Bible Strands
Jeremiah 46:23
They will chop down her forest, declares the LORD, dense though it may be, for they are more numerous than locusts; they cannot be counted.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah to announce the imminent destruction of Egypt as the northern army advances. The oracle is delivered during a prophetic vision of the nation’s military collapse.
The words — כָּרְתוּ (ka.re.Tu) means "they will cut down," applied to יַעְרָהּ (ya'.Ra/h) or "its forest." The phrase נְאֻם־יְהוָה (ne.'um-Yah.weh) marks the declaration as a direct divine utterance.
The thread — The uncountable swarm motif appears in Judges 6:5, Judges 7:12, and Joel 2:25 to depict overwhelming invading forces. Jeremiah applies this locust imagery to quantify the northern army’s inescapable advance against Egypt.
Why it lands — The text states that no natural barrier or numerical advantage can halt the coming destruction. It requires the reader to acknowledge that human defenses are ultimately futile against an unstoppable, divinely ordained force.
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
They shall cut down her forest, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.
Cross-references
- Judges 7:12 Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore.
- Judges 6:5 For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.
- Joel 2:25 I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.
- Isaiah 10:18 The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man.
- Ezekiel 20:46 “Son of man, set your face toward the south, preach against it, and prophesy against the forest of the Negev.
- Revelation 9:2 The star opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.