Moses Gaster

In the time of David these people were called Kerethi and Pelethi. Yet another explanation makes the words refer to the mighty men of Judah and their children.

The Israelites were exceedingly afraid of this and fled to Egypt, in the twenty-seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, when he besieged Tyre, and capturing it, killed all its inhabitants and sent its king into captivity. On his return he went to Egypt, captured it, and reduced it to desolation, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Scripture, 'Egypt shall be a desolation.' He then slew all the Jews found in Ammon and Moab, and in the surrounding parts of Egypt. There, in Egypt, he discovered the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch, the son of Neriya, and carried them to Babylon.

But they replied, 'O ye fools, if we had sung a song of thanksgiving for every miracle which God wrought for us, we should not have been exiled from our land, but would, on the contrary, have added honour upon honour; and shall we now sing a song to your idols?'