Judges 1:19

1:19 The Lord was with the men of Judah. They conquered¹ the hill country, but they could not² conquer the people living in the coastal plain, because they had chariots with iron-rimmed wheels.³

Judges 1:34

1:34 The Amorites forced the people of Dan to live in the hill country. They did not allow them to live in⁴ the coastal plain.

Leviticus 26:37

26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though⁵ there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand⁶ for you before your enemies.

Deuteronomy 32:30

32:30 How can one man chase a thousand of them,⁷

and two pursue ten thousand;

unless their Rock had delivered them up,⁸

and the Lord had handed them over?

Joshua 7:12-13

7:12 The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation.⁹ I will no longer be with you,¹⁰ unless you destroy what has contaminated you.¹¹ 7:13 Get up! Ritually consecrate the people and tell them this: ‘Ritually consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord God of Israel says, “You are contaminated,¹² O Israel! You will not be able to stand before your enemies until you remove what is contaminating you.”¹³

Psalms 44:9-10

44:9 But¹⁴ you rejected and embarrassed us!

You did not go into battle with our armies.¹⁵

44:10 You made us retreat¹⁶ from the enemy.

Those who hate us take whatever they want from us.¹⁷

Jeremiah 37:10

37:10 For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces¹⁸ fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’”¹⁹

¹tn Or “seized possession of”; or “occupied.”

²tc Several textual witnesses support the inclusion of this verb.

³tn Regarding the translation “chariots with iron-rimmed wheels,” see Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, 255, and the article by R. Drews, “The ‘Chariots of Iron’ of Joshua and Judges,” JSOT 45 (1989): 15-23.

⁴tn Heb “come down into.”

⁷tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.

⁸tn The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies.

¹⁰tn The words “man” and “of them” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹¹tn Heb “sold them” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

¹³tn Heb “they turn [the] back before their enemies because they are set apart [to destruction by the Lord].”

¹⁴tn The second person pronoun is plural in Hebrew, indicating these words are addressed to the entire nation.

¹⁵tn Heb “what is set apart [to destruction by the Lord] from your midst.”

¹⁶tn Heb “what is set apart [to destruction by the Lord] [is] in your midst.”

¹⁷tn Heb “remove what is set apart [i.e., to destruction by the Lord] from your midst.”

¹⁹tn The particle אַף (’af, “but”) is used here as a strong adversative contrasting the following statement with what precedes.

²⁰tn Heb “you did not go out with our armies.” The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).

²²tn Heb “you caused us to turn backward.”

²³tn Heb “plunder for themselves.” The prepositional phrase לָמוֹ (lamo, “for themselves”) here has the nuance “at their will” or “as they please” (see Ps 80:6).

²⁵tn Heb “all the army of the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonian” in place of Chaldean see the study note on 21:4.

²⁶tn The length and complexity of this English sentence violates the more simple style that has been used to conform such sentences to contemporary English style. However, there does not seem to be any alternative that would enable a simpler style and still retain the causal and conditional connections that give this sentence the rhetorical force that it has in the original. The condition is, of course, purely hypothetical and the consequence a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.