1:17 I will bring distress on the people 7
and they will stumble 8 like blind men,
for they have sinned against the Lord.
Their blood will be poured out like dirt;
their flesh 9 will be scattered 10 like manure.
1 tn Heb “so that they will not say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”
2 tc MT, 4QJera and LXX read “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven,” but 4QJerc reads “the sun and all the stars.”
3 tn Heb “the sun, moon, and host of heaven which they…”
4 tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.
5 tn Heb “they will not” but the referent is far enough removed that it might be ambiguous.
6 tn Heb “like dung/manure on the surface of the ground.”
7 tn “The people” refers to mankind in general (see vv. 2-3) or more specifically to the residents of Judah (see vv. 4-13).
8 tn Heb “walk.”
9 tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).
10 tn The words “will be scattered” are supplied in the translation for clarity based on the parallelism with “will be poured out” in the previous line.