrounding Israel, which pronounce their doom. It stands among the closing chapters of Jeremiah that cover his own personal experiences and his going into Egypt, as part of the prophecy concerning Egypt that Egypt would fall before the mighty conqueror Nebuchadnezzar. The prophecies in this part of Jeremiah are not placed in chronological order, but its proper time order is last, after chapter 47, closing the series running through chapters 40 to 45 and 47. The displacement came when the manuscript rolls were gathered together into one book. It makes no change in the teaching, and the chapter itself nearly always clearly shows its own time.

Tabor among the mountains and Carmel by the sea are poetical figures drawn from nature, showing how the Bible clothes its one central truth about God in natural beauties and powers pressed into service to represent Him. They stand with the lion, the roe, the lamb, the goat, the rose, the lily, the apple tree, the rock, the river, the moon and morning star, the dew, the rain, the rainbow, the light, the thunder, the wind and the earthquake. Together they reflect light from the excellent glory and gather creation around His altar.

The verse foretells that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the mighty conqueror, would surely come against Egypt, and that Egypt would fall before him. That coming was an invasion and subduing of Egypt fulfilled in history. It began more than twenty-four centuries of conquest in which Egypt was spoiled, fell into the hand of strangers, became the basest of the kingdoms, no more ruled over the nations, and renounced idolatry.