Thou, therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands
together
As being in the greatest agony for what is coming upon thy people: or "strike hand to hand" F25; clap them together, as encouraging the enemy with his drawn, sharp, and glittering sword, to make use of it, and do execution with it: and let the sword be doubled the third time;
some think this has reference to the three captivities of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah: others to the threefold calamity in Zedekiah's time; the first, the taking of him; the second, the taking of the city; the third, the carrying captive the residue along with Gedaliah: or to the three times the Chaldeans came against Jerusalem, after this prophecy; first with Nebuchadnezzar, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and took him and the city; then with Nebuzaradan, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, and burnt the city and temple; and again in the twenty third of Nebuchadnezzar, and carried away the remnant of the people, ( Jeremiah 52:5 Jeremiah 52:6 Jeremiah 52:12 Jeremiah 52:30 ) : the sword of the slain:
by which many should be slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain:
of the sons of the kings, and of the princes and nobles of the land: which entereth into their privy chambers;
where they should endeavour to hide themselves from it, but in vain, none should escape; their privy chambers could not secrete nor secure them: or "which remains with them"; as that which is laid up, and reserved in a privy chamber, as De Dieu, from the use of the word in the Ethiopic language, renders it.