Bible Strands
Jeremiah 46:16
They continue to stumble; indeed, they have fallen over one another. They say, ‘Get up! Let us return to our people and to the land of our birth, away from the sword of the oppressor.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses the Egyptian army and its allies at the moment of their rout at Carchemish. The narrative shifts from divine judgment to the panicked reaction of the routed forces.
The words — The text highlights כּוֹשֵׁ֑ל (ko.Shel), meaning “one who stumbles,” and נָפַ֞ל (na.Fal), meaning “he will fall,” to describe their physical collapse. These terms emphasize the violent, uncontrolled nature of their defeat rather than a tactical retreat.
The thread — The motif of routed troops fleeing to their ancestral lands appears in Jeremiah 51:9, where survivors are told to abandon a defeated city and go to their own country. Leviticus 26:36 similarly depicts those who survive in enemy territories fleeing without a pursuer.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that human panic cannot override divine judgment. It requires the reader to see that flight from the sword of the oppressor is itself a symptom of being thrust down by God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 26:36 As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.
- Jeremiah 51:9 “We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches to the clouds.”
- Jeremiah 46:6 “The swift cannot flee, and the warrior cannot escape! In the north by the River Euphrates they stumble and fall.
- Jeremiah 46:21 Even the mercenaries among her are like fattened calves. They too will turn back; together they will flee, they will not stand their ground, for the day of calamity is coming upon them—the time of their punishment.
- Jeremiah 50:16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time. In the face of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.