Text -- Jeremiah 2:36-37 (NET)

2:36 Why do you constantly go about changing your political allegiances? You will get no help from Egypt just as you got no help from Assyria. 2:37 Moreover, you will come away from Egypt with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame because the Lord will not allow your reliance on them to be successful and you will not gain any help from them.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jer 2:36

¹ tn Heb “changing your way.” The translation follows the identification of the Hebrew verb here as a defective writing of a form (תֵּזְלִי [tezÿli] instead of תֵּאזְלִי [te’zÿli]) from a verb meaning “go/go about” (אָזַל [’azal]; cf. BDB 23 s.v. אָזַל). Most modern English versions, commentaries, and lexicons read it from a root meaning “to treat cheaply [or lightly]” (תָּזֵלִּי [tazelli] from the root זָלַל (zalal); cf. HALOT 261 s.v. זָלַל); hence, “Why do you consider it such a small matter to…”

² tn Heb “You will be ashamed/disappointed by Egypt, just as you were ashamed/ disappointed by Assyria.”

NET Notes: Jer 2:37

¹ tn Heb “with your hands on your head.” For the picture here see 2 Sam 13:19.

² tn Heb “The Lord has rejected those you trust in; you will not prosper by/from them.”