Declare ye; viz. the approach of the foe (comp. Jeremiah 4:5). The news is to be told in the frontier towns Migdol and Tahpanhes, and in the northern capital Noph or Memphis (see on Jeremiah 2:16; Jeremiah 44:1).
The sword shall devour, etc.; rather, the sword hath devoured those round about thee. The neighbouring nations (the same phrase occurs in Jeremiah 48:17, Jeremiah 48:39) have one after another succumbed; no ally is left there.