Jeremiah 46:22 - Exposition

The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; rather, her voice is like ( the sound of ) a serpent gliding away. Egypt (like Jerusalem, in Isaiah 29:4 ) is imagined as a maiden (comp. Jeremiah 46:19 ) seated on the ground, and faintly sighing; and her feeble voice is likened to the rustling sound of a serpent in motion. Come against her with axes. A sudden change of figure. Egypt, or, more strictly, Egypt's grandeur—its rich and complex national life, its splendid cities, its powerful army, all combined in one, is now compared to a forest (comp. Jeremiah 21:14 ; Jeremiah 22:6 , Jeremiah 22:7 ; Isaiah 2:13 ; Isaiah 10:18 , Isaiah 10:19 , Isaiah 10:33 , Isaiah 10:34 ). It seems far fetched to suppose, with Graf and Dr. Payne Smith, that the comparison of the Chaldean warriors to wood cutters arose from their being armed with axes. It is probably true that the Israelites did not use the battle axe, but the axe is merely an accident of the description. It is the forest which suggests the mention of the axe, not the axe that of the forest, and forests were familiar enough to the Israelites.