6:1 Now these are the commandments, 10 statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed 11
6:1 Now these are the commandments, 12 statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed 13
ר (Resh)
2:20 Look, O Lord! Consider! 15
Whom have you ever afflicted 16 like this?
Should women eat their offspring, 17
their healthy infants? 18
Should priest and prophet
be killed in the Lord’s 19 sanctuary?
י (Yod)
4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women 20
cooked their own children,
who became their food, 21
when my people 22 were destroyed. 23
1 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”
2 tn Heb “siege and stress.”
3 tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”
4 tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.
5 tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”
6 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”
7 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”
8 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”
9 tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”
10 tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.
11 tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”
12 tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.
13 tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”
14 tn This verse has been restructured to try to bring out the proper thought and subordinations reflected in the verse without making the sentence too long and complex in English: Heb “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. And they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the straits which their enemies who are seeking their lives reduce them to.” This also shows the agency through which God’s causation was effected, i.e., the siege.
15 tn Heb “Look, O
16 tn For the nuance “afflict” see the note at 1:12.
17 tn Heb “their fruit.” The term פְּרִי (pÿri, “fruit”) is used figuratively to refer to children as the fruit of a mother’s womb (e.g., Gen 30:2; Deut 7:13; 28:4, 11, 18, 53; 30:9; Pss 21:11; 127:3; 132:11; Isa 13:18; Mic 6:7).
18 tn Heb “infants of healthy childbirth.” The genitive-construct phrase עֹלֲלֵי טִפֻּחִים (’olale tippukhim) functions as an attributive genitive construction: “healthy newborn infants.” The noun טִפֻּחִים (tippukhim) appears only here. It is related to the verb טָפַח (tafakh), meaning “to give birth to a healthy child” or “to raise children” depending on whether the Arabic or Akkadian cognate is emphasized. For the related verb, see below at 2:22.
19 tc The MT reads אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “the Lord”) here rather than יהוה (YHWH, “the
20 tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”
21 tn Heb “eating.” The infinitive construct (from I בָּרָה, barah) is translated as a noun. Three passages employ the verb (2 Sam 3:35; 12:17; 13:5,6,10) for eating when ill or in mourning.
22 tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”
23 tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
24 tn In context “you” refers to the city of Jerusalem. To make this clear for the modern reader, “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation in apposition to “you.”
25 tn Heb “all of your survivors.”
26 tn Heb “to every wind.”
27 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
28 tn Grk “For behold.”
29 tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”