36:1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, 1 King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
25:27 Then the Lord said to me, 3 “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all 4 says, 5 ‘Drink this cup 6 until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. 7 For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ 8 25:28 If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, tell them that the Lord who rules over all says 9 ‘You most certainly must drink it! 10 25:29 For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. 11 So how can you possibly avoid being punished? 12 You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the Lord who rules over all, 13 affirm it!’ 14
25:30 “Then, Jeremiah, 15 make the following prophecy 16 against them:
‘Like a lion about to attack, 17 the Lord will roar from the heights of heaven;
from his holy dwelling on high he will roar loudly.
He will roar mightily against his land. 18
He will shout in triumph like those stomping juice from the grapes 19
against all those who live on the earth.
25:31 The sounds of battle 20 will resound to the ends of the earth.
For the Lord will bring charges against the nations. 21
He will pass judgment on all humankind
and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.’ 22
The Lord so affirms it! 23
43:8 At Tahpanhes the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. 24 43:9 “Take some large stones 25 and bury them in the mortar of the clay pavement 26 at the entrance of Pharaoh’s residence 27 here in Tahpanhes. Do it while the people of Judah present there are watching. 28 43:10 Then tell them, 29 ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all 30 says, “I will bring 31 my servant 32 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will set his throne over these stones which I 33 have buried. He will pitch his royal tent 34 over them. 43:11 He will come and attack Egypt. Those who are destined to die of disease will die of disease. Those who are destined to be carried off into exile will be carried off into exile. Those who are destined to die in war will die in war. 35 43:12 He will set fire 36 to the temples of the gods of Egypt. He will burn their gods or carry them off as captives. 37 He will pick Egypt clean like a shepherd picks the lice from his clothing. 38 He will leave there unharmed. 39 43:13 He will demolish the sacred pillars in the temple of the sun 40 in Egypt and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.”’”
29:6 Then all those living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord
because they were a reed staff 47 for the house of Israel;
29:7 when they grasped you with their hand, 48 you broke and tore 49 their shoulders,
and when they leaned on you, you splintered and caused their legs to be unsteady. 50
1 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
2 sn See further Jer 46:2-28 for the judgment against Egypt.
3 tn The words “Then the
4 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”
5 tn Heb “Tell them, ‘Thus says the
6 tn The words “this cup” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor and the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “Drink, and get drunk, and vomit and fall down and don’t get up.” The imperatives following drink are not parallel actions but consequent actions. For the use of the imperative plus the conjunctive “and” to indicate consequent action, even intention see GKC 324-25 §110.f and compare usage in 1 Kgs 22:12; Prov 3:3b-4a.
8 tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among you.” See the notes on 2:16 for explanation.
9 tn Heb “Tell them, ‘Thus says the
10 tn The translation attempts to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute preceding the finite verb which is here an obligatory imperfect. (See Joüon 2:371-72 §113.m and 2:423 §123.h, and compare usage in Gen 15:13.)
11 tn Heb “which is called by my name.” See translator’s note on 7:10 for support.
12 tn This is an example of a question without the formal introductory particle following a conjunctive vav introducing an opposition. (See Joüon 2:609 §161.a.) It is also an example of the use of the infinitive before the finite verb in a rhetorical question involving doubt or denial. (See Joüon 2:422-23 §123.f, and compare usage in Gen 37:8.)
13 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
14 tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.”
15 tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to make clear who is being addressed.
16 tn Heb “Prophesy against them all these words.”
17 tn The words “like a lion about to attack” are not in the text but are implicit in the metaphor. The explicit comparison of the
18 sn The word used here (Heb “his habitation”) refers to the land of Canaan which the
19 sn The metaphor shifts from God as a lion to God as a mighty warrior (Jer 20:11; Isa 42:13; Zeph 3:17) shouting in triumph over his foes. Within the metaphor is a simile where the warrior is compared to a person stomping on grapes to remove the juice from them in the making of wine. The figure will be invoked later in a battle scene where the sounds of joy in the grape harvest are replaced by the sounds of joy of the enemy soldiers (Jer 48:33). The picture is drawn in more gory detail in Isa 63:1-6.
20 tn For the use of this word see Amos 2:2; Hos 10:14; Ps 74:23. See also the usage in Isa 66:6 which is very similar to the metaphorical usage here.
21 tn Heb “the
22 tn Heb “give the wicked over to the sword.”
23 tn Heb “Oracle of the
24 tn Heb “The word of the
25 tn Heb “Take some large stones in your hands.”
