Jeremiah 46:25

The Lord of hosts. See on ch. 7:3.

Multitude of No. Heb. ’Amon minno’, literally, “Amon from No.” The Egyptian city called Thebes (the modern Luxor and Kamak), about 310 mi. (c. 468 km.) south of Cairo, on the Nile. Amen was originally the local god of Thebes; hence the city came to be known in Egyptian also as Niut ’Imen, “the city of Amen.” The Biblical “No” is a Hebrew transliteration of the first part of the Egyptian name for the city.

By the beginning of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt (about 2000 B.C.) and the establishment of the capital city at Thebes, the local god Amen quickly rose to supremacy among the deities of Egypt. To him were given the attributes of the sun god Ra‘, and the two deities were identified as one under the name Amen-Ra‘. The importance of Amen is illustrated by the prominence of the names Amenemhet, which was borne by four kings of the Middle Kingdom, and Amenhotep, the name of four other kings of the Imperial period. Several other Pharaohs, such as Tutankhamen also bore names compounded from Amen. During the Twenty-first Dynasty (c. 1085-c. 950 B.C.) the high priests of Amen actually ruled as kings of Egypt, and in Jeremiah’s time the high priestesses of Amen were royal princesses. Probably the greatest evidence of the pre-eminence of Amen-Ra‘ is his temple at Karnak, part of ancient Thebes, which, though in ruins, still remains one of the greatest surviving architectural monuments of the ancient world.

By promising punishment on Amen and on Pharaoh, the Lord symbolized the coming of His wrath upon the entire religious and political systems of Egypt.