John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 18:21

"Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men smitten of the sword in battle." — Jeremiah 18:21 (ASV)

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine To be starved, and perish by it, as they were in the siege of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans, and the Romans:

and pour out their [blood] by the force of the sword : or, "upon the hands of the sword" ^F6 ; by means of it; that is, the blood of the parents of the children; let the one perish by famine, and the other by the sword; which, when thrust into a man, blood gushes out, and runs upon the sword to the handle of it:

and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and [be] widows ; let them have neither husbands nor children; which latter might be a comfort to them, when they had lost their husbands; but being stripped of these also, the affliction and distress must be the greater:

and let their men be put to death ; or "slain with death" ^F7 ; with the pestilence, as Kimchi rightly interprets it; see (Revelation 6:8) ; Jarchi understands it of the angel of death; see (Hebrews 2:14) ;

[let] their young men [be] slain by the sword in battle ; such being commonly employed in military service, as being the most proper persons for it.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F6: (brx ydy le) "super manus gladii", Montanus, Schmidt.
• F7: (twm ygrh wyhy) "occisi morte", Pagninus, Montanus, "i.e. peste" Schmidt; "occisi mortis", Cocceius.