Jeremiah Chapter 46 verse 22 Holy Bible
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.
read chapter 46 in ASV
She makes a sound like the hiss of a snake when they come on with strength; they go against her with axes, like wood-cutters.
read chapter 46 in BBE
Her voice shall go like a serpent's; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
read chapter 46 in DARBY
The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
read chapter 46 in KJV
read chapter 46 in WBT
The sound of it shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters.
read chapter 46 in WEB
Its voice as a serpent goeth on, For with a force they go, And with axes they have come in to her, As hewers of trees.
read chapter 46 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 22. - 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. ver. 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, 7; Isaiah 2:13; Isaiah 10:18, 19, 33, 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.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(22) The voice thereof shall go like a serpent.--Better, her voice--i.e., the voice of Egypt. In early prophecies Egypt had been compared to a "dragon" or "serpent" (Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 51:9; Psalm 74:13). Here the serpent is represented as hissing in its rage and terror in the forest against which the enemies are advancing. The sign then gives way to the thing signified, and the latter clause of the verse brings before us the hosts of the Chaldaean allies, barbarous tribes like the Scythians, Massagetae, and Sacae, armed with axes instead of swords or spears (Herod. i. 275, iv. 5). They come, but it is to cut down the trees of the forest, i.e., the symbols of the power of Egypt, and there is no power to resist them (Isaiah 10:33). The forest is so dense that the trees cannot be counted, but the fellers of the trees are as numerous, and the forest is destined to destruction at the hands of "the people of the north."
