Jeremiah 24:8-10

24:8 “I, the Lord, also solemnly assert: ‘King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem ¹  or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. ²  24:9 I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ³  That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. ⁴  24:10 I will bring war, starvation, and disease ⁵  on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’” ⁶ 

Jeremiah 34:19-22

34:19 I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, ⁷  the priests, and all the other people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf. ⁸  34:20 I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. ⁹  34:21 I will also hand King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who want to kill them. I will hand them over to the army of the king of Babylon, even though they have temporarily withdrawn from attacking you. ¹⁰  34:22 For I, the Lord, affirm that ¹¹  I will soon give the order and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down. I will also make the towns of Judah desolate so that there will be no one living in them.”’”

Jeremiah 37:17

37:17 Then King Zedekiah had him brought to the palace. There he questioned him privately and asked him, ¹²  “Is there any message from the Lord?” Jeremiah answered, “Yes, there is.” Then he announced, ¹³  “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon.” ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 38:21-23

38:21 But if you refuse to surrender, the Lord has shown me a vision of what will happen. Here is what I saw: 38:22 All the women who are left in the royal palace of Judah will be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon. They will taunt you saying, ¹⁵ 

‘Your trusted friends misled you;

they have gotten the best of you.

Now that your feet are stuck in the mud,

they have turned their backs on you.’ ¹⁶ 

38:23 “All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. ¹⁷  You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the ¹⁸  king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 39:4-7

39:4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape. They departed from the city during the night. They took a path through the king’s garden and passed out through the gate between the two walls. ²⁰  Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ²¹  39:5 But the Babylonian ²²  army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho ²³  and captured him. ²⁴  They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah ²⁵  in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there. 39:6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon also had all the nobles of Judah put to death. 39:7 Then he had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains ²⁶  to be led off to Babylon.

Jeremiah 52:8-11

52:8 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, ²⁷  and his entire army deserted him. 52:9 They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah ²⁸  in the territory of Hamath and he passed sentence on him there. 52:10 The king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. He also had all the nobles of Judah put to death there at Riblah. 52:11 He had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains. ²⁹  Then the king of Babylon had him led off to Babylon and he was imprisoned there until the day he died.

Jeremiah 52:24-27

52:24 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. ³⁰  52:25 From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ³¹  for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city. 52:26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 52:27 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed ³²  at Riblah in the territory of Hamath.

So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.

Jeremiah 52:2

52:2 He did what displeased the Lord ³³  just as Jehoiakim had done.

Jeremiah 25:5-7

25:5 He said through them, ³⁴  ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. ³⁵  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession. ³⁶  25:6 Do not pay allegiance to ³⁷  other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. ³⁸  Then I will not cause you any harm.’ 25:7 So, now the Lord says, ³⁹  ‘You have not listened to me. But ⁴⁰  you have made me angry by the things that you have done. ⁴¹  Thus you have brought harm on yourselves.’

Jeremiah 25:18-21

25:18 I made Jerusalem ⁴²  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ⁴³  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ⁴⁴  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ⁴⁵  Such is already becoming the case! ⁴⁶  25:19 I made all of these other people drink it: Pharaoh, king of Egypt; ⁴⁷  his attendants, his officials, his people, 25:20 the foreigners living in Egypt; ⁴⁸  all the kings of the land of Uz; ⁴⁹  all the kings of the land of the Philistines, ⁵⁰  the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod; ⁵¹  25:21 all the people of Edom, ⁵²  Moab, ⁵³  Ammon; ⁵⁴ 

Jeremiah 25:2

25:2 So the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the people who were living in Jerusalem. ⁵⁵ 

Jeremiah 36:17-20

36:17 Then they asked Baruch, “How did you come to write all these words? Do they actually come from Jeremiah’s mouth?” ⁵⁶  36:18 Baruch answered, “Yes, they came from his own mouth. He dictated all these words to me and I wrote them down in ink on this scroll.” ⁵⁷  36:19 Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. You must not let anyone know where you are.” ⁵⁸ 

36:20 The officials put the scroll in the room of Elishama, the royal secretary, for safekeeping. ⁵⁹  Then they went to the court and reported everything ⁶⁰  to the king. ⁶¹ 

Ezekiel 12:12-16

12:12 “The prince ⁶²  who is among them will raise his belongings ⁶³  onto his shoulder in darkness, and will go out. He ⁶⁴  will dig a hole in the wall to leave through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes. 12:13 But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans ⁶⁵  (but he will not see it), ⁶⁶  and there he will die. ⁶⁷  12:14 All his retinue – his attendants and his troops – I will scatter to every wind; I will unleash a sword behind them.

12:15 “Then they will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries. 12:16 But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel 17:20-21

17:20 I will throw my net over him and he will be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylon and judge him there because of the unfaithfulness he committed against me. 17:21 All the choice men ⁶⁸  among his troops will die ⁶⁹  by the sword and the survivors will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken!

Ezekiel 21:25-26

21:25 “‘As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, ⁷⁰ 

whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

21:26 this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Tear off the turban, ⁷¹ 

take off the crown!

