(30) Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra . . .--The fate of the Egyptian king is announced, coming, as it did, before that of the fugitives, as a "sign" that the prediction of their doom also would in due course be accomplished. The king thus named--the Apries of Herod. II., 161, 163, 169--was the son of Psammis, and reigned for twenty-five years. He attacked Sidon by land and Tyre by sea, presumably before Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Ph?nicia, and then sent his armies against Cyrene. The issue of that campaign was disastrous, and his subjects revolted. His general, Amasis, who was sent to pacify the rebels, put himself at their head. Apries was deposed, kept in honourable imprisonment at Sais for a time, and afterwards strangled. His reign extended from B.C. 594 to 569. Jeremiah probably delivered his prediction circ. B.C. 580, and it is the last recorded event in his life. A late Christian tradition, resting probably on a Jewish one, states that then, or shortly afterwards, the Egyptian Jews, irritated by his reproaches, rose up against him and stoned him to death. (Tertull. Adv. Gnost, c. 8; Hieron. Adv. Jovin, ii. 37.) In Hebrews 11:37 ("they were stoned ") we may probably find a reference to his fate as one of the "noble army of martyrs."

Verse 30. - I will give Pharaoh-hophra, etc. The sign consists in the capture of Hophra by his deadly enemies. Henceforth he will live in constant alarm, for he is in the hands of those "that seek his life." All that we know of the fate of Hophra (Apries) is derived from Herodotus (2:169), who states that Amssis "gave Apries over into the hands of his former subjects, to deal with as they chose. Then the Egyptians took him and strangled him" (see further on Jeremiah 46:13).

44:20-30 Whatever evil comes upon us, it is because we have sinned against the Lord; we should therefore stand in awe, and sin not. Since they were determined to persist in their idolatry, God would go on to punish them. What little remains of religion were among them, would be lost. The creature-comforts and confidences from which we promise ourselves most, may fail as soon as those from which we promise ourselves least; and all are what God makes them, not what we fancy them to be. Well-grounded hopes of our having a part in the Divine mercy, are always united with repentance and obedience.Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will give Pharaohhophra king of Egypt,.... Pharaoh was a common name of the kings of Egypt, who usually had some surname, by which they were distinguished; and the surname of the then present king of Egypt was Hophra; whom the Septuagint and others call Vaphres; and, Herodotus (l) Apries. The Targum renders it Pharaoh the broken; and the Syriac version Pharaoh the lame: now it is here predicted as a sign of the destruction of the Jews in Egypt, which should follow after, that God would deliver this king

into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; either into the hands of his rebellious subjects, headed by Amasis, by whom he was kept alive for a while after taken, and then put to death, as Herodotus reports; or rather into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar; for Josephus says (m), that he, in the twenty third year of his reign, which was four or five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, having subdued the Syrians, Ammonites, and Moabites, entered Egypt in a hostile manner, and slew the then remaining king, and set up another; and this is confirmed by what follows:

as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that sought his life; in like manner, and as sure as he had done the one, he would do the other; and he puts the Jews in mind of what he had done by him, and which they had full and certain knowledge of; and might from hence conclude that this also would be accomplished, here given as a sign of their own ruin; and which, when they saw come to pass, might know that it was at hand; and, indeed, the king of Egypt, in whom they trusted, being taken by his enemies, and his country wasted, they must in course fall a prey to the conqueror.

(l) Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 161, 162, 169. & Melpomene, sive l. 4. c. 159. (m) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7.