Jeremiah 49:23
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
Concerning Damascus,.... Or, "unto Damascus" {d}; or, "against Damascus" {e}; that is, "thus saith the Lord"; which is to be repeated from the foregoing instances, Jeremiah 49:1. This is to be understood, not only of the city of Damascus, but of the whole kingdom of Syria, of which Damascus was the metropolis; see Isaiah 7:8;
Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; two cities in Syria; the first is generally thought to be Antioch of Syria, sometimes called Epiphania; and the other the same with Arvad, inhabited by the Arvadim, or Aradians; see 2 Kings 18:34; these, that is, the inhabitants of them, as the Targum, were covered with shame, thrown into the utmost confusion and consternation:
for they have heard evil tidings; of the Chaldean army invading the land of Syria, and of their coming against them; and perhaps of their taking of Damascus their capital city; all which must be bad news unto them, and give them great uneasiness:
they are fainthearted; or "melted" {f}; their hearts melted like wax, and flowed like water; they had no heart nor spirit left in them, through fear of the enemy;
there is sorrow in the sea, it cannot be quiet: the Targum is,
"fear in the sea, carefulness hath taken hold on them, behold, as those that go down to the sea to rest, and cannot rest;''
or, as other copies, cannot flee. So Jarchi, and Kimchi interpret it, as if the note of similitude was wanting, and the sense this, that the inhabitants of the above places were either like the troubled sea itself, which cannot rest; or like persons in a storm at sea, who are in the utmost uneasiness and distress: or else it designs such that belonged to the kingdom of Syria, that dwelt in the isles of the sea; who were in great fright when they heard of the invasion of their country by the Chaldeans, particularly the Antaradians.
{d} qvmdl "ad Damascum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus.
{e} "Contra Damascum", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.
{f} wgmn "liquefacti sunt", Vatablus, Cocceius, Schmidt.