Things must change! ⁷² 

Exalt the lowly,

bring down the proud! ⁷³ 

[24:8]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[24:8]  ² tn Heb “Like the bad figs which cannot be eaten from badness [= because they are so bad] surely [emphatic כִּי, ki] so I regard Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his officials and the remnant of Jerusalem which remains in this land and those who are living in Egypt.” The sentence has been restructured in the translation to conform more to contemporary English style. For the use of נָתַן (natan) meaning “regard” or “treat like” see BDB 681 s.v. נָתַן 3.c and compare the usage in Ezek 28:6;Gen 42:30.

[24:9]  ³ tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.

[24:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.

[24:10]  ⁵ sn See Jer 14:12 and the study note there.

[24:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “fathers.”

[34:19]  ⁷ tn For the rendering of this term see the translator’s note on 29:2.

[34:19]  ⁸ tn This verse is not actually a sentence in the Hebrew original but is a prepositioned object to the verb in v. 20, “I will hand them over.” This construction is called casus pendens in the older grammars and is used to call attention to a subject or object (cf. GKC 458 §143.d and compare the usage in 33:24). The same nondescript “I will punish” which was used to resolve the complex sentence in the previous verse has been chosen to introduce the objects here before the more specific “I will hand them over” in the next verse.

[34:20]  ⁹ sn See this same phrase in Jer 7:33; 16:4; 19:7.

[34:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives and into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon which has gone up from against them.” The last two “and into the hand” phrases are each giving further explication of “their enemies” (the conjunction is explicative [cf. BDB 252 s.v. וְ 1.b]). The sentence has been broken down into shorter English sentences in conformity with contemporary English style.

[34:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[37:17]  ¹² tn Heb “Then King Zedekiah sent and brought him and the king asked him privately [or more literally, in secret] and said.”

[37:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “Then he said.”

[37:17]  ¹⁴ sn Jeremiah’s answer even under duress was the same that he had given Zedekiah earlier. (See Jer 34:3 and see the study note on 34:1 for the relative timing of these two incidents.)

[38:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And they will say.” The words “taunt you” are supplied in the translation to give the flavor of the words that follow.

[38:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “The men of your friendship incited you and prevailed over you. Your feet are sunk in the mud. They turned backward.” The term “men of your friendship” (cf. BDB 1023 s.v. שָׁלוֹם 5.a) is used to refer to Jeremiah’s “so-called friends” in 20:10, to the trusted friend who deserted the psalmist in Ps 41:10, and to the allies of Edom in Obad 7. According to most commentators it refers here to the false prophets and counselors who urged the king to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. The verb translated “misled” is a verb that often refers to inciting or instigating someone to do something, often with negative connotations (so BDB 694 s.v. סוּת Hiph.2). It is generally translated “deceive” or “mislead” in 2 Kgs 18:32; 2 Chr 32:11, 15. Here it refers to the fact that his pro-Egyptian counselors induced him to rebel. They have proven too powerful for him and prevailed on him (יָכֹל לְ, yakhol lÿ; see BDB 408 s.v. יָכֹל 2.b) to follow a policy which will prove detrimental to him, his family, and the city. The phrase “your feet are sunk in the mud” is figurative for being entangled in great difficulties (so BDB 371 s.v. טָבַע Hoph and compare the usage in the highly figurative description of trouble in Ps 69:2 [69:3 HT]).

[38:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.

[38:23]  ¹⁹ tc This translation follows the reading of the Greek version and a few Hebrew mss. The majority of the Hebrew mss read “and you will burn down this city.” This reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and English versions. Few of the commentaries, however, bother to explain the fact that the particle אֶת (’et), which normally marks the accusative object, is functioning here as the subject. For this point of grammar see BDB 85 s.v. I אֵת 1.b. Or this may be another case where אֵת introduces a new subject (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת 3.α and see usage in 27:8; 36:22).

[39:4]  ²⁰ sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

[39:4]  ²¹ sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

[39:5]  ²² tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:5]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[39:5]  ²⁴ sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.

[39:5]  ²⁵ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

[39:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.

[52:8]  ²⁷ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[52:9]  ²⁸ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

[52:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.

[52:24]  ³⁰ sn See the note at Jer 35:4.

[52:25]  ³¹ tn Heb “men, from the people of the land” (also later in this verse).

[52:27]  ³² tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”

[52:2]  ³³ tn Heb “what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

[25:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “saying.” The infinitive goes back to “he sent”; i.e., “he sent, saying.”

[25:5]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Turn [masc. pl.] each person from his wicked way and from the evil of your [masc. pl.] doings.” See the same demand in 23:22.

[25:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “gave to you and your fathers with reference to from ancient times even unto forever.” See the same idiom in 7:7.

[25:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “follow after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for this idiom.

[25:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.

[25:7]  ³⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[25:7]  ⁴⁰ tn This is a rather clear case where the Hebrew particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) introduces a consequence and not a purpose, contrary to the dictum of BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. They have not listened to him in order to make him angry but with the result that they have made him angry by going their own way. Jeremiah appears to use this particle for result rather than purpose on several other occasions (see, e.g., 7:18, 19; 27:10, 15; 32:29).