26 tn The meaning of the expression “mortar of the clay pavement” is uncertain. The noun translated “mortar” occurs only here and the etymology is debated. Both BDB 572 s.v. מֶלֶט and KBL 529 s.v. מֶלֶט give the meaning “mortar.” The noun translated “clay pavement” is elsewhere used of a “brick mold.” Here BDB 527 s.v. מַלְבֵּן 2 gives “quadrangle” and KBL 527 s.v. מַלְבֵּן 2 gives “terrace of bricks.” HALOT 558 s.v. מֶלֶט and מַלְבֵּן 2 give “loamy soil” for both words, seeing the second noun as a dittography or gloss of the first (see also note c in BHS).
27 sn All the commentaries point out that this was not Pharaoh’s (main) palace but a governor’s residence or other government building that Pharaoh occupied when he was in Tahpanhes.
28 tn Heb “in Tahpanhes in the eyes of the men of Judah.”
29 sn This is another of those symbolic prophecies of Jeremiah which involved an action and an explanation. Compare Jer 19, 27.
30 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 7:3 and see the study note on 2:19 for explanation of the translation and significance of this title.
31 tn Heb “send and take/fetch.”
32 sn See the study note on Jer 25:9 for the use of this epithet for foreign rulers. The term emphasizes God’s sovereignty over history.
33 tn The Greek version reads the verbs in this sentence as third person, “he will set,” and second person, “you have buried.” This fits the context better but it is difficult to explain how the Hebrew could have arisen from this smoother reading. The figure of substitution (metonymy of cause for effect) is probably involved: “I will have him set” and “I have had you bury.” The effect of these substitutions is to emphasize the sovereignty of God.
34 tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. The word here (שַׁפְרִירוֹ [shafriro] Qere, שַׁפְרוּרוֹ [shafruro] Kethib) occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. According to the lexicons it refers to either the carpet for his throne or the canopy over it. See, e.g., HALOT 1510 s.v. שַׁפְרִיר.
35 tn As in 15:2 the Hebrew is very brief and staccato-like: “those to death to death, and those to captivity to captivity, and those to the sword to the sword.” As in 15:2 most commentaries and English versions assume that the word “death” refers to death by disease. See the translator’s note on 15:2 and compare also 18:21 where the sword is distinctly connected with “war” or “battle” and is distinct from “killed by death [i.e., disease].”
36 tc The translation follows the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions. The Hebrew text reads: “I will set fire to.” While it would be possible to explain the first person subject here in the same way as in the two verbs in v. 12b, the corruption of the Hebrew text is easy to explain here as a metathesis of two letters, י (yod) and ת (tav). The Hebrew reads הִצַּתִּי (hitsatti) and the versions presuppose הִצִּית (hitsit).
37 tn Heb “burn them or carry them off as captives.” Some of the commentaries and English versions make a distinction between the objects of the verbs, i.e., burn the temples and carry off the gods. However, the burning down of the temples is referred to later in v. 13.
38 tn Or “he will take over Egypt as easily as a shepherd wraps his cloak around him.” The translation follows the interpretation of HALOT 769 s.v. II ָעטָה Qal, the Greek translation, and a number of the modern commentaries (e.g., J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 671). The only other passage where that translation is suggested for this verb is Isa 22:17 according to HAL. The alternate translation follows the more normal meaning of עָטָה (’atah; cf. BDB 741 s.v. I עָטָה Qal which explains “so completely will it be in his power”). The fact that the subject is “a shepherd” lends more credence to the former view though there may be a deliberate double meaning playing on the homonyms (cf. W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:302).
39 tn Heb “in peace/wholeness/well-being/safety [shalom].”
40 sn It is generally agreed that the temple of the sun was located in Heliopolis, which is elsewhere referred to as On (cf. Gen 41:45). It was the center for the worship of Amon-Re, the Egyptian sun god, and was famous for its obelisks (conical shaped pillars) dedicated to that god. It was located about 6 miles (10 km) northeast of modern-day Cairo.
41 tn Heb “The survivors of the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number [more literally, “men of number”; for the idiom see BDB 709 s.v. מִסְפָּר 1.a].” The term “survivors of the sword” may be intended to represent both those who survive death in war or death by starvation or disease, a synecdoche of species for all three genera.
42 tn Heb “will stand,” i.e., in the sense of being fulfilled, proving to be true, or succeeding (see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g).
43 tn Heb “oracle of the
44 tn Heb “This will be to you the sign, oracle of the
45 tn Heb “Thus says the
46 sn Hophra ruled over Egypt from 589-570
47 sn Compare Isa 36:6.
48 tn The Hebrew consonantal text (Kethib) has “by your hand,” but the marginal reading (Qere) has simply “by the hand.” The LXX reads “with their hand.”
49 tn Or perhaps “dislocated.”
50 tn Heb “you caused to stand for them all their hips.” An emendation which switches two letters but is supported by the LXX yields the reading “you caused all their hips to shake.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:103. In 2 Kgs 18:21 and Isa 36:6 trusting in the Pharaoh is compared to leaning on a staff. The oracle may reflect Hophra’s attempt to aid Jerusalem (Jer 37:5-8).