Jeremiah 46:20

GLIDING AWAY LIKE A SNAKE

"Egypt is a very fair heifer, but destruction out of the north is come, it is come. Also, her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they did not stand, for the day of their calamity is come upon them, the time of their visitation. The sound thereof shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood. They shall cut down her forest, saith Jehovah, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable. The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north."

"A very fair heifer ..." (Jeremiah 46:20). Memphis, prominently mentioned in this section, was the shrine of the Sacred Bull of Egypt; and the graves of the many successive animals which served as the living symbol of that God (Apis), each in a private tomb once decorated the ancient city. On this account, the identification of Egypt here as a "heifer" is thought to be sarcastic.

"Hired men ... like calves of the stall ..." (Jeremiah 46:21). "Egypt's mercenaries were but as fat calves in the hands of the butcher!"[18] They probably ate well, looked good, and made a beautiful parade; but they were worthless as fighting men.

"The sound thereof shall go like the serpent ..." (Jeremiah 46:22). The serpent was sacred to one of the most prominent Egyptian gods; and this symbol of the whole nation is probably sarcastically referred to in this verse. The woodsmen are represented as clearing the forest, and the serpent slithers away to hide! It is as if one said of the USA, "The eagle is trapped and is flapping his wings in vain!"

"They shall cut down her forest ... though it cannot be searched ..." (Jeremiah 46:23). The total loss of their forested land was an incredibly effective punishment that Nebuchadnezzar inflicted upon Egypt.

"The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame ..." (Jeremiah 46:24). "This refers to the exposure of Egypt as she was delivered into the hands of Babylon, an exposure of which Jeremiah had been an eyewitness during the fall of Jerusalem to the same foe; and he had seen the women and girls become objects to satisfy the lust of the Babylonian troops. Jeremiah had previously warned Jerusalem in similar language (Jeremiah 6:12; 38:23, etc.)."[19]