viri (omnis vir, ad verbum) Jehudah, quicunque sunt in terra Aegypti gladio et fame
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS
27. Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.
27. Ecce ego vigilo super eos in malum, et non in bonum; et consumentur omnes viri (omnis vir, ad verbum) Jehudah, quicunque sunt in terra Aegypti gladio et fame usque dum consumantur (est quidem, aliud verbum, sed ejusdem significationis.)
Here he more dearly expresses what he had said in the last verse, that none of the Jews would remain alive in Egypt. He now then points out the manner, even because he would not cease to consume them until they wholly perished and were brought to final ruin. He had said, No more shall my name be called, nor shall the
Jews in Egypt swear, Live doth Jehovah; and why? because I will destroy them all, so that there will be none remaining in Egypt to pollute under a false pretense my name.
I will watch over them, he says, for evil and not for good This mode of speaking we have observed elsewhere, and explained why the Prophets spoke thus, even because hypocrites, though they think God cares not for human affairs, and imagine that he sleeps in heaven, and hence audaciously provoke him, as though they were fugitives and their purpose hid from God, yet boast of God's providence, and pretend that they acquiesce confidently in him. For this reason the Prophet answered, that
God watched indeed, but not for good We then perceive the object of the Prophet; he derided the presumption of the people, who thought that God had a care for their safety. He then says, that God indeed does not sleep, but that this would bring no benefit to hypocrites; for though God watches as a father to preserve his own people, he yet watches as a judge to destroy all the ungodly. It follows, ---
Jeremiah 44:28
28. Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of
Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs.
28. Et qui evaserint e gladio re-vertentur e terra Aegypti in terram Jehudah pauci numero; et cognoscent omnes reliquiae Jehudah, quae ingressi sunt terram Aegypti, ut habitarent illic, sermo quis stabit a me, an ab ipsis.
He at length adds that a few would escape. He had said before, (Jeremiah 44:14) that there would be none, but added at the end of the verse, ``but* such as shall escape.'' We said that this second clause is to be explained of the Jews who had been driven into exile in Babylon. But if it be applied to exiles in Egypt the meaning will be different. For the Prophet then said that none would escape, that none would remain alive: he thus doubtless took away every hope of deliverance with regard to those in
Egypt. But he added, ``but such as shall escape,'' that is, such as should stealthily escape from the sword, as though they had never migrated into Egypt. And then in this different sense must necessarily be taken what the Prophet adds now, They who escape shall return* But we must bear in mind that those remaining alive would not be numbered among the exiles, for they must have withdrawn themselves so as no longer to form a part of that people. They had before become fugitives, but when they departed from Egypt, that second flight made them to be no longer a residue