ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round
JOHN CALVIN until thou gatherest us into that blessed rest which is laid up for us in heaven, through
Christ our Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture One Hundred and Sixty-Fifth
Jeremiah 46:3-5
3. Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
3. Preparate scutum et clypeum et accedite ad praelium.
4. Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.
4. Ligate equos et ascendite equi-tes, et state (statute vos) in galeis vestris, abstergite lanceas, induite loricas.
5. Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, saith the LORD.
5. Quare vidi ipsos fractos, aver-sos retrorsum? et fortes eorum per-cutientur
(percussi sunt) et fuga fugerunt, et non respexerunt; terror undique, dicit Jehova.
Jeremiah uses now a form of speaking very common in the Prophets though remote from common use. For the Prophets, when they denounce God's judgments and punishments on the ungodly, do not speak in a simple language, as though they were giving a narrative, but they employed figurative expressions, as though they wished to introduce men into the very scene itself. And that their doctrine might more effectually penetrate into the hearts of men, they bring forward various persons; they at one time introduce God as speaking, and at another they pronounce this or that according to the sentiments of others; and again, they declare the commands of God.
Jeremiah begins here by summoning the Egyptians, as though he were the herald of Pharaoh, and thus borrows the name of another person. He says, Prepare The verb {,}ערךorec, properly means to set in order, but here it signifies to prepare;
Prepare, then, the buckler and the shield The word {,}צנהtsane, was a shield of a larger form, and {,}מגןmegen, seems to have been a buckler carried by horsemen of light armor. And come near to battle: He then adds, Bind or he the horses The manner of fighting is not the same now as it was formerly; they fought in chariots, as heathen authors abundantly shew. He therefore says, he the horses, that is, join them together that they may draw the chariots. Go up, ye horsemen, stand in your helmets, clean your lances, and put on your coats of mail. The meaning is, that Egyptians would come well prepared with all kinds of arms that they might be formidable to their enemies. And hence the vengeance appeared more clearly, because they had been well furnished, so that they might seem to have gained the victory before they engaged with their enemies. This is the reason why the Prophet enumerates their complete armor, having omitted no material part; he mentions the lances, the helmets, the coats of mail, the chariots, the horses, and the shield, so that victory, according to the judgment of men, was already theirs. This is the first thing.
But we must observe the design of the Holy Spirit; it was his purpose to remove the veil from the eyes of the faithful, which for the most part prevents us to see