28:23 I will send a plague into the city 15 and bloodshed into its streets;
the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it 16 from every side.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.
28:24 “‘No longer will Israel suffer from the sharp briers 17 or painful thorns of all who surround and scorn them. 18 Then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord.
Because he said, “The Nile is mine and I made it,”
30:12 I will dry up the waterways
and hand the land over to 21 evil men.
I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
32:15 When I turn the land of Egypt into desolation
and the land is destitute of everything that fills it,
when I strike all those who live in it,
then they will know that I am the Lord.’
1 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
2 tn The pronoun “you” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.
3 tn “I will set your behavior on your head.”
4 tn Heb “and your abominable practices will be among you.”
5 tn Heb “mother.”
6 sn Mesopotamian kings believed that the gods revealed the future through omens. They employed various divination techniques, some of which are included in the list that follows. A particularly popular technique was the examination and interpretation of the livers of animals. See R. R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 90-110.
7 tn This word refers to personal idols that were apparently used for divination purposes (Gen 31:19; 1 Sam 19:13, 16).
8 tn Heb “sees.”
9 tn Heb “the liver.”
9 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people in Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 sn When the people of Judah realized the Babylonians’ intentions, they would object on grounds that they had made a treaty with the Babylonian king (see 17:13).
11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Or “iniquity.”
13 tn Heb “and he will remind of guilt for the purpose of being captured.” The king would counter their objections by pointing out that they had violated their treaty with him (see 17:18).
13 tn Heb “into it”; the referent of the feminine pronoun has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn Heb “by a sword against it.”
17 sn Similar language is used in reference to Israel’s adversaries in Num 33:55; Josh 23:13.
18 tn Heb “and there will not be for the house of Israel a brier that pricks and a thorn that inflicts pain from all the ones who surround them, the ones who scorn them.”
21 tn Heb “I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel.” The horn is used as a figure for military power in the OT (Ps 92:10). A similar expression is made about the Davidic dynasty in Ps 132:17.
22 tn Heb “I will grant you an open mouth.”
25 tn Heb “and I will sell the land into the hand of.”
29 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
33 tn The exact physiological meaning of the term is uncertain. In addition to v. 8, the term occurs only in Gen 32:33; Job 10:11; 40:17; and Jer 48:4.
34 tn Or “a spirit.”