Jeremiah Chapter 6 verse 6 Holy Bible
For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
read chapter 6 in ASV
For this is what the Lord of armies has said: Let trees be cut down and an earthwork be placed against Jerusalem: sorrow on the false town! inside her there is nothing but cruel ways.
read chapter 6 in BBE
For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said: Hew ye down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem. She is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
read chapter 6 in DARBY
For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
read chapter 6 in KJV
read chapter 6 in WBT
For thus has Yahweh of Hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
read chapter 6 in WEB
For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Cut down her wood, And pour out against Jerusalem a mount, She `is' the city to be inspected, Wholly -- she is oppression in her midst.
read chapter 6 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 6. - Hew ye down trees; rather, her trees. Hewing down trees was an ordinary feature of Assyrian and Babylonian expeditions. Thus, Assurnacirpal "caused the forests of all (his enemies) to fall" ('Records of the Past,' 3:40, 77), and Shalmaneser calls himself "the trampler on the heads of mountains and all forests "(Ibid. p. 83; comp. p. 90). The timber was partly required for their palaces and fleets, but also, as the context here suggests, for warlike operations. "Trees," as Professor Rawlinson remarks, "were sometimes cut down and built into the mound" (see next note); they would also be used for the "bulwarks" or siege instruments spoken of in Deuteronomy 20:20. Cast a mount; literally, pour a mount (or "bank," as it is elsewhere rendered), with reference to the emptying of the baskets of earth required for building up the "mount" (mound). Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1:10) says of the Chaldeans, "He laugheth at every stronghold, and heapeth up earth, and taketh it" (comp, also 2 Samuel 20:15; Isaiah 37:33). The intention of the mound was not so much to bring the besiegers on a level with the top of the walls as to enable them to work the battering-rams to better advantage (Rawlinson, 'Ancient Monarchies,' 1:472). She is wholly oppression, etc.; rather, she is the city that is punished; wholly oppression is in the midst of her.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(6) Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount.--The words describe graphically the process of an Eastern siege as seen in the Assyrian bas-reliefs (Layard, Mon. of Nineveh, i. 73-76). Compare 2Samuel 20:15; Job 19:12; Isaiah 29:3; Ezekiel 4:2. First the neighbouring country is cleared by cutting down the trees; next, either by piling earth on these as a timber framework, or using the earth alone, a "mount" (or, in later English, a mound) was raised till it reached the level of the wall of the besieged city; and then the assault was made. The law of Israel forbade, it may be noted, this destruction, but apparently only in the case of fruit-trees (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). There is no adequate ground for the marginal rendering, "pour out the engine of shot."Is . . . to be visited.--Literally, is visited, in the sense of "punished," but Hebrew usage gives to the verb so employed a gerundive force. The words admit, however, of the rendering, this is the city; it is proved that wholly oppression is in the midst of her. . . .