[25:7]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.

[25:18]  ⁴² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ⁴³ tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

[25:18]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

[25:18]  ⁴⁵ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

[25:19]  ⁴⁷ sn See further Jer 46:2-28 for the judgment against Egypt.

[25:20]  ⁴⁸ tn The meaning of this term and its connection with the preceding is somewhat uncertain. This word is used of the mixture of foreign people who accompanied Israel out of Egypt (Exod 12:38) and of the foreigners that the Israelites were to separate out of their midst in the time of Nehemiah (Neh 13:3). Most commentators interpret it here of the foreign people who were living in Egypt. (See BDB 786 s.v. I עֶרֶב and KBL 733 s.v. II עֶרֶב.)

[25:20]  ⁴⁹ sn The land of Uz was Job’s homeland (Job 1:1). The exact location is unknown but its position here between Egypt and the Philistine cities suggests it is south of Judah, probably in the Arabian peninsula. Lam 4:21 suggests that it was near Edom.

[25:20]  ⁵⁰ sn See further Jer 47:1-7 for the judgment against the Philistines. The Philistine cities were west of Judah.

[25:20]  ⁵¹ sn The Greek historian Herodotus reports that Ashdod had been destroyed under the Pharaoh who preceded Necho, Psammetichus.

[25:21]  ⁵² sn See further Jer 49:7-22 for the judgment against Edom. Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah.

[25:21]  ⁵³ sn See further Jer 48:1-47 for the judgment against Moab.

[25:21]  ⁵⁴ sn See further Jer 49:1-6 for the judgment against Ammon.

[25:2]  ⁵⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[36:17]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “Did Jeremiah dictate them to you?” The words “Do they actually come from Jeremiah’s mouth?” assume that the last phrase (מִפִּיו, mippiv) is a question, either without the formal he (הֲ) interrogative (see GKC 473 §150.a and compare usage in 1 Sam 16:4; Prov 5:16) or with a letter supplied from the end of the preceding word (single writing of a letter following the same letter [haplography]; so the majority of modern commentaries). The word is missing in the Greek version. The presence of this same word at the beginning of the answer in the next verse suggests that this was a question (probably without the he [הֲ] interrogative to make it more emphatic) since the common way to answer affirmatively is to repeat the emphatic word in the question (cf. GKC 476 §150.n and compare usage in Gen 24:58). The intent of the question is to make sure that these were actually Jeremiah’s words not Baruch’s own creation (cf. Jer 42:2-3 for a similar suspicion).

[36:18]  ⁵⁷ tn The verbal forms emphasize that each word came from his mouth. The first verb is an imperfect which emphasizes repeated action in past time and the second verb is a participle which emphasizes ongoing action. However, it is a little awkward to try to express this nuance in contemporary English. Even though it is not reflected in the translation, it is noted here for future reference.

[36:19]  ⁵⁸ tn The verbs here are both direct imperatives but it sounds awkward to say “You and Jeremiah, go and hide” in contemporary English. The same force is accomplished by phrasing the statement as strong advice.

[36:20]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “they deposited.” For the usage of the verb here see BDB 824 s.v. פָּקַד Hiph.2.b and compare the usage in Jer 37:21 where it is used for “confining” Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

[36:20]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “all the matters.” Compare the translator’s note on v. 16.

[36:20]  ⁶¹ tn Both here and in the next verse the Hebrew has “in the ears of” before “the king” (and also before “all the officials”). As in v. 15 these words are not represented in the translation due to the awkwardness of the idiom in contemporary English (see the translator’s note on v. 15).

[12:12]  ⁶² sn The prince is a reference to Zedekiah.

[12:12]  ⁶³ tn The words “his belongings” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied.

[12:12]  ⁶⁴ tc The MT reads “they”; the LXX and Syriac read “he.”

[12:13]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “Babylonians” (NCV, NLT).

[12:13]  ⁶⁶ sn He will not see it. This prediction was fulfilled in 2 Kgs 25:7 and Jer 52:11, which recount how Zedekiah was blinded before being deported to Babylon.

[12:13]  ⁶⁷ sn There he will die. This was fulfilled when King Zedekiah died in exile (Jer 52:11).

[17:21]  ⁶⁸ tc Some manuscripts and versions read “choice men,” while most manuscripts read “fugitives”; the difference arises from the reversal, or metathesis, of two letters, מִבְרָחָיו (mivrakhyv) for מִבְחָריו (mivkharyv).

[17:21]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “fall.”

[21:25]  ⁷⁰ tn This probably refers to King Zedekiah.

[21:26]  ⁷¹ tn Elsewhere in the Bible the turban is worn by priests (Exod 28:4, 37, 39; 29:6; 39:28, 31; Lev 8:9; 16:4), but here a royal crown is in view.

[21:26]  ⁷² tn Heb “This not this.”

[21:26]  ⁷³ tn Heb “the high one.”