Burn - Rather, as in margin; the bones would serve for fuel.

Make it boil well - Let it boil over, that its own scum may augment the fire, that the bones - the soldiers, may be seethed therein. Let its contentions, divided counsels, and disunion be the means of increasing its miseries, רתח רתחיה rattach rethacheyha, let it bubble its bubbling; something like that of the poet: -

"Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble:

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

Very like the noise made by ebullition, when a pot of thick broth, "sleek and slab," is set over a fierce fire. Such was that here represented in which all the flesh, the fat and the bones were to be boiled, and generally dissolved together.

Take the choice of the flock,.... King, princes, nobles, magistrates, priests and rulers of the people:

and burn also the bones under it: or, "put a pile of bones under it" (u); the bones of them that are slain in it; denoting the great slaughter of them; or the bones of the innocent that had been murdered in it; which were the cause of these judgments coming upon them; and caused the wrath of God to burn the more hotly against them; or the bones of the wicked:

and make it boil well; the pot; that the water may be very hot and boiling; denoting the severity of the judgments of God in the city, to the destruction of many by sword, famine, and pestilence:

and let them seethe the bones of it therein; that the strongest among them may be weakened and destroyed by the length and severity of the siege, and the judgments attending it. The Targum is,

"bring near the kings of the people, and even join auxiliaries with them; hasten the time of it yea, let her slain be cast in the midst of her.''

(u) "pyram ossium sub ipsa", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Starckius. "rogus, strues materiae combustibililis rotunda", Stockius, p. 223.

Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the {e} bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them boil its bones in it.

(e) Meaning, of the innocents whom they had slain, who were the cause of the kindling of God's wrath against them.

24:5 The bones - Not of the pieces to be boiled, but of the many innocents murdered in Jerusalem; for their blood crieth for vengeance, and their bones scattered on the face of the earth, will both make and maintain this fire.

burn: or, heap

5. burn . bones-rather, "pile the bones." Literally, "Let there be a round pile of the bones."

therein-literally, "in the midst of it."

24:1-14 The pot on the fire represented Jerusalem besieged by the Chaldeans: all orders and ranks were within the walls, prepared as a prey for the enemy. They ought to have put away their transgressions, as the scum, which rises by the heat of the fire, is taken from the top of the pot. But they grew worse, and their miseries increased. Jerusalem was to be levelled with the ground. The time appointed for the punishment of wicked men may seem to come slowly, but it will come surely. It is sad to think how many there are, on whom ordinances and providences are all lost